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ＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＶＥ The Vaporwave Essentials ULTRA EDITION Guide: Vaporwave Essentials NU EDITION Guide: Vaporwave Essentials Mix by DJzap152: Vaporwave Subgenres Guide: Vaporwave, an electronic microgenre considered the love-child of Hypnagogic Pop and Chillwave, is in a nutshell, 80s/90s pop-hit plunderphonics. While Macintosh Plus' 2011 album, "Floral Shoppe" (containing the viral sensation "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー") is considered the defining album of the genre, vaporwave's history goes back just a touch. Chuck Person's "Eccojams" released in 2010 contains chopped & screwed samples from 80s hits and Ecco the Dolphin, and is credited for truly pioneering the style. What he called "echo jams" would eventually evolve into the classic vaporwave that we know of today. For a brief period of time, vaporwave existed alongside Seapunk, a closely related genre that was sort of a proto-vaporwave. The genre which would spawn from a single tweet, had elements of southern trap rap, 90s house, and witch house. While seapunk music garnered some interest, its distinctive aquamarine aesthetic would have a much larger presence, with artists like Azealia Banks and Rihanna donning outfits of that particular style and implementing the iconic aesthetic in their music videos. The genre from 2014-onward would be swallowed by vaporwave which, with its much broader influences, became the more popular genre. Vox Documentary on Seapunk: Current vaporwave comprises of many subgenres including Classic Vaporwave, Future Funk, Vapor-Trap, Vektroid, Simpsonswave, Hypnagogic, Mallsoft, etc. While the classic ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ includes bright turquoise and pink colors with images of roman busts and aging malls, each subgenre, even release, has its own "flavor" (refer to the guides above). While vaporwave was labeled a satirical take on consumer capitalism, most people would flock to it because of the nostalgia factor. Japanese City Pop, 80s/90s Western Pop Hits, R&B, Lounge Music, Dead Malls, Japanese Typography, Internet Memes, Glitch Art, and Cyberpunk are some of the many topics that this genre encapsulates. It's a gigantic clusterfuck that can barely be described without going through several layers of irony and memes... I'll just let the music speak for itself: Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe (2011) | Vektroid Style | Iconic, but objectively one of the least innovative albums in this list. ECO VIRTUAL - ATMOSPHERES 第1 (2013) | Classic Vaporwave | Notable for its atmospheric sounds. Hazy and relaxing. SAINT PEPSI - Hit Vibes (2013) | Future Funk | Booming with chopped and screwed 70s/80s disco hits. Artzie's channel grew as a hub for this type of music. LUXURY ELITE // SAINT PEPSI - LATE NIGHT DELIGHT (2013) | Hypnagogic | Along with LUXURY ELITE, SAINT PEPSI does it again with 80s/90s television references including the iconic McDonald's Commercial on the cover. Too bad the moon turned into an alt-right symbol during the 2016 election. t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 - 現実を超えて (2014) | Dreamwave | Telepath has been this purveyor of Japanese typography in the vaporwave scene. Dreamy... 猫 シ Corp. - Palm Mall (2014) | Mallsoft | It's all dead malls from here, baby! Strong muzak/elevator music & jazz influences. Blank Banshee - 1 (2013) | Vapor-Trap | Fusion of trap music & vaporwave. It's a good place to start if you're more acquainted w/ the larger electronic scene. I'll post my current favorites in a separate post. --- I've been acquainted with the scene for about 4 years now, and it's been really neat. Having the idea of this genre (particularly the 80s/90s pad sounds) in the back of my head for years come into fruition by people more creative than I, has been quite the experience. On a slightly sour note, while vaporwave has evolved greatly from slowed down Diana Ross, a glaring negative that sticks out like a sore thumb is lack of transformativeness some artists can still get away with. While the album, Yung Bae - Bae was popular upon its release, it was a bit controversial because the editing done was "minimal", yet to fans, considered "subtle". A lot of this still exists w/ "artists" daringly passing off slowed down 80s/90s compilations as their own creative work. For the amount of individuals trying to make a quick buck on Bandcamp, there are 100x more artists that really put effort into what they create. Additionally, many of it is free! One unique characteristic of this genre is the collectibility of cassette tapes. Similar to the resurgence in vinyl, physical cassette tape releases run rampant in the scene. Some of the more popular artists will have limited physical runs of their material on cassette tapes, and oh boy do they sell out quickly. Personally, I'm not one to collect these things w/ the limited lifespan they have, but others love the staticky, lo-fi nature of the cassette tapes. ...otherwise, most vaporwave is accessible via Bandcamp and Youtube. Here are some major labels to get you started (Also search for the terms in Bandcamp to view a lot more artists): https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/ https://music.businesscasual.biz/ http://illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/ https://ailanthusrecordings.bandcamp.com/ https://keatscollective.bandcamp.com/ Shoutouts to FrankJaveCee's Channel and his chuckle-worthy how-to guides on many of the Vaporwave subgenres. More shoutouts to Dan Bell's Dead Mall Series. Ｆｉｎａｌｌｙ，　ｓｈｏｕｔｏｕｔｓ　ｔｏ　ｆｕｌｌ－ｗｉｄｔｈ　ａｌｐｈａｎｕｍｅｒｉｃ　ｆｏｎｔ　ｆｏｒ　ｍａｋｉｎｇ　ｅｖｅｒｙ　ａｌｂｕｍ　ｔｉｔｌｅ　ｔａｋｅ　ｕｐ　ｍｏｒｅ　ｔｈａｎ　ｏｎｅ　ｌｉｎｅ． Additionally going to mention one of the more obscure/dark subgenres in vaporwave called "Ocean Grunge". Idk if it's still truly around, but if we're talking about one of most bizarre music subgenres alongside stuff like Extratone, this is it.