Vaporwave - Down the Rabbit Hole

[@TABBYMUSIC]

What’s up with people saying “I unironically enjoy vaporwave”? There’s nothing wrong with the genre, embrace it.

[@downsjmmyjones101]

The unoriginality probably makes people feel guilty for liking it. It's like saying you like nightcore. You're gonna get some glances.

[@peepas2633]

Maybe thats another part of it. An inherent level of insecurity in the genre.

[@xxedgy_outsiderxx9978]

Because liking something ironically is a fad for people who don't want to be seen actually being who they are for the sake of comedy

[@jerrell1169]

James Downs The ACTUAL music in the genre isn’t unoriginal, it’s quite the opposite. It often uses samples much in the same way hip-hop and rap used them in the 90s and early 2000s.

[@petermoore7796]

I think it's because most people heard of the meme before the genre

[@Burkutace27]

"Were you going to listen to レ丹尸回尺山丹レヨ in Sunday school?" "Maybe"

[@Burkutace27]

@Fat Chocobo 冊丹と日ヨ

[@Gwestytears]

@Fat Chocobo 🅱️🅾️🅾️🅱️

[@acecombat2shill]

@Fat Chocobo It's called Kanji

[@acecombat2shill]

i think

[@SlyHikari03]

Hanzi,Kanji. It’s all the same shit!

[@roserocksrapidly]

Vaporwave kind of feels like music that would be playing in the background of some fever dream

[@madscientistshusta]

roserocksrapidly exactly.

[@BossHoggBroDog]

Sounds like something from an abandoned mall

[@dsprocks]

Not all of it, but perhaps "Dream Sequins" by N:MESH sounds exactly like a fever dream because that's literally the theme of the album. THERE IS NO THEME for vaporwave, it is whatever the artists makes their work to be, it's not all "retro nostalgia" or "abandoned mall" or whatever other box people try and shove it into. Stop penning genres in to strictly delineated commodities.

[@halykan]

It was at the forefront of a fever dream that I had. Along with a fast food chain called "Zip and Zag's™" that to the best of my knowledge does not actually exist. It was only accessible via elevator.

[@FluffyFractalshard]

first the coughsirup on the album cover, now you pointing to fever dreams, dxm can cause feelings/perceptions similar to those of fever dreams.. it all starts to make sense

[@xFirebird925x]

Vaporwave is never dead. The Baroque period ended hundreds of years ago, and yet people still listen to Bach's music. As long as Vaporwave still has an audience, it is alive.

[@Hjernespreng]

Vaporwave has now inspired many other experimental genres like Synthwave.

[@KriegCommisar]

I really like it. someone described it as nostalgia for the future which I believe is accurate when we think of 80s and 90s sci fi.

[@MattSmith-rr2he]

I still listen to it… I love it.

[@Campoflostwander]

I’m the vaporwave legend. Baroque deans list, feel the base with aggression.

[@simmethaboi5232]

@@Hjernespreng yeah, vaporwave is the king of all the nostalgic or futuristic waves. But synthwave is a little bit more famous even if it is a big subgenre to vaporwave

[@boogiemanspud]

2019 and I'm still listening to vaporwave. The best way I can describe it: a fever dream of nostalgia for a time that never existed. It's like when you stayed home sick from grade school and accidentally got too much cough syrup as a kid. Mix this feverish disconnected feel in with playing NES (or whatever system) and watching cartoons (and the ads) on over the air television while you were at home.

[@libbibunni]

boogiemanspud this is a perfect description tbh

[@HurtenAlbertan]

amonia

[@Royalname31]

You know, that first sentence reminds me of the very first MTV music video: Video Killed the Radio Star. Well, more like Todd in the Shadows described it, but this is the reverse rather than embracing the future, it's more like taking a trip to the past.

[@glipk]

2020 here, I will never stop listening to Vaporwave

[@deusexaethera]

Vaporwave music sounds like something you'd expect to find at the bottom of a storage bin full of old 90's "multimedia" CDs sitting on a desk in a vacant office formerly occupied by a now-defunct management-consulting company that went out of business in 2001.

[@oreofudgeman]

to me personally, theres something oddly comforting about the whole 90's aesthetic of fuzzy vhs and cheesy computer graphic visuals paired with songs akin to elevator music.

[@infinityfreehugs]

oreofudgeman me too even tho ive never lived thru that time

[@nomanchaudhry8727]

oreofudgeman that is what we call nostalgia

[@Chadsgamesonline]

Vaporwave makes me nostalgic for a time and place I'm not sure even exists.

[@TotemSP2]

It, exists. I grew up there. Therefore, I may or may not exist.

[@Supernerdland]

It's the feeling of dreaming you are living in a mall that was rendered inside a 90s computer.

[@FredrikKnudsen]

I freely admit that I'm an outsider looking in on this subject, and I tried to remain at least mostly objective about this topic and refrain from making too many qualitative statements. I also admit that this was a very shallow look into a very deep topic. If you're interested in really understanding it as an art form and not just a phenomenon, please please please watch Wolfenstein OS X's documentary on it, link's in the description. On a side note: I love Vaporwave, and I think it's one of the few true art movements that has come out of postmodernism.

[@dusanstevanovic7551]

Quick question: Did you make the rabbit sound in your intro?

[@FredrikKnudsen]

Literally all of the sounds in the intro came out of my mouth.

[@slendy9600]

you pick very interesting topics for this series. keep it up

[@Tybis]

Honestly, I think your video is better than WOS X's.

[@virtualucie]

You did a great job! Subbed (:

[@ikadar]

These comments are gold. I've never seen the words "ironically" and " unironically" so much in one place.

[@ratchetdoggo2224]

ironically that's not unironic

[@Dalzombie]

Maybe a hipster conference?

[@DudeInOhio85]

Pretentious assholes.

[@ernestolombardo5811]

Ironically unironic? That was one helluva investigative video essay.

[@LasicaTV]

hilariously, "unironic" wasn't even a word until the internet

[@greyfoxninja1239]

This might be off topic but when I was younger my parents would never let me watch RoboCop II. One day they went out and of course I ran and popped it into the VHS, it didn't start from the beginning because it wasn't rewinded. It started at that one particular uncanny "Sunblock 5000" commercial where the woman smears the blue and green sunblock on herself and goes into detail about how Earth lost its ozone layer and you can become sunburned in 20 seconds. I didnt know what the hell was going on as a kid when I saw that but SOMETHING about it made me want to watch it OVER and OVER again. Eventually I forgot about it but fast forward almost 15 years later and I stumble across vaporwave for the first time and INSTANTLY my mind remembers the sunblock commercial. I got waves of nostalgia and even got a bit depressed because I forgot all about my innocence as a child and my parents and their old VHS and how I would sneak in movies I wasn't supposed to watch when they went out. I was very fond of these memories and I forgot all about them. Vaporwave brought them back and that's all I needed to like the genre.

[@carlogaytan7010]

Yeah this happens once in a while. Recently I watched a meme format with the Eyewitness Opening theme, and I couldn't understand how familiar it was. I thought it must have been from an old pc animal game, or show. But I dont remember anything past that, only that the music and editing, only a distinct feeling of a child or toddler stuck at home with nothing to do and feeling like the world was so big, and my house was so comforting with my parents. Feelings for a future which was totally different now, and a worldview so distant yet familiar. It makes you realize you have so many good distant memories which you have forgotten, were it not for a component that showed up agian, and you dont want to lose.

[@corpclarke]

This is exactly what Vaporwave is about. What a description! Thanks for sharing.

[@crashbandicoot5636]

Vaporwave is such a niche thing because it's best listened to at night, preferably looking up at the stars or down at the city lights. It is a calming throwback to a time that has passed, a specific A e s t h e t i c if you will.

[@thespecter6416]

I'd rather straight up listen to Testube, then. Something like Second Soul or Apathy or Ribcaged

[@bboydreem]

dude i remember a night out at my friends holiday shack on a remote beach laying on a massive old blanket on the sand, we had an old boombox playing a 3 hour long vapor mix and just drank and looked at the stars

[@goose_dove]

hell yeah, hit hte nail on the head with this one

[@evie5375]

bro i was listening to vaporwave while lying on my best friend's roof with him and another friend, it was late-ish at night and early summer, we were discussing life, i remember it vividly

[@makennanicole1859]

evie I’m confused. You’re saying you “remember it vividly” as vapor wave is some disappearing aesthetic

[@BathroomTile]

What I like about the Vaporwave sound is that it treats those old 80's tracks as obsolete sounds of a distant era, much like all the sounds of the now irrelevant and obsolete tv ads and old operating systems they also use. Except those tracks are not really technically obsolete. You can hear them at any time on iTunes or wherever else you want, and it is as legitimate to like them now as it was then, unlike those very specific OS and tv ad sounds, which had a specific purpose for a brief time. The thing is, by slowing them down, and adding reverb/lowering the quality to muffled tv speakers standards, they re-contextualize the tracks enough to the point of making them sound like distant, nostalgic echoes of the past. It just gains a completely different mood, even if you're familiar with the original track. It makes me feel all warm and cozy.

[@PunishedFelix]

I was looking on youtube once for a Supertramp song called "Downstream" to show to my friends; I unintentionally found a slowed down version of the song. The song is actually quite slow to begin with, but hearing it in this slow downed manner, just even slightly just to avoid copyright strike, was enough to invoke a different mood.

[@Geospasmic]

BathroomTile I agree, it's different from listening to the style it's based on, it's like you're listening to the memory of it rather than the way it was.

[@ccricers]

Yeah I get some of that feeling even as someone who really remembers most of the 90's when I can see some odd disconnects with the nostalgia that it tries to portray. But there are bits and pieces that do make sense, which are mostly in the the visuals. Like using MS Paint in my first computer when I was bored because there was nothing else to do and we didn't yet have internet. Then it becomes kind of funny when people look at 20 year old PC interfaces and post vaporwave comments.

[@Nhileishere]

BathroomTile I love how articulate you made this comment.

[@JAMES-dv5ns]

Yeah I get what you’re saying.it’s like if the songs were never remastered, and it’s like if you were listening to the same track over and over as you get into deep space. Kinda like that scene in Apollo 13 w the cassette tape.

[@FrogBlastTheVentCore]

5:40 On that note, have you ever thought about doing a Down the Rabbit Hole video about Second Life? The game's extensive and bizarre history seems like it would be right up your alley as far as research topics go. Plus, it definitely has become more relevant nowadays with several Second Life troll channels gaining mainstream popularity.

[@cr8torscurse]

I know what your profile picture is from you dirty dirty Sinner.

[@SpaceMissile]

...ignoring the thirsty people above me, I'd like to second this 'second life' notion.

[@nepeta5142]

nice pfp

[@TimeMovie93150]

That was would be brilliant. Wasn’t there people who made a living out of selling stuff on half life? Or is that a different game?

[@LadyMontane]

Hoo boy, yeah, Fredrik, Second Life is totally worth talking about! I've been a active resident of it for so many years (currently very semi-active) so if you decide to make a video on it, I can help out with the research. There is a lot, A LOT to unpack about it.

[@sparrowthesissy2186]

Any anti-genre has this kind of problem. Punk rock is a big one that comes to mind: it was supposed to be a parody of serious, macho rock; then it became the new serious macho rock; then it became a parody of what the parody had become; then people forked off taking the parodies seriously or the seriousness seriously, and generally everyone criticized everyone else for liking the right things for the wrong reasons or vice versa.

[@stephenhornickiii]

If you get enough people together around any subject matter they will habitually force the institution of a hierarchy. Such is the case with tribal or pack animals. It's one of the main reasons why we can't have nice things...

[@mattegan3439]

Understand what you're saying, and agree with your point. However Punk Rock didn't come about as a parody. It came about because of the gap in mainstream music that catered for raw energy and angsty emotion. The parody aspect only came about when punk became mainstream in the late '77. But there are still similarities to vaporwave. Where vaporwave slowed previous music down, punk originated by playing 50's rock n roll style garage and pub rock in the 60's which played 50's style songs considerably faster than their definitive versions. The likes of the Who and MC5 took that sound, giving inspiration to others like the Ramones, the Pistols and The Clash.

[@SugarVomit]

Postmodernism

[@lasarousi]

The Simpsons effect. Or the old saying that you either die a martyr or live long enough to want more money.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

@@SugarVomit Dada

[@master_noot]

For me, vaporwave and lofi make me feel nostalgic for a time that I never lived in

[@DudeInOhio85]

I'm 14 and this is deep

[@declankim2977]

@@DudeInOhio85 haha funny reddit haha wholesome 100 lolz haha. Shut the fuck up, people are allowed to feel emotions dumbass

[@toomuchglitters7254]

Yess I feel you!

[@LGPanthers1]

I didn't know Mozart, Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky were vaporwave

[@toomuchglitters7254]

@@LGPanthers1 boi ain't no one feel nostalgia for baroque 😂

[@n0isyturtle]

It numbs the front part of my brain where all the bad thoughts live.

[@alexyguadalupe3456]

Manufactured Nostalgia.

[@thedevilwithin6336]

Alexy Guadalupe An actual tactic used to market things now.

[@scroticlese]

Thats a good vaporwave pseudonym, thanks

[@jr2037]

I think it just uses Nostalgia as a vehicle to make a point. It reminds you of your innocent childhood, while at the same time making you feel that something isn't right.

[@User-qo5qt]

Well thats a funny way to spell vaporwave

[@Miumiu0404]

The thing where you know it's not real but still enjoy it.

[@palchristianandersen9086]

As an old millennial, I feel the need to mention that Gen X went through a similar phenomenon but with recontextualizing '60s and '70s public access type music. The most famous example is probably Boards of Canada, but there's a whole slew of artists on a UK label called Ghost Box Records that sampled and tried to emulate that specific sound.

[@bluffchill2949]

Hauntology!

[@AlterMannCam]

I absolutely adore BoC

[@YOUareBEING.CENSORED]

Stereolab!

[@mdhall04]

As an old millennial how'd you ever find this out haha. Kudos dude.

[@prosoblue647]

It wouldn’t surprise me if people started doing this too 2000s and 2010s songs in the future

[@SpookyDeerArt]

what got me into vaporwave was honestly the visual art as opposed to the audio. i finally had found something to label my favorite style- thrifted looking clothes mixed with soft neon and dumb graphic designs. honestly i had known vaguely about vaporwave well before finding out about the graphics of it and didn't quite understand it (im not the best at music tbh, i'm pretty damn tone deaf and its hard for me to click with a song unless its connected to something else i enjoy), but after i had the visual style of it to connect to i could understand it better? also it helps that i adore dumb phrases like "BONELESS WATER" mashed with crystal pepsi

[@dsnodgrass4843]

Having lived in the time when the repurposed media of vaporwave was "new"; hearing it now is always a reminder of the faux-naive 'future" we thought we were gonna have, just about now. The way vaporwave subtly mocks that future is a reminder of how we in the 80s and 90s mocked previous visions through our ironic embrace of "kitsch" culture of the 50s and 60s back then. Only it's us on the business end of the joke, now.

[@greedosspeedo1464]

Vapourwave is a celebration of public use and pissing on copyright, which is Extremely Cool.

[@CatoMinemcrideisepic]

vaporwave is eternal pain

[@SchizoMelody]

Stesling other people's work because you have no talent of your own is so cool bro

[@Digital_PeterGriffin]

@@SchizoMelody very ignorant take on remixing, sampling, and music in general

[@Tyh694]

@@SchizoMelody very ignorant take on jazz and blues standards too. You sound like some pretentious guy that doesn't really know anything the history of music.

[@primo4915]

@@SchizoMelody half the songs you listen to are samples or adaptations.

[@andremoreau8390]

Vaporwave started as music then expanded into visual art. Just as Surrealism started as poetry, then became visual art.

[@imanukekaboom3715]

How do you make everything seem creepy? You could talk about your sisters pet puppy and make me kind of scared and pause the video for a minute.

[@shellyhamersley6366]

It takes a certain kind of information to see why it's creepy

[@irresponsiblyblue1411]

The man talks about his favorite instrument, and he makes it seem creepy and intense.

[@Chrome-uc3fw]

Its his voice

[@yoshifan0312]

無口 Most of the topics he covers are obscure, which helps.

[@refinedcigarette9103]

無口 death grips is creepy rap

[@watsonwrote]

I actually did my junior art thesis on vaporwave out a genuine appreciation for what it's artistic movement is tapping into I could talk about it forever so I'm glad someone so articulate could do it here on youtube

[@jackieAZ]

Matthew Watson hey man, I know this is an old comment, but is there any chance you have a link to that thesis? Id love to read it

[@raksh9]

I trust that since then, you've found Pad Chennington's KZbin channel? Pad is a huge vaporwave historian and producer.

[@sethstartix]

[@chase.was.h3r3]

Matthew Watson You have a link? I’d love to read that

[@taylororourke2525]

Are you... MATT WATSON FROM SUPERMEGA!?!

[@Molly-ml1wn]

What interests me about Vapor Wave is how it interacts with the concept of Hauntology, a nostalgia for visions of the future that never came to pass. (Sometimes vaporwave is mischaracterized as Anemoia, a nostalgia for non-existent time periods.) By taking 80s and 90s sounding music,(specifically 80s and 90s music that centered computer technology as a new frontier with utopian potential) and stretching it out, making it seem old and distorted, attention is brought to the contrast between the future that was imagined and the reality of the modern era. Hauntology is a frequent topic of discussion by writer Mark Fisher, author of *Capitalist Realism.* And I feel that through that lens, the otherwise mysterious and esoteric genre becomes fairly easy to understand. A sense of alienation in the present, and a nostalgia for the last time you felt optimism for the future.

[@osvaldomanno272]

Vaporwave = Ucrony

[@mcnugget677]

It’s 2022 and I’m only now realising how much I love this style, where before I just passed it off as another internet aesthetic as many others did. I don’t care if the internet is saying it’s dead, I can still relax in my 80s utopia that I never got to live in :’)

[@kendog84bsc]

Love your super accurate Japanese 'katakana English' accent.

[@Sarah.Riedel]

TE-PUH RE-WIN-DA

[@cy-bernet-ix]

TAYPOO RIWANDUH

[@DaVeganZombie]

Iirc Fredrik can speak Japanese a bit?

[@Saffron-sugar]

When you left your Kajagoogoo cassette tape in a hot car back in 1985, these are the strained eerie sounds you had to listen too....loved it.

[@Higesgirl]

I genuinely enjoy vaporwave and future funk. Didn't know that there was a deep meaning behind it. I just think the genres have some pretty good songs and artists; looking at you, Moe Shop~

[@JaakunaSetsu]

Higesgirl Moe shop is weird to me. Some songs are geniously good, and some are just lazy and weak.

[@JaakunaSetsu]

It is not exactly like that, vaporwave is not in war with pop, just with using sentiments as a product, some vaporwave artists are cool guys, if you think everyone that makes "underground" music is the same that is something weird, Groovy Godzilla used some Pop modern music in his mashups and it is good. Also, you don't have to think about the artist, just about his art.

[@NaviciaAbbot]

I really enjoy Future Funk. I feel like it's a call to slow down, yet keep a brisk pace, and that every once in a while, it's fine to reminisce.

[@not.spir0s]

Moe shop is a dick

[@TheHippie2012]

future funk kicks ass, I can't seem to find much of it though.

[@rellik0098]

Vaporwave is one hell of a fascinating genre, and that's thanks to: -Its core concepts -Its extremely unique and bizarrely intriguing, maddeningly simple yet meticulously complex core sound(s), along with the endless possibilities of experimentation(brought to life by the artists) -Its a e s t h e t i c s -Its diverse and numerous fantastic artists(despite the genre being saturated) -Its interesting use of nostalgia -Its subgenres(and other genres related to it) and more...

[@WhosChaos]

Beautiful and very well done video about, Vaporwave. I'm so proud to say 90% of what I listen to, is this genre!

[@richarddylan5421]

Why does this make you proud?

[@huevote9474]

Okay weirdo

[@KazzArie]

To date this is my fav vaporwave track kzbin.info/www/bejne/kKSlc6GYr7aYp7s when I heard the orig I was aghast... sucked on ice. But this one is bronze

[@Kb4321234]

Wow you’re so quirky and different, I wish I was like you 🤩

[@Kb4321234]

@@KazzArie it’s literally just running in the 90s slowed down

[@MasaomiKida251]

I can't hear Vaporwave songs without thinking of Dan Bell's dead mall series.

[@awlomthesheepermen]

Masaomi Kida yeah

[@kurks001]

Excellent series and a perfect use of the Mallsoft subgenre.

[@dogman9558]

.

[@TheLapisFreak]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZepl2N7YtKLfrM

[@Eexpers]

Fuck yeah! The Kmart video in particular is amazing love dan bell.

[@infinityfreehugs]

Something in a world where nothing is private, and found in a thrift shop or garbage. This was really interesting

[@jamiesadf5829]

Its that modern day dystopian reality vibe yo

[@stackflow343]

Trash hipsters?

[@Distruct10]

I thought vapourware was an actual genre people liked but in the comment section everyone says "Hoho I actually unironically like some vapourware", it makes me feel like it was never made to be enjoyed, makes me feel stupid for actually liking most vapourware and listen to it regularly to chill. No one cares if you "unironically" like some vapour tracks, you all sound like "I'm 13 and listen to Led Zeppelin am I special????"

[@FelipePalha66]

People were just surprise, like myself (even though I didn't commented) who simply crossed with the music and liked

[@BingBongBillyBob123]

There’s nothing wrong with liking it it’s an amazing vibe you get from it Almost euphoric

[@BelodyEpic]

I listen to vaporwave a lot just to relax, I never realised it was ever seen as some kind of joke until today lol, been listening to it for a couple years now just to chill and think

[@cattoproductions7142]

Vaporwave was never, EVER a joke, at most, it was compositors experimenting with nostalgia and manipulating it to create a new feel. Blame the 12 year old e boy "memelords" for the ridicularized and distorted vision of the genre

[@Tay20]

Same here I didn’t know people were clowning it 😔

[@mountedpatrolman]

The whole of the 80's retrowave genre was the best thing to happen to music in a decade.

[@k.morningstar7983]

why can't I stop listening to The Midnight, I think it's like a mental virus, it never leave me

[@Saerkal]

Vaporwave is so great because not only does it trigger nostalgia for something you never had (Anemoia) but for something you *do* have, too! The word that best fits that would be Saudade. Enjoy these words to use.

[@SlyHikari03]

Synths are the best things to happen also. Look at most 80’s and 90’s hits. They have synths.

[@catethps]

as a vaporwave fan since 2012, i hated when the synthwave trend caught on it completely oversaturated and simplified the view of "vaporwave" (which synthwave is barely a part of) with corny, unoriginal visuals and sounds i still believe they shouldnt be lumped together

[@_Tennessee]

6 years later and everything he said basically holds up. Vaporwave has only gotten more popular over the years and the songs got better, too. I hope one day he makes a video like this about Breakcore.

[@giovannicervantes2053]

Found a dude that does mashups of hiphop and vaporwave and he did a recent remix of macintosh plus and boys in the hood i think to make a song called vapin in the hood

[@MissingmyBabbu]

Something that really draws me to Vaporwave is the sort of.. apocalyptic feeling I get. As if I found a relic of some distant past, even though in reality it wasn't that long ago. I'm not fully versed in it, I'll admit. But the tracks I've heard are all fascinating and truly enjoyable. Like I said, it's like looking into the past. It's soothing and familiar, but also eerie. Because you know the song or the sounds, but they're just *off* enough to be unsettling. Anyways I love both the genre itself and the aesthetics of the visuals. 10/10 never die.

[@Sarah.Riedel]

I think because it conjures a decade (the 1980s) where the alienation and disconnection between people really started accelerating and kicking into high gear. It's almost synonymous with alienation.

[@averyeml]

It's why dead mall KZbinrs use it so heavily- vaporwave perfectly gives off the idea of walking through some abandoned neon temple, which is basically all those malls are at that point. It is my FAVORITE stuff for reading or relaxing because it makes me feel alone (in a good way) even if I'm in a crowded place.

[@0404chrisjz]

Y'all are crazy, talk about making mound a mountain, it's not that deep dog

[@0404chrisjz]

@Nec Ro hahaha exactly these ppl are weird af in the most new age hipster ultra self aware type Lol idk if that makes sense as it did in my head

[@bryce7540]

Well said

[@stackflow343]

"Another wave of popularity would threaten the genre once again" I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say if people are into a genre because it's not popular, it's no better than being into a genre _because_ it's popular.

[@JakesFavorites]

It has more to do with something being objectively good rather than subjectively popular. Most music on the radio, people hate, but since it's what the record industry wants to push, people are forced to accept it, even if only dumb or crude people like it, making a negative self-feeding cycle. Vaporwave is the opposite. People who don't understand it will pollute it, because they think it's all about weird fonts and statues, instead of trying to find solace in private expressions of real art. It's about humans making good things, not as a means of control but as a means of expression and enjoyment. It points out the inferiorities of the modern age. Like, here. illuminatedpaths.bandcamp.com/album/late-night-delight-remastered It's meant to be listened to, to be studied. It's so enjoyable that it defies words.

[@FelipePalha66]

@@JakesFavorites the industry what most of people would like it, and before the internet the pace of evolution of musical taste was pretty slow. That's why nowadays popular music don't last more then a year.

[@JakesFavorites]

@@FelipePalha66 But that doesn't account for the death of good music. The internet was barely a larva when talentless boy bands and Madonna followers were being used as puppets flooding the market with overproduced CD albums for a predatory indoor-only industry. I would go as far as to say that entire genres of music have devolved from 90's abandonment, along with the cultures from which they came. Black music culture did not devolve from jazz and soul to low-effort rap because of the internet. And that's what the out-of-context Roman bust is for, it's not the internet that killed music, it's the culture. It's recognizing the death of a culture that valued brass instruments and skill over cursing and rage. Because in the record industry, pre-CDs, pre-high tech, pre-digital, there used to be no other choice than actual instruments and actual skill. Even DJs had high standards. And the moment that went away the underlying culture and quality of music vanished.

[@marshallemmet1366]

@@JakesFavorites Late Night Delight, what an album, it really gives you the feeling of being out on the road at the middle of the night, you are starving and tired but because of how late it is their is nowhere open anymore. You are getting hungrier by the minute and trying to stay up by flipping through radio stations, then you see it, the beacon, a mcdonalds! You hate having to buy food at such a corporate establishment, but you have no other choice, it is the only affordable place open anymore! You pull up to the drive thru, they ask you what you want, you reply *A Big Mac, a basket of fries, and... oh can you get me a McCafe?*

[@Atrahasis7]

I always saw vaporwave more as a chill out music out of a booming synthwave movement.

[@BIIGtony]

Modern Yankee In a way it's exactly because Synthwave is less esoteric since many synthwave songs have a certain "generic cyberpunk / action / video game" music appeal. We had synthwave features in mainstream video games and if people here the sounds of many of the more "normal" synthwave artists they don't perk up in confusion as they do with vaporwave. The more focused and refined style of music in (many) synthwave tracks might make them just a lot less memorable and it does blend easier in other genres and know tunes. While the (non music) art around it has similar qualities, especially in the use of colors, the synthwave genre tends to have a more dark and dystopian feel which again turn them "more generic" because the cyberpunk genre in general is seen as very generic and those two are fairly strongly linked in the minds of many people.

[@JordanCantFight]

Why is vaporwave so depressing yet nostalgic yet chill yet unsettling yet beautiful yet eerie yet welcoming yet Dark yet positive?

[@yfoog]

Honestly 🤣🤣 same. I don’t understand the feeling. It’s everything at once exactly like you said.

[@orsonjarrett]

That’s how I feel with the Windows 95 startup sound

[@DJPastaYaY]

The Vaporwave rabbit hole is truly something spectacular

[@Solaneceae]

I unironically enjoy some vaporwave tracks. To me it's just a music genre like any other, I just like how it sounds and the feel of it.

[@TheKiroshi]

Vapourwave is really my kinda music, I love "neon" feeling music, with clear inspiration of early synth music.. Retro-electro is a subgenre that I will never get enough of. Vapour wave isn't far behind for some specific big names.

[@jameskoch9567]

For some reason I enjoy vaporwave in weird moments. Like if you asked me to sit down and listen to it at a random point it wouldn't feel special. But one time, for example, I was sick as a dog half doubled over on top of my sheets. I don't remember when I chose to put on my playlist of vaporwave but in that sort of malign haze, it just felt incredible. Like music exactly matching me. I love those moments when the music around you just feels like a soundtrack to the scene you're an actor in. To me that's vaporwave: the hazy feeling of being uncomfortable but too apathetic or weak to change; words and sharp tones dulled into half-caught background noise like music at an office party.

[@MoonlitVibe]

I used to enjoy this phenomenon while ill as a kid/teenager. There'd sometimes be a sweet spot where the one thing you're enjoying "like a cartoon or something on TV that wouldn't usually interest you, like a documentary on ships" is really...enhanced. In the more extreme states, hallucination is even possible but even in less severe flu-like bouts there was something that crossed over with an almost high like feeling. Not necessarily stoned but, uh, beautiful.

[@Endymion766]

My vaporwave playlist is longer than my "serious" playlists. I can't help it. It grew on me. I love listening to it while building my sky tower in Minecraft or driving in American Truck Simulator.

[@mushieroom]

those are the best vibes

[@randobudgetgaming]

lol, i listen to horror stories while cruising Arizon in AtS

[@AmazingOwnage]

Vaporwave is the shit. It spawned so many amazing microgenres like Synthwave/Outrun, Mallsoft, Vapor Trap, and Hypnogonic Drift. Idk if liking it makes me a music snob, but I find it very appealing and I’m glad there is so much of it to experience :)

[@hateatchee7508]

"Let's make a genre of music that sounds like an old broken VHS tape."

[@TheToonpimp]

^^ Yes, this ^^

[@aeschafer1]

I mean, it worked for Ariel Pink fifteen years ago, so why not Macintosh Plus?

[@wareforcoin5780]

I listen to the same Vaporwave mixtape on repeat every day while looking for new pictures of Grimace, the purple chicken nugget mascot.

[@TuetchenR]

maichiki yiist you found the meaning of life

[@madscientistshusta]

You are... A E S T H E T I C.

[@jirogyro650]

Why

[@MrGoatflakes]

The Elder God Grimace predates chicken nuggets

[@Mike_Jones1980]

Chicken Nuggets were their own mascot. Grimace was all about milkshakes. Get your shit together.

[@sunnyta1990]

the offshoot genres of vaporwave are far more popular now. stuff like future funk, day-glo, hyperpop, future bass, bubblegum bass, etc are more prevalent than the traditional mac plus stuff.

[@dubstepXpower]

Stephen Weir is future bass from vapour wave? I love future bass, and synthwave

[@boogaloobarrel2677]

yes but SYNTHWAVE

[@user-lt2rw5nr9s]

While it's not as connected, I've always put lofi hiphop in the same category of vaporwave. Lofi is more popular.

[@ReStOrEdLiFe88]

Whoever came up with retrowave, thank you. I always liked the music from the 80's and finding retrowave is the best thing that I ever came across. New music with the old 80's sound, perfect.

[@TanMann23]

2:56 what’s so ironic about this phrase is that 9 times out of 10, these low fidelity clips are of commercials advertising high fidelity forms of media such as Maxell cassettes or cds.

[@Runeless]

Fascinating. Though I was never consciously aware of the "Vaporwave" concept until just now, the instant I heard it I got what it was about. I'm a child of the 90s, very familiar with imagery and music from the 80s (plus having friends who are into noise music and composite art very similar to this) and it immediately tore at me in a way that was simultaneously nostalgic, familiar, surreal and ever so slightly unsettling. It reminds me of a time in the past that I just missed experiencing, but can still imagine through old movies/video games/music videos. It also reminds me of people I know now, as it's definitely a part of their visual aesthetic and artwork. I definitely want to look more into it now...

[@Blue65Tank]

Vapowave I'm pretty sure is made to used to envoke memories of the past but also remind the listener that it is only a memory now but it's that blurred line between the past and the future.

[@stackflow343]

That's called Nostalgia. Vaporwave is just repackaged nostalgia, that's why people find it so comforting yet uncanny at the same time.

[@valeriexvegan]

i swear to god the more i get into vaporwave the more i see parallels between it and Mark Fisher/Nick Land/CCRU

[@erinbrown3744]

I guess I can get why people think that unironically liking vaporwave is pretentious. But, well, I think a lot of the genuine fans are like me: 90s kids who find a nostalgic comfort in the sampling and aesthetic. Specifically with songs like Lisa Frank 420, it takes me back to being a carefree little girl. Especially my fascination with technology and abstract art, and subsequent favorite pastime of trying to make my own art on the family PC, and during scheduled computer time we were allowed at school. Personally, I think it's snooty and pretentious to knock something before you try it, or to make assumptions about people that like something you don't. Of course, I'm not free of that vice, and I was the spoiled little rich girl growing up, so hey. Maybe the naysayers are on to something.

[@k_tess]

Erin Brown It seems like nineties condo commercials.

[@supergeeky7529]

I was actually gonna ask if a lot of the fans are actual 90s kids or people who wish they were 90s kids? Morbid curiosity I suppose. I'm a 90s kid and engage in TONS of 90s nostalgia so I get the nostalgic comfort thing!

[@supersquare]

I love it too, but that's because vaporwave is just chillwave with a centralized aesthetic. Personally, I think Vaporwave is an art movement rather than just specifically a musical movement.

[@unchpunchem8947]

I mean I don’t think people are wrong to call it pretentious but that’s ok. Pretentious doesn’t always mean bad

[@user-vp6cq4sv3d]

Liking music that isn’t mainstream isn’t pretentious. Whoever says that is saying their last words after getting mauled and raped by a bear.

[@LilMorphineAnnie]

I was born in the late 80s, so my first memories as a small child are of walking through shopping malls in like 1990. Listening to Vaporwave triggers so many visuals in my mind that are...somewhere between memories and dreams? I think it's like that for a lot of people in their late 20s and early 30s because the time is recent enough that we can remember it, but it's also a long enough time ago that those memories are so hazy that it almost feels like a dream. Idk I can't decide if I like it or if it makes me incredibly sad.

[@casicadaminuto1]

“After facing litlle success in the scene” - are you serious? Lopatin’s early Oneothtrix Point Never material like the Rifts compilation made a huge inpact in the experimental electronic scene, beyond the vaporwave subgenre.

[@Greysterization]

Oneohtrix has always been an artist's artist, his recognition is only really apparent if you are aware of how much he has shaped many modern experimental electronic musicians or the collaborations he has been part of like recently with The weeknd.

[@dickmajor4848]

I unironically enjoy some Vaporwave.

[@YZINBLAZE]

Dick Major I love vapowave and vaportrap

[@Quoobuss]

Dick Major yeah vaporwave isn't terrible but i personally enjoy chill wave more

[@Pastafari4]

Dick Major Same. I have no idea how it happened.

[@illliiiiillliii6265]

Pastafari guys we all know it's all about the A E S T H E T I C how could you not love it

[@Pensive_Scarlet]

It's genuinely beautiful. I also unironically enjoy the cheeky aesthetic and fun gimmicks and all, but at the end of the day, if I had just randomly heard these sorts of songs pop up while browsing the radio, I would have permanently rested my dial on whatever station was playing them.

[@mintsjams8862]

Teen Pregnancy is by *BLANK* Banshee, not Black Banshee. Other than that, good video.

[@mintsjams8862]

Also, there were several episodes featured in Sunday School.

[@FredrikKnudsen]

I ALWAYS miss something. Thanks for pointing it out, I made the relevant corrections in an annotation.

[@baptism8451]

i like that song, please recomend me some good songs?

[@Iloveyou-dz7mq]

VAPORWEEB nigga banshee

[@batpone]

*blank* flank, not black flank. Sorry, brony thing. Send help

[@MerkhVision]

its amazing to realize now in 2016 how much vaporwave really has influenced modern music and art from behind the scenes in the past 4 years...

[@imalsoTOMATO]

Wild.

[@MerkhVision]

Griswold Aspen hello child

[@bobmcbobbington9220]

It's literally 100 years too late to influence or have an impact on anything. Vaporwave is reactionary. Nostalgic nihilism is old hat and has been before we've were born. Wait until the 50's, 60's, 70's etc comes back, yet again, for the 3rd or 4th time this decade. This is just the 80's coming back...again. Someone will bring Swing back again and call it a genre. Barber shop quartets. Whatever. There's nothing here, so we move on quickly.

[@BickyNuckley]

Sngl Rdy2Tngle Electro swing has been around for a while now, so that's already a thing

[@SirBlackReeds]

Examples?

[@Que_Drum]

As of last month Daniel Lopatin, also known as OPN, is one of the main producers for The Weeknd’s latest album Dawn FM, an album heavy on that retro 80s feel. One of these songs also follows the genre standard of sampling and mixing the song Midnight Pretenders by Tomoko Aran. Out of Time, The Weeknd: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oanKm2iXm52tnZY Midnight Pretenders, Tomoko Aran: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5rGmJmGqcSebK8 It’s quite cool seeing him and the genre eventually reach a much wider audience again.

[@Miyamoto_Jim]

Vaporwave makes me feel like I’m in my daily and constant childhood imagination- being pushed by my mom in a stroller at a mall in 1997 when there was still that _vibe_ (80’s/90’s) Fleeting but I barely experienced it... or at least I think I did... feels so familiar... almost like slowly sinking back into water...mystical and soothing. I don’t feel any anxiety or any _real_ “creepiness” when listening

[@oscob3259]

I've seen alot of shitty vaporwave docs/articles in my day, and I gotta say this one did it pretty well

[@MoonlitVibe]

I was hoping you'd end "and I gotta say, this has to be the least shittiest of them all". How did you manage not to?

[@TrueRetroflection]

Instructions unclear; Starbucks gift card firmly lodged within rectum.

[@bogdanbogdanoff5164]

I didn't expect that and you made me chuckle

[@xXxBigDaddyY2KxXx]

F I R M L Y he says

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

You're so creative

[@bungo6000]

I still enjoy vaporwave. It brings back memories of watching old family videos on vhs tapes... I also enjoy the somewhat-counterculture aspect to it. Now that all music seems to be underlined with mental illness, suicide, drugs, guns, you name it, it's nice to find some tunes that let you just chill for a bit.

[@marshallemmet1366]

I think it is funny how the counter culture of the past, bringing up all those issues, which was shocking then, has become the norm. I think it is funny that the counter culture now is basically easy listening music... not that I find that a bad thing, I just think it is interesting, I honestly love vaporwave, one of my favorite genres currently.

[@thatpart]

If you ever spent time in a crowded shopping mall back in the 80s/90s, vaporwave will send you right back there. This is why it's the perfect accompaniment to the Dan Bell videos. The music even catches the way that the Muzak would echo down the huge corridors.

[@TheLuckySpades]

To be honest I think most of my current fascinations in media (SCP, Nightvale, Vaporwave, lofi-hiphop/chillhop/..., prog rock, this channel,...) has been fueld by a desire for the weird, the extranormal and feeling detached from meaning. It seems odd to me at times, since most of my interests besides those are polar opposite, I love math because of what we can explain, I love programming because of the control, I love everything outdoorsy because I can overcome it. And still my favorite media is almost always dedicated to brealing those ideas and feelings. Keep up the good work and feeding my addiction of the weird.

[@Outcast115]

I get a forlorn feeling listening to vaporwave, like looking at a 1930s worlds fair in 1960, or looking at arts from the Wimer Republic, all of the hopes and dreams of that time have been dashed never to be seen again.

[@Hesperell]

Funny. I get a feeling more like I live in Weimar and am looking at pictures from the late Wilhelmine. Because we live in Weimar.

[@yogsothoth8389]

saunz departier re: Weimar Republic, you beat me to it. 🇩🇪😼

[@Imissthefuhrer]

Outcast115 yeah it’s a good thing the degenerate Weimar Republic is gone and shall never return.

[@futuretrunks3158]

But you saw them hundreds of years later

[@Strangelove657]

I really like Vaporwave, for the reason stated in the video. Its something mysterious and anonymous and really helps you escape to somewhere else for a while and if you ask me that's what music is all about.

[@SumeaBizarro]

I was very against vaporwave myself back when it was in the meme status, basically. The point where people would circle floral shoppe as a meme post pictures and so on. I just found it a forced meme that I found aversion against as I just did not get the joke or idea behind it. But I have to say I appreciate the genre for one album alone and it is 2814's A BRAND NEW DAY which had it's cover art featured in beginning of this video as well as being part of the DREAM catalog. This album was very much what I already liked, a serene calm soundscape, but in very different way to music I already were listening to. For albums of past few years, it takes a favorite spot which is a high praise for someone who still doesn't get most of vaporwave or it's " A E S T H E T I C " - But 2814's aesthtetic and style were both extremely compelling to me personally.

[@psychickumquat]

I've taken a liking to vaporwave lately, it's nice to just put some on in my earbuds at work and let it chill me out. I frankly don't care whether it's "good" or "bad"; if it's pleasent to listen to, I'm good.

[@deusexaethera]

Vaporwave music sounds like something you'd expect to find at the bottom of a storage bin full of old 90's "multimedia" CDs sitting on a desk in a vacant office formerly occupied by a now-defunct management-consulting company that went out of business in 2001.

[@KazzArie]

Like CompUSA and incredible universe yep. I could totally picture that in my minds eye next to the VideoCDs, Myst, and Diablo I

[@Shnibadabobin]

I am loving your choice of subjects to talk about in your DTRH videos. Also, I like how this video has a much more positive feel to it. No death, no horror, and nobody going completely bonkers. How many times did you have to retake that "VHS Tape Rewinder" part?

[@City-Hunter]

You should do a video on SYNTHWAVE and it's subgenres (Outrun, Dreamwave, DarkSynth, Spacewave, Retrowave, Futurewave, crimewave, etc.)

[@captaingainzproductions1876]

City Hunter simpsonwave

[@whatwhatyep]

@@captaingainzproductions1876 mexican wave

[@bboydreem]

@@whatwhatyep microwave

[@LucasMartins-dy6no]

Kamehameha wave

[@k.morningstar7983]

no jokes here, I just have a real, unironic hardon for retrowave

[@gacku7847]

This shit is surreal, dude. I'd never heard of it before, myself.

[@campbellgibbons2092]

*dab*

[@Urushi12kitty]

i unironically love VAPORWAVE and FUTUREFUNK you did a really great job telling how it came about

[@MyMiserableLife]

Alone on the weekends at my job is Vaporwave marathon. It gives happy vibes, no lyrics so i can just let it set the mood without wondering the meaning of the song. Plus the recommended side bar always sets me off on a great discovery.

[@joshuatxuk]

No mention of Internet Club, 骨架的, or Mediafired. Those were just as important to the scene as Vekroid's work.

[@apolloedaphne7020]

Internet Club is a fucking commie who tries to intellectualize his work when its really not

[@sportsboy85]

@@apolloedaphne7020 internet club is right

[@apolloedaphne7020]

Internet Club is my daddy lol

[@GibusGang]

a e s t h e t i c

[@derstoffausdemderjoghurtis]

Δirony = ∞

[@ryanheppel861]

I actually prefer synthwave. It's a cleaner sound and captures all of the themes and sounds that come from 80s synth and new wave music without all of the unsettling and off putting nature of vaporwave. I hate how uncomfortable I feel why listening to vaporwave.

[@strangeduckling]

Try listening to the group Gunship, they're an amazing synthwave group. I specifically recommend the song "Tech Noir."

[@boscorner]

I hated it too. just get real drunk and or high and you'll start to enjoy it. not even kidding

[@swamplife3148]

Vaporwave is 90s nostalgia and Synthwave is 80s nostalgia.

[@daspoboy2781]

You should try listening to Scandroid's music. I recommend listening to "Salvation Code" or "Rendezvous" first.

[@wretchpin]

Ryan Heppel horror synthwave is my shit!

[@yellowbearanimations]

I discovered this genre in 2016 and now I listen to it everyday.

[@Wvlfmane]

I think Boards of Canada definitely deserves a mention as one of the early Progenitors of Vaporwave. The way they tied melancholic synthy atmospheric music to nostalgic/vintage imagery definitely had an influence.

[@AllTheWeirdestProject]

Can you imagine a time when Vaporwave itself returns as Nostalgia?

[@osvaldomanno272]

now for me

[@loxeggcheese]

i think screw really should be mentioned in this history, he pioneered many of the techniques used to make this music. its worthy to say that the intent behind his style was different but his innovations are nonetheless pivotal in this genres development. to quote lil keke and many others, "screw did that!"

[@MrNoob64]

Ah yes... great music coming from this genre. I love Vaporwave. I also love another genre of music called Electro Swing, maybe you can make a video about how it became a thing!

[@NintendoNerdo]

I always said Vaporwave was basically part of an Internet Renaissance per say. From the Greek busts from the early centuries touching the relatively new existence of the internet is what makes it so beautiful.

[@Sarahmint]

Kinda depressing how 13:09 is the first frame I came back to on my computer in the morning (paused the video the day before). It's ominous

[@KaiserChiefsPocketbombs]

so it's ridiculed for being too artsy and trying to be it's own thing? Of course when an idea is ahead of its time and too many people like it, it will be put down. Look at the dream cast

[@lainhikaru5657]

Punk-Kaiser True,Though that controler is very unconfortable in my opinion.

[@KaiserChiefsPocketbombs]

but the n64's hot messy of garbage was acceptable. what's up with that double standard 😔

[@lainhikaru5657]

Punk-Kaiser I nevet said the N64 control was good either,the analog stick specially was a piece of shit,I'm not a sonyst but I believe controlers started feeling really confortable past psx era.

[@kristinalphamegamia1890]

I still play ecco the dolphin on my dreamcast

[@hateatchee7508]

*Takes sounds from literally 20-30 years before it's time* "What a futuristic sound for music. So ahead of it's time. "

[@Backwards_Buddha]

I’ve found some good vaporwave artists. Jack Stauber is known mostly through the memes but he’s song “Getting my mom on” is actually catchy as fuck

[@chase.was.h3r3]

I love how the love for vaporwave has grown since this video was released.

[@lexsduck6892]

this is still true a year later lol

[@whatifgaming1661]

Just wanted to say thank you on the off chance you'll read this Fredrick. After discovering Vaporwave from this video its become a large passion of mine over the past years, and I feel it will be for many years to come.

[@porter2024]

Yep same

[@DerekPower]

As someone who lived through both of those decades (born 1982) and who is now an artist in the vapour scene (under the name of キラヨシ), I maintain that vapour is music built upon mood and made with a determined DIY/DGAF attitude. It is a continuation of the best aspects of the 1990s electronic music, 1970/1980s post-punk (and its many offshoots) and the numerous art movements during the first three decades of the last century. And like a lot of underground art movements, it’s an opportunity to return to a more genuine and sincere art.

[@morganqorishchi8181]

Vaporwave is one of those things that you either really like or feel complete indifference towards. Personally, I find it really mellow and relaxing. I'm too young to have any nostalgia for the 80's or 90's, but I can appreciate the music anyway and find how the genre uses distortion and sampling really cool. I don't think you need to be nostalgic to be into it, honestly.

[@KazzArie]

Born in 82, can attest.

[@IceQueen975]

Now, 5 years after this video being posted, Vaporwave is about tot take on a very new and both terrifying and soothing quality. Trust me.

[@Baleur]

And now we have Star Citizen's planet ArcCorp, the whole soundtrack of which sounds like vaporwave

[@CJdude22]

You know what this REALLY ought to be called? Shopping Mall Ambience. I mean honestly...who isn't immediately transported to a big shopping mall at Christmas and can just barely hear the music being piped thru above the general hub-bub. Thank you for introducing me to a genre of music I never knew existed and hits all the right notes in my head. Yes, I know you did see what I did there. Seriously tho, this combines my love of 80s/early 90s synthesizer and a really relaxed and chill atmosphere.

[@wyattlabaw9028]

This is the best in-depth summary of vaporwave I've ever found. Wonderful work!

[@dillonqaphsiel7977]

I actually like the sound of vapor wave.

[@Jettmingin]

I love vaporware so much I forget most people look at it ironically

[@smileyjojo4913]

God, this is such a tragic genre. I love nostalgic retro music like this but it always makes me feel so somber. Its like trying to recapture a whole era that this new generation missed out on. But itll only ever be an echo of those times based on blurry inaccurate memories. Makes me so sad. Such an amazing genre. There’s so much beauty that people create.

[@Bravecone]

What song start at 0:37 ? Could not find it on eco virtual album that is depicted in cover art before song starts

[@adityasanthanam1945]

Vaporwave evokes nostalgia and remembering a time that has passed, in a way making that time seem distant, dreamy, and even partially futuristic. Sometimes, a time that never fully existed but you still remember it fondly. Perhaps a virtual utopia. It shows retro imagery and music in a fascinating way. Perhaps the bad audio shows the abandonment of old better technologies such as cassettes, records, reel to reel, etc and how they are not taken care of so the audio quality degrades. It is quite nice in my opinion.