Thread 127358722

I'm so glad I never had a vaporwave phase.

>>127358722 (OP)
Sucks to be you.

>>127358722 (OP)
Vaporwave is one of those things that don't really need a "phase", you just need to be exposed to it for like 5 seconds to understand what it's about, it's more about the other genres and art movements that are associated with it.

When I first found it I thought it was really cool and exciting. As it gained popularity I thought it was beyond corny. It's meme music, and any meme can be run into the ground with repetition. These fucking cornballs didn't get past the A E S T H E T I C tracknames, retro "futuristic" looking cover art, etc. The presentation became more important than the music, which was just basic sample based shit without any innovative production techniques. They didn't chop the shit out of the samples and arrange them into something new. They just looked for things that fit the vibe, slowed them down, added some reverb, and called it a fucking day. So it quickly went from exciting new idea that caught my attention to artistic bankruptcy that makes me want to vomit when I see it.

>>127358800
I agree, at first it was actually a genuinely interesting take on 80s and 90s Muzak and almost a commentary on it, then Zoomers got a hold of it and they had no idea what it was originally about so they treated it like some vicarious nostalgia piece instead.
My favorite Vaporwave pieces are shit like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_j5SJ-er9A
where it truly feels like an attempt at creating 80s and 90s corporate muzak but with serious effort applied to it that said original genres otherwise wouldn't have gotten. That to me is what Vaporwave was meant to be about.

>>127358728
I know I know

>>127358823
There are some other aspects to it musically that you see some of the producers actually get, others have no idea. Like using "city pop" 80s records out of Japan as a crutch when sampling. Yes, there are so many of those. Yes they fit. But city pop isn't a real genre, they didn't call that shit that in Japan back when it was being made. It's just their take on 80s R&B. Therefore what's the difference between sampling one of those records and American or even UK 80s soul/funk records? Some did, others just relied on the memes. If you want to take that logic even further why not sample a 90s Backstreet Boys deep cut. That shit was just watered down R&B marketed to little white girls. Perfect for this kind of artistic statement.

>>127358750
There was a time when vaporvave was the biggest music genre, with vaporwave songs topping charts, many predicted it would be the future of music replacing pop, with songs like yellow flicker beat, and shadilay.

I'm sad I never had a metal phase

>>127358976
>remembering when I used to listen to Dream Theater as a rockist teenager
Be glad.

Vaporwave is really, really easy to get wrong, but when it's done right it's amazing. I couldn't care less for the A E S T H E T I C stuff with random japanese text and marble busts; beyond the first few who did it, it feels like lame, contrived, hyper-pastiche, already exacerbated because it's a genre rooted in pastiche. I prefer the more ambient, abstract, creepy side of the genre rather than the future funk/pop side. Infinity Frequencies is one of my favorite projects.

>>127358970
>vaporwave songs topping charts
Huh what?! In what country?! The Internet isn't a country. RYM doesn't count as "charts". Your meme Trump propaganda doesn't count as vaporwave either.

Vaporwave is still big, in my heart at least haha. It's not a zoomer thing though I guess, it was the end of the Millenial rule over the Internet with old anime shit and Y2K shit. You never grow out of the phase, you just learn to let go.

>>127358823
I think vaporwave was always more than that. The reason its going for the 80s 90s muzak among other similar era genres to sample is because that was childhood for the both the people making and listening to vaporwave and for the internet in general. Its about the future world the internet promised back then, where japanese tech would solve everything and we would connect the world together in digital agoras so yes nostalgia will be part of it. Sure many people never get beyond surface level nostalgia in it but that doesnt mean there wasnt more there. I think this is the only way to separate vaporwave from just remix art in general

it peaked with Far Side Virtual. i never really saw anyone else try that kind of midi-corporate modern classical/muzak sound. Bags and Google Poesies are such great compositions

>>127358722 (OP)
Without vapor wave I would have never found yung lean. If I didn’t find yung lean I would have never found bladee. I’m very thankful for vapor wave

>>127358722 (OP)
I did in 2012 when people were doing anything remotely interesting with it
unfortunately people very quickly stopped doing anything remotely interesting with it

>>127359760
infinity frequencies could have been the best thing ever, the samples are perfect, but i just can't handle the endless looping
>>127360750
yeah because far side virtual is original music. there's stuff like eyeliner and fm skyline also. it's just hard to wade through all the reverby sample stuff to find the people writing actual music

>>127361028
Eyeliner is more pop, like Dream On. that song always freaked me out, it sounds haunted unlike anything else on fsv.

>>127358970
People are retarded. You don't blast varpowave in clubs like you would do with pop / hip-hop / edm stuff
varpowave is and will always stay a niche genre whatever rym dumbos tell you

When I discovered vaporwave (and future funk) I realised that all other music was worthless unless it was actually made in the 80s.

>>127358722 (OP)
I liked my vaporwave phase, thought it was mad comfy listening to that Mac Tonight song.

>>127358722 (OP)
I liked the atmospheric aspect of it. Not so much the whole "le 80s drum machine beat" part of it.

Its basically psychedelia to me. Like ifva 60s hippie traveled in time to the 80s and made music influenced by it.

I discovered vaporwave in the summer of 2016 and still love it today
Yes most of the releases out there are trash but that's to be expected of any creative medium with a low bar to entry and no gatekeepers
Midnight Television
Miami Vice - Palm Haze
Disconscious - Hologram Plaza
bl00dwave - hotel vibes
All of skeleton's releases
S U R F I N G - Deep Fantasy (not vapor but close enough)
Esprit - virtua.zip
New Life Deluxe - Liberated From the World
all albums I still bump regularly to this day

>>127358800
Wow yeah you’re exactly right