Vaporwave...
...is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the
early
2010s. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz,
elevator, R&B, and lounge music from the 1980s and 1990s. The surrounding subculture is sometimes
associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and pop culture, and tends to be
characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and
advertising of previous decades. Visually, it incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web
design, glitch art, anime, 3D-rendered objects, and cyberpunk tropes in its cover artwork and music
videos. Wikipedia
On display at the West Wing Gallery are three very prominent albums of the genre.
Floral Shoppe
Featuring eerie slowed-down vocals, glitchy time signatures and ambient soundscapes, Floral Shoppe is
often considered the defining album of the vaporwave genre. Produced by Portland artist Ramona Xavier
(Vektroid) under the pseudonym Macintosh Plus, the album’s sample sources include smooth jazz, 1980s
R&B, new age music and the soundtrack to the Nintendo 64 game Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. The album's second
track, "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー" (Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing), has become nearly synonymous with the
term "vaporwave" within popular discourse. The song had over 40.5 million views on YouTube before being
taken down on April 27, 2018 (due to copyright claims by Sony Music) and has spawned many covers. Listen
on Bandcamp
Blank Banshee 0
By combining traditional elements of the vaporwave genre with trap music, a style which has since gone on
to be dubbed as “vaportrap”, Blank Banshee’s music sounds completely unique and other-worldly. The album
consists of largely 1980s and 1990s sourced samples layered over original beats, instrumentation and
vocals. Many tracks blend trap style beats with elements previously associated with genres like seapunk
and vaporwave, such
as OS start-up sounds and 1990s era video game music. Blank Banshee 0's style and influence have been
attributed to a shift in the direction of vaporwave. The eleventh song on the album, 'Teen Pregancy',
became part of a viral video trend in 2016 called "Simpsonwave". Listen
on Bandcamp, Spotify,
and
YouTube.
Mana Pool
Mana Pool is a watery, computer-inspired instrumental vaporwave and trap record. At 22 minutes, the
album flows gently with smooth synth pads and leads but hits hard where it counts – the percussion and
bass. Featuring lush liquid-esque soundscapes, icy trap beats and 808 basses, the album’s production may
be considered quite minimalist but it is, however, also extremely atmospheric. It has since gone on to
become a much-loved classic within the vaporwave community. Listen on Bandcamp, Spotify,
and
SoundCloud.
