v a p o r w a v e

ヴェイパーウェイヴ

vaporwave

What is Vaporwave?

Vaporwave ヴェイパーウェイヴ is a simple artistic resistance to mainstream consumer culture and media consisting of music and imagery, mostly on the internet. However, many vapowave artists are utilizing physical distribution and sales of their art (i.e. prints, cassettes, vinyl, etc.)

Music: vaporwave music sounds like low fidelity (lo-fi) degraded tape recordings from the 1980's, oftentimes looping sampled recordings or featuring sounds and stylizations from that era. The music can often sound like smooth jazz (Muzak) or very degraded and dragging pop music from the 1980's.

Media: vaporwave imagery usually consists of ancient western sculpture/architecture photography, basic 3D graphics, and other photographic elements from the 1980's and 90's, including over-saturated discoloration.

Ramona Andra Xavier, Floral Shoppe, (formerly known as Macintosh Plus) is the artist credited for proliferating the vaporwave genre in 2011.

Since its conception, vaporwave has become an internet phenomenon, indirectly influencing contemporary popular culture and media, which is ultimately ironic considering the intent of the genre itself.