The Hyperconsumerism of "Mallsoft"

[@ZemanTheMighty]

I can't wait until online shopping becomes nostalgic.

[@PadChennington]

omg lol ur right...one day..but then what comes next?

[@poisondamage2182]

@@PadChennington *B R A I N S H O P P I N G*

[@jasminedonely7805]

@@PadChennington futurama told us already, virtual shopping 😂😱

[@societysmostambiguousgirlb1495]

In-home omniprinters

[@OfficialRetroUk]

Vr mall days out??

[@noir269]

This is why I love Vaporwave, it can be nostalgic and reminiscent but it's portrayed in a psychedelic, dreamy, sometimes eerie yet ironic sense. It can exciting and enthusiastic to represent our happier moments, where we laugh, celebre, create, etc., it can ambient and soothing to represent relaxing moments where we dream about where we are heading, but it can warped and distorted like our saddest moments where we lose all hope and have a dark view on life. At first, it seems like pretentious, trippy music but it may have a meaning behind it all.

[@deeto_]

Big yes

[@miriam4972]

It kind of sounds like our memories themselves, your memory is never completely clear after all, there is always this faint dreamy fuzziness to them

[@andrewblack2596]

You and me both. It’s nostalgic for me as I was an 80s-90s baby!

[@MagickFlavour]

If you can listen to a mallsoft album while inside of a mall, I'd recommend it. I walked around the Mall of America while listening to Palm Mall Mars, and it was awesome. There was certain moments where I couldn't tell if i was hearing the samples or the actual Mall.

[@PadChennington]

"There was certain moments where I couldn't tell if i was hearing the samples or the actual Mall." love that

[@catsystemcorp]

same!

[@MagickFlavour]

猫 シ Corp. I’m glad you agree!

[@sailordeer1714]

Mallsoft has seriously become one of my favorite sub-genres of vaporwave. So much nostalgia of aimlessly wandering around a mall where everything is too overpriced to buy. Love the review!!

[@PadChennington]

Mallsoft is so much fun to me as well, zoning out to it while doing work only to remember its in the background of your headphones..so relaxing, dreamy, and its like you can smell it.

[@sailordeer1714]

The smell of slick tile floors and palm trees... faintly in your memory... ahhhh

[@Qce-i6d]

wait, i thought vaporwave was a sub-genre

[@anSealgair]

As you walk along, sniffing the $200 perfumes you sprayed onto your wrist from tester bottles.

[@aaron3941]

There’s a mall in my hometown, it used to be packed, but it’s close to being closed down. The last time I was in there, only seeing one shopper every 90 feet or so, is only a distant memory. Mallsoft makes that memory vivid.

[@PadChennington]

the perfect mallsoft scenario my friend!

[@DMTFLTV]

Cat Corp did an amazing album on my label where he went to a mall in Finland and took field recordings of the bustle/crowd, then used this sample alongside the music. it's SO authentic and vibrant

[@driftcowboy2925]

DMT/•/TV Which album? V31?

[@catsystemcorp]

[@eduardkaiser48]

River Sparks Shopping@helsinki

[@paulikopman477]

Oh shit xd🇫🇮🇫🇮🇫🇮

[@timefragment5387]

@@catsystemcorpw

[@twodivision]

In middle-income countries, the shopping malls never actually faded out, despite the abundance of online shops. They are mostly filled with clothes shops, along with furniture, toys, perfumes, and jewelry shops. They are usually combined with a large cinema and a food court featuring a dozen of fast-food brands and are fucking thriving. They have the best design solutions and straight-up cyberpunk stuff, such as self-driving cleaning machines, glass floors that change colors when you step on them, and cameras everywhere. If shopping was a religion, the shopping malls would definitely be its temples.

[@princegoatcheese9379]

Now that I think of it, Madonna's "Material Girl" is 1980's hyper-consumerist propaganda.

[@thedreamsoldiers]

😂😂

[@raksh9]

Not sure if it's propaganda for hyperconsumerism, more like commentary on financially transactional relationships. The music video, oddly, shows the reverse of the lyrics, in which Madonna turns down expensive gifts and goes out with a guy with no money.

[@dmace81]

They took out the water fountain at the mall I go too. I think those who don't understand this genre weren't born before the internet took over. The mall was the Amazon/eBay of it's time. If you wanted something you couldn't find at a department store you had to go to the mall. Or if like me you were lucky enough to go maybe once ever few months it was a highlight of your childhood. It was an experience like you say physically. That era is gone. You can instantly get whatever you want now. We are so spoiled. I miss those days.😢

[@PadChennington]

oh no...thats how it starts

[@poisondamage2182]

"...the unavoidable aura of the 80's and 90's we all once lived in." *me, born in '95:* yes. i can relate

[@PadChennington]

lmaoooo!

[@oculttheexegaming2509]

me, a Gen Z kid from a post-Sovietic country: me too.

[@driftcowboy2925]

This is probably my favorite video you've done so far. Mallsoft is something ethereal. I think you listen less with your ears, and more with the middle of your brainstem. It's a lot like a shopping trip itself. Not meant to be an engaging, challenging journey. But more of a setting, or a backdrop to whatever you happen to be thinking about until you get to the right aisle and find what you came for. Then everything snaps back and you realize where you are and what you're doing. This video somehow captured the same feeling. Jornt did something amazing with MARS, and I'm gonna treasure that tape for the rest of my life. I'm excited to see so much more out of all of you guys.

[@PadChennington]

wow..thanks so much! And I can promise you, there is a lot to come out of all of us. corp, me, vaporwave music and content in general. 2018 has been an incredible year for the genre, who knows whats next

[@alisterfolson]

I might wanna find a "10 hour mallsoft" video to sleep too. As a Gen Xer this music is a dream come true...nostalgia be damned.

[@PadChennington]

something like that has got to be out there :)

[@SuperX220]

That's one of the things that I miss from buy vaporwave cassettes, vinyls, vhs, merch,... Something physical, like a place to just relax and search for all the different stuff, maybe one day there will be a Vaporwave mall... or maybe it will be just a dream

[@SuperX220]

But does it have vaporwave merch? I mean, there are not big release of albums, how does it have any stock?

[@dudesofculture2303]

You are starting to be my favorite youtuber.

[@PadChennington]

:’)

[@MrTristantheking]

You sir have earned a subscriber, I’ve recently entered the Vaporwave A E S T H E T I C and seeing your channel and it’s level of content has made me very happy.

[@PadChennington]

Ayyy thanks! Welcome aboard homie welcome to the fam :)

[@TRFAD]

I've been really into this stuff for a while and love it. One of my favorites though is the one you mentioned. Christmas at Crystal Valley Mall. It just takes me back to when I was a kid and we'd go to the mall to shop for Christmas. It gives me this nostalgia and longing but somewhat comforting.

[@heliosthevaporwaveelf7275]

I have " yes! We're open " on cassette.

[@llyourdudesnickerll9823]

I do too

[@llyourdudesnickerll9823]

Shadribblel just keep looking. I couldn't find one for a while until one turned up on discogs. Look through all the sites once a week and your bound to find one.

[@dubduboverlord5095]

I have housewares and ascension on tape

[@llyourdudesnickerll9823]

Well like I said just keep looking. That one I found was just 10 dollars.

[@llyourdudesnickerll9823]

Spinning TV I have housewares but not acension

[@nightlighttapes6463]

Thanks for the shoutout and use of ETHEREAL, complements such a good video

[@PadChennington]

love ya NLT I gotchu!!!

[@ArtistTheArtist05]

Without a doubt the best part of malls for me was the pretzels or pizza, and that feeling of looking around for a hot new item that you wish you could afford/buy. Doesn't help that I live in a smaller town, so going to a mall in general was a treat for me, so my appreciation for Mallsoft is HEAVILY amplified.

[@PadChennington]

mmm yes....that greasy cheesy lookin pizza

[@murdread]

Glad you mentioned Vacant Places by Hantasi as it truly is one of the emptiest, bleakest mallsoft albums one can find.

[@PadChennington]

Yep! Love that album, hopefully this vid spreads the word about it a little more!

[@joseusainternet]

Not really mallsoft, but check PC Power ME's Kmart Tapes, has that same empty feeling, but somehow a little more romantic

[@TUPPERWAVE]

I played some mallsoft in a mall over the tannoy, it was creepy as fk

[@camo7886]

The Vapor Room how did this come to pass?

[@TUPPERWAVE]

Used to work in a mall. Everyone used to just play whatever they wanted after hours.

[@noradosmith]

You achieved the dream, bro.

[@lacuevadelvampiro]

you nailed the sega dreamcast vibe right on the mall money.

[@PadChennington]

u know it bb

[@Robert-dt3is]

Mallsoft is the perfect example of how impactful branding and design is. We took something that literally no one gave a crap about, repackaged it and slapped this aesthetic to it and now it's something completely new. Amazingly creative to do.

[@unexpectederror7733]

I was born in gen x and never experienced the big boom of the mall industry, but even when I listen to mallsoft I remember memories of walking around the huge mall in the city 2 hours away that hadn’t had an architectural update since 1994...where the floor was always shiny at all times and the fake plants always looked bright, where I would here modern music over an old sound system and where the plaza that I sat at waiting for my mom to come out of a shop when my legs were hurting was. Mallsoft has always been special to me because when I was little I didn’t have the best life, but the mall was a wonderland where I could get everything and anything, a magic place I would go once every couple of years filled with places to eat and things to buy. Malls are great.

[@Miumiu0404]

Mallsoft speaks to me in a spiritual level. Growing up in the 80s, being a teenager in the 90s and as a young adult in the early 2000s, mall culture has been ingrained in me. While malls there in the US are dying because of online retails, malls here in Asia are thriving. Our malls could not compare in terms of size and extravagance than their American counterparts. If you've been to a mall in Singapore, Hong Kong or the Philippines, you'll be in awe of the magnificent and terrifying beauty of our shopping malls.

[@alexissummerlouisejones]

Nice and dreamy video Pad. Wish we could buy mallsoft cassettes and vinyls inside an actual mall, while the mall music plays on

[@PadChennington]

That sounds lovely

[@limemaid2003]

Oh? Mallsoft? Never heard of it. Since I'm into dead malls, and malls that are active as well, I should check it out. Thank you for this video. I would have never heard of this without this video. Once again, I appreciate it. Have a good day and week! - Ian :)

[@limemaid2003]

Also, your videos are great. Just wanted to let you know.

[@PadChennington]

thank you Ian!

[@limemaid2003]

Pad Chennington No problem.

[@mikaelneault]

Now I know how to name my obsession I have since forever, thank you so much Pad!

[@arelr6822]

As a child, I used to go to the Forest Fair mall, I remember that distinct smell of cinnamon stick pretzels, the small shop that sold retro games, everything. It's all shut down now, but MallSoft brings me back to that matrix-life; feeling how empty it all truly was.

[@justindrakecroft]

I really love this video and your channel in general. You have opened up my eyes to whole new genres and sub-genres of great music.

[@PadChennington]

ayyy thanks Justin! happy to share the music!

[@jorgecphosphorus955]

Watching these videos during my senior year of high school and scholarship weeks, it makes me feel more relaxed

[@madhijz-spacewhale240]

Attention K-Mart Shoppers on the internet archive is the collection of these mall music and commercial cassettes and something most of you either already know or want to check out but it's also here on youtube for your convenience.

[@PadChennington]

the K-Mart tapes are forever legendary, revisiting them and the vast amount of hours that exist of them truly are remarkaesthetic.

[@xxEVERYthingEPIC]

Mallsoft is hands down my favorite sub-genre to derive from Vaporwave, something about that mall vibe that's super nostalgic. Great Video!

[@JordanProductions]

YES A VIDEO ABOUT MALLSOFT

[@bmxkid1319]

ｃｏｏｌｋｉｄ😎

[@bmxkid1319]

Even know your a furry and Undertale fan but stillｃｏｏｌｋｉｄ😎

[@PadChennington]

I GOTCHU BOIIII

[@jamesmcmahan1236]

love this, huge fan of this end of Vaporwave. There are a few cool mixes on youtube synced to Mall shopping videos/clips...and I want more! Maybe the release Palm Mall Mars will lead to one...Anyway great video!

[@PadChennington]

love zoning out to those!

[@xaustralis]

Damn I get a real feel of nostalgia when I watch your videos. Keep it up.

[@PadChennington]

will do, thanks for watching!

[@danybf99]

YESS FINALLY!! love it love it love it. gonna hear all the new recs tonight and dream about food courts and new shoes

[@PadChennington]

yezzzz awesome dude let me know what you think!

[@hoonami139]

A few years ago, Mashable posted some images of American malls in the 80s, I looked at them and felt like I was back in the early 90s walking through my local shopping mall with my mom. After studying the images for a bit it finally dawned on my, the images felt so familiar because many of them were shot in the EXACT mall that I went to as a kid, the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, New York (which is still open and somewhat thriving). Thank you for making this video and if you get a chance, check out that Mashable article!

[@PadChennington]

ill give it a look when I get a quick second! thanks for watching dude :)

[@hoonami139]

@@PadChennington Of course man, I've found so much great music through your channel. This afternoon I sat and listened to all of Palm Mall while looking through this amazing Flickr album of all late 90s mall/shopping center photographs from around where I'm from, Long Island. Here's a link to the album if you wana check it out, it's a trip: www.flickr.com/photos/78863861@N07/page1

[@llyourdudesnickerll9823]

Yeah! Been excited for this. Definitely worth the wait. Keep it up man!

[@PadChennington]

hey my dude! thank you so much, will do!

[@llyourdudesnickerll9823]

No problem! I just listened to vacant places yesterday. Good recommendation.

[@androidpriest]

i heckin love mallsoft, this is a delight! and your analyses are always so...legit poetic, i really love your narrative style.

[@ojhat]

Mallsoft -is- my favorite subgenre of Vaporwave, and I love listening to it. there are very few albums that I've listened to that I don't generally like, when it's done to be mallsoft, it works well, and I like that you mentioned album covers, because again, almost everything Vaporwave practically requires it's album art to encompass the tone and feeling of the music. did places like on the mallsoft album covers exist? are they just extended phantoms of our imagination from when we were kids, our small minds seeing everything as more colorful, vivid, and full of palm trees? were there... ever palm trees and fountains? were the floors actually that clean and marble-reflective? wait, what were malls really like? Mallsoft always gives you just enough to latch your wandering thoughts onto without laying down anything foundational, letting your nostalgia and tampered memories fill the void.

[@mac081793]

I work in a mall and with the holidays coming up I tend to come in earlier in the morning hours before it's open to the public and being in an empty mall with closed shops while listening Hologram Plaza is amazing.

[@Marcusml333]

Palm Mall and Yes! We're Open were the first mallsoft albums I listened to. I loved them. So hypnagogic and lovely.

[@PadChennington]

yes! have you heard the sequel to palm mall? palm mall mars?

[@Marcusml333]

@@PadChennington Hey, great video! Yes, Mars is so good too. I agree that you can really hear Cat System Corp having improved their skills as time has passed. Currently just discovered PowerPCME's K-mart 1989-1992, which had some great moments as well, and also Zadig The Jasp who has released so much I almost don't know where to start. Interestingly enough, I'm Danish and we have malls, but none as grand and with the same aesthetic experience as the ones you had over there. So it's very much possible to enjoy these auditory experiences without having lived them yourself IRL. There's something magical about the music that transcends what nostalgia can do on its own.

[@carlolombardi1998]

I actually did my senior project in college on music history. The 21st century piece I wrote for it was a mallsoft piece that utilised late 1990s pop tunes with filters and reverb in order to pay tribute to a old mall I used to go to as a kid: the Great Mall of the Great Plains.

[@GoogleAccount-vk3xd]

Your descriptions of these unique sounds make more sense than any music reviewer i've heard in a while.

[@PadChennington]

Means a lot to me Luke! thanks so much...

[@maksymilianreiter3111]

Mallsoft is a really interesting and versatile genre. It can arouse any emotion from weird, lonely depression to soothing nostalgia. hypnagogic or groovy. such a great genre. and a great vid. thanks Pad

[@PadChennington]

very well said!

[@fuchsiafire6932]

"Like a Sega dreamcast game cover straight from the 2000's" That my friend is the absolute comparison

[@conflictmagazine]

When I first started listening to Vaporwave it was Mallsoft and Vaportrap that kept me exploring. Thanks for the video and turning other people onto the sub-genre...it's not for everyone and usually gets derided in common circles but it truly is the music for abandoned places especially malls (check out an abandoned mall video here and listen to mallsoft with the original sound turned down...it will make sense immediately). And for a quick view of the sub-genre just search the tag mallsoft at BC and enjoy. Thanks again.

[@citlalialarcon1626]

My mall is dying but somehow I love the emptyness of the mall in a way. It's nostalgic

[@candy-lc7lf]

pad, i love your videos. im so glad you made an album about mallsoft! its my favorite genre. but please link the albums you talk about in your videos in the description!! you know how hard it can be to find vaporwave albums, so please help us and the artists you mention 💖

[@PadChennington]

Surely! Will update the description with these as well, thanks for reaching out!: catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/palm-mall catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/palm-mall-mars hantasi.bandcamp.com/album/vacant-places groceries-store.bandcamp.com/album/yes-we-re-open

[@candy-lc7lf]

Pad Chennington thank you so much! 💖💖💖💖💖

[@DerekPower]

He also mentioned: dmtrec.bandcamp.com/album/mall-moods-random-disk-1 dmtrec.bandcamp.com/album/christmas-at-crystal-valley-mall disconscious.bandcamp.com/album/hologram-plaza

[@candy-lc7lf]

Derek Power thank you! 💖

[@MustafaSahinz]

His name is Chad?

[@zoidsfan12]

I didn't really get into vaporwave until mallsoft started being a style. What really sold me on the whole idea was music played like you're in an empty mall, because nothing quite compares to that sound. The mall has a lot of memories for me and I still find myself going if only to see what kind of stuff is making it to shelves now. The mall is a place of utter excess trying to get you lost in its walls. The more variety the more they can trap you as you make purchases that you wouldn't have under any other circumstances. Works well but as stated the internet can give more variety faster. We humans are like a bunch of addicts seeking any novelty we can get our hands on and once one has indulged that addiction they become jaded. Their brain has hardwired that action to a dopamine response and thus the actions taken to receive that high are committed to memory. Just like cigarettes however we reach a state where we block out all the stimulus and really take in your surrroundings and look at the hollow stores and vacant lots. I think that is at the heart of the genre, that memory has so many facets to it. Being able to feel like you are there again just content to walk around window shopping to waste some time. The aesthetic of vaporwave is nostalgia which I think will lead to vaporwave encompassing everything so long as people retain interest in it.

[@devjock]

Love mallsoft! Quite new to most of the sub-genres, but there's definitely a few gems in transit. Personally, I'm interested in artists that don't only tackle mallsoft, but go full post-mallsoft. Hantasi is almost there, but I'm looking for something with a bit more of a human connection. Take spacewave (the empty vaccuum stretchy slightly wavery sinewave with heavy long reverb on it) and put it back in the shoppingmalls, letting it echo over the marble floors, emphasizing the increase in vacant shop lots. Interlude songs would be interviews with folks in their mid 30's reminiscing about a certain location having their favorite clothing store. That's all gone now. Songs with last calls over the PA system, followed up by electronic buzzing of the anti-homeless fences going down for the night. Maybe closing with a full on shouting match between an employer and employee shouting they're not doing a good enough job, being payed too little, escalating into an "i don't need this job" walkout. Basically the glamour of the malls of yesteryears eating itself alive, unable to change with the times. The end of the mall as we know it, replaced by screens, warehouses and delivery vans. Thanks for sharing Pad, got me typing a good bit of text once again ;)

[@albertopaino]

This is honestly my favorite channel on youtube, every video is top notch!

[@PadChennington]

thank you !

[@wafers3d]

I've been working on a film that takes places in a mall in the 80s, and sometimes at lunch, I'd put some vaporwave in my earbuds and space out in the mall when everyone else is eating at catering. It was a great experience to just drop out into another world with the assistance of Mallsoft

[@kanatapaw]

i love this kinda music. reminds me of being in the lady's loos at a shopping mall or a service station. i love it, bring a back good memories.

[@HDcreature]

Groceries' Yes! We're Open is one of my all time FAVORITE albums

[@xxxXLopesXxxx]

Very good. Managed to explain the feelings I have towards the genre but could not put into words in a coherent manner. Mallsoft is a comfortable and reassuring kind of music in a way.

[@hoyitsmiguel]

After taking a look at grocery store vaporwave and Mallsoft, I'd love to see a similar video with nature and weather (channel) vaporwave! It'd be a great contrast in how artists have simultaneously created the ambience of manmade structures and consumerism while others have been able to recreate the feelings we've seen and heard while in a jungle or watching a rainy window from inside (I.e how ocean grunge was able to recreate the "heavy" sounds of the ocean)

[@vaporinsider]

What about video about Broken Transmission (or signalwave)?

[@murdread]

Никита Фумс Oh yeah this needs to happen

[@Ludamage]

it's a bit different thingy, i think Pad will definately speak about it more in the future...about albums by like Infinity Frequencies and Ghosting ^^

[@nightlighttapes6463]

HUGE SECOND!

[@cruschkarsten]

[PATRYK FILMS], infinity frequencies isn't something unusual. I mean there is nothing to say about him, his music is subjectively nostalgic.

[@tcetvel8648]

That would be soo coool!

[@alltogethernow2738]

So glad I came across this genre

[@PadChennington]

e n j o y

[@mjjames7910]

I recently fell in love with this genre. Thank you for this informative video

[@discretelogic6446]

PAD..YOU HAVE SUCH AN EXCELLENT CHANNEL !! YOU ARE A GREAT WRITER AND HAVE A GREAT VOICE !!

[@Solodolo84]

the days when the act of shopping had an soundtrack. they wanted u to feel like buying stuff. the mall sound in time with the store sound. it was epic

[@LenVrijhof]

0:19 That girl in the white dress is me trying to achieve my lifegoals.

[@infiniteiterations7594]

06:05 Is the Lakehurst mall in Waukegan, IL. Demolished in the early 2000s. Lovely place.

[@stokedsteezy]

I love these vids so much. I love how you create a mood for the vid in the beginning of these vids, It makes feel like i'm in a mall in the 90s, even tho I was born in the '00s

[@Ludamage]

Excellent video about such subdirection Pad! Our Corp friend put a pretty strong efforts in it ) Hope to see in future more reviews on Broken Transmissions and Hardvapour directions as well )

[@PadChennington]

Been getting a bunch of requests on broken transmission/noise/etc...will definitely look into it!

[@Ludamage]

Yaay! Good luck ^^

[@fujoera]

Definitely my fave sub genre. I love everything Corp has ever put out. Great video as usual dude! Appreciate ya!

[@PadChennington]

ayyy! no abbey I appreciate you :) thank you for watching! and yes, corp is the boy absolutely love that dude.

[@777v.7]

Love the mixed live recordings and crowd noise I can’t get enough I need more mallsoft ,

[@PadChennington]

I agree Marky baby

[@passthemike6186]

Another Bumping vid Pad! It's oddly satisfying when you are very descriptive when it comes to scenarios. Keep the good work! Ps. I am window shopping at the mall as I type this!

[@heyimhereonyt]

I’m really getting into mallsoft these days, super underrated

[@Caesar_Online]

issa nice genre

[@PadChennington]

yezzzzzir!

[@DerekPower]

Ah Mallsoft ... 1) I also remember the hustle and bustles of various malls, large and small. And I am witnessing now with most malls dying and some hanging on by a thread (mostly by adapting with the times and having the better "anchor stores" like say Wegman's as opposed to Sears or JcPenny's). Interesting examples of contrasts indeed. 2) The mallsoft branch of vapour, which can also be considered the closest we have to a "mall on-demand", both confirm the mall's original design and undercuts it. On the one hand, the music works because we remember the space and everything in it, which includes the advertising (something the merchants were counting on). I guess they knew how effective it would be on adults but didn't anticipate (how could you) how much of an impact it would have on kids as kids are the really impressionable ones. After all, blend in clean floors, water fountains (mistaken for wading pools), the allure of ice cream and everything we could possibly want ... no wonder it seems like a magical land at times =]. But the undercut comes in that a) malls are changing or dying out entirely and b) we can, therefore, have that "mall-going experience" without all the drawbacks: parking lot jungle, crowds of people (most noticeable in the summer for sure). Even it costs anywhere from $10 to $40 to get that cassette, it's only once =D 3) Since you mentioned 식료품groceries (or groceries-store), there is a great concept at play with those albums that have gone unnoticed I think. In the three albums, which I've personally combined into a playlist called The Complete Shopping Experience, what you are really hearing is the history of 20th-century shopping. 슈퍼마켓Yes! We’re Open is all about the supermarket, but not just the actual physical space. You hear different time eras also: Aisle 4 sounds like it's from the 1980s whereas Aisle 7 sounds like it's from the mid-1960s. (And yes, I'll be remiss and not point out Aisle 3's nod to the Asian mart). In my own mind's eye, not only can I imagine this large space but somehow it can take on many of the qualities from different eras. It's as if Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Piggy Wiggly and Market Basket were all in the same spot. Continuing on that note, HOUSEWARES is much more about those chain box retail spots: your Wal-Marts and your Targets. It's that one place where you can go no matter where you are and you should get everything you need there. The layout is the same. Your expected products in stock are the same. And the wild mood swings are the same: mild indifference going there, upticks and downticks walking through there, emptiness upon departure. Finally, we get 터넷 쇼핑 (Ascension), which is your Amazon experience and all that that entails. 4) I think it's also appropriate that since Pall Mall Mars was mentioned - and I also have a cassette of that (same with the 식료품groceries bundle and I preordered ショップ @ ヘルシンキ or Shopping at Helsinki on vinyl) - it's worth pointing out the main inspiration behind that work was Christopher Hansen's visual work "News from Home" (found here: vimeo.com/226116678), which itself uses some of 猫 シ Corp.'s more ambient pieces (and one of Khoven's now called Valyri). It certainly does raise the question: is there shopping on Mars? =].

[@thnthr]

Thanks pad. Your channel slaps

[@PadChennington]

I GOTCHUUU BB

[@alistairdugen6472]

Is it just me or does mallsoft seem ahead of its time. I may just be a bit to young to fully understand the nostalgia of shopping in the 90s, but i find shopping in malls to be something we still do on a regular basis. To me mallsoft is what i would expect us to be listening to in about 10 years. I do very much admire the idea of mallsoft being nostalgic but i personally dont feel nostalgia for shopping in malls as of today. Perhaps its people who grew up in inner city areas who spent their childhood years wondering around in shopping malls that find mallsoft to be nostalgic as the idea of consumerism may have seemed new and existing to them as children. what draws me to this subgenre of vaporwave is the confusion i feel when confronting it.

[@flyingpancake6573]

Alistair Dugen same here I'm only 17 this year and as a younger person who did not really experience the shopping mall experience in the 90s, this music has quite the opposite effect on me. I feel like I'm listening to the music played in the dystopian future where almost all shopping malls are *completely abandoned* and becoming forest-like. it's pretty amazing how vaporwave and it's different compartments are able to capture both the past and future together so people of my age can also feel its significance.. maybe I'm pessimistic but I do feel our society going in the direction of dystopia rather than utopia. That is why mallsoft is ahead of its time,personally I feel that for the younger generation ironically it's the music of the future even though is presents large doses of nostalgia for the past for the older generation

[@flyingpancake6573]

Alistair Dugen I also feel a confusion when confronting this sub genre.. It's quite surreal... I feel stuck between times, or like I'm traveling through time... 😭😂

[@jamesbaker1392]

That literally doesn't make much sense lol. You're saying that it's ahead of its time, and we should be listening to it 10 years from now? Well it's no shit you don't get it, you weren't around in the 80s or 90s, pretty self explanatory of why you don't get it or why it seems futuristic/foreign to you.

[@flyingpancake6573]

james baker yes and it seems self explanatory as to why what I said doesn't make much sense to you, I'm assuming maybe because you may be a 80s or 90s kid. But that might not even be the reason. Maybe because we are simply on different waves. imagining and processing the same things differently. to someone else it does make sense, in a way I never even meant it 😹😹 but isn't it weird and kinda wonderful how even when we don't 'get' things the way they were intended to be 'got', we still enjoy them. interesting ✨💚

[@anotheropinion8638]

Flying pancake, great comments, you’re spot on, James Baker is just a typical KZbin twat starting ageist taste fights. I’m 40 and yes, mallsoft is everything you say: the past birth of optimism and the future death of hope, all in one. It takes me somewhere comforting, and fills me with a sense of dread.... Those mannequins you imagine: are they smiling in their brand new slacks, or are they gritting their teeth and hoping for the ceilings to collapse?

[@metalandstuff9367]

Hell yeah! Love waking up to a new video from Pad!

[@PadChennington]

come on down bb im making waffles...you want orange juice or coffee?

[@BlueLumi8692]

Woodfield mall I go to is the largest in the Chicagoland area and it is the busiest I have ever seen out of all the years of going there. So much money went into its most recent renovation, even opening a large food court instead of just little restaurants or fast food joints [for some reason, there was never one and it was always strange it did not have one compared to other malls]. They are doing so much to make sure they continue to modernize itself and stay relevant. It is interesting to see.

[@cocok.291]

Tbh online shopping creates a feeling of anxiety that in person shopping doesn't. When you spend money it feels bad, but in person that feeling gets subsumed by the pleasure of holding the thing that you got. But online that immediate gratification is gone. Leaving you with the anxiety of spending money out of your tight budget with no object to justify it with. Almost as though what you got was immediately had it stolen from you. Obviously not a real problem but I get this everytime

[@ciswhitememe]

A review on Hologram Plaza would be great. A VINYL release of that album would be even better!

[@matrixpillreborn]

High quality analysis, great vid, subbed. Love your content.

[@BoathausMusic]

Very well done!! Please keep em coming!

[@PadChennington]

Thank you! I plan on doing a video like this for Broken Transmission in the coming weeks, stay tuned :)

[@evanc2476]

this is an insanely good video, full of thoughtful commentary! keep up the good work, dude! this is great!

[@PadChennington]

thanks dude! will do, always

[@morganlowder51]

I love mallsoft, just something about it gives me nostalgic feelings from a past I never experienced.

[@pepsimandeluxe2969]

Amazing video as always Pad! I f'n love mallsoft

[@PadChennington]

Thank you for watching :)

[@nigiyakapepper977]

i already love mallsoft. and in the middle of 2020, this hits real different.

[@robertshaw6468]

Love the channel man. Another awesome video.

[@PadChennington]

Thanks Robert for watching :)

[@LEWIS_sanders_9]

I remember walking in a mall with my parents and it was so long yet comfortable almost like no matter how exhausted I felt my younger optimistic motivation kept me going forward

[@Tommy-oe9sj]

Finally, pad channington and mallsoft! :)

[@PadChennington]

you know I had to do it to em

[@joseusainternet]

been waiting on this for a while

[@PadChennington]

happy to deliver the goods to ya Jose!

[@nbigham1232]

Wow. Amazing video and channel!

[@maraqadiri3582]

Great video! You gave me enough albums to fill a good part of the day. Thank you. I don't know if we can consider this album as mallsoft but Immune's Breathless was awesome too (many techno-based samples so i don't know...). I always enjoyed listening Breathless in the subway. Sometimes the experience was pretty trippy. ^^

[@tellastrangetale]

"Juggernaut of the Mallsoft genre." Can't say I expected to hear that phrase when I woke up this morning.

[@mind-of-neo]

i hate that malls are dying. i love them, and I think they are a very valuable part of American culture

[@PadChennington]

We've been gradually moving away from tangible activities that involve you physically being somewhere else, it is definitely sad in regards to a communication and humanity standpoint. people meeting or being somewhere just seems so much more natural than online shopping, despite the obvious benefits it provides with advancements in technology and ease.

[@aroukar47]

I'm already having trouble getting people I know to "meet up" someplace. Most of my friends want to be on the snapchat or whatever. A month ago I managed to get 3 of them to come with me to go bowling. Being there in person really makes a difference. Conversations feel more natural and fluid. You wouldn't text to someone the same way you talk. Anyway, technology has influenced society thusly. I wonder if in the future, people will just be brains in jars, who send remote controlled robots to interact with each other in the "real" world.

[@polybius.5217]

As someone who lives in a small town, everyone here who's old enough to drive but not old enough to drink in bars (or broke, because ironically enough visiting the mall is a free activity) goes all the time just to walk around, people-watch, look at the merchandise and not buy anything, etc. Our mall has gotten weird over the past few years but I still go all the time because I just don't have anything better to do.

[@poisondamage2182]

amazon.com definitely needs a soundtrack

[@frankjackson6821]

Also European culture

[@shmotten]

If you want to check out a great mix search Neon Palm Mall, it's the perfect mallsoft mix. The video and music begin very happy, with mall openings and happy shoppers but towards the end the music gets darker and slower and you see less people and closed stores.

[@Apocfall700]

Is genre, so hyper specific insane and I love it

[@chudylukas07]

Love your videos

[@PadChennington]

thank you very much!

[@AlfieEdwards]

I got a copy of Corp's lofi. I also got a copy of that groceries album off discogs, but it hasn't turned up yet, kinda worried its gonna be a scam but I'll give 'em a bit longer. Yes we're open is my favorite album ever.

[@vanitymirrorss]

Honestly my two favorite MallSoft albums have to be Disconcious's Hologram Plaza for its beautiful zoning sound, and general relaxed vibe (tho not super big on its album art) and VHS Dreams' North Point Mall. Taking MallSoft and making its sound just a little bit more upbeat than the norm for MallSoft, also its album art is one of my favorite pieces of Vaporwave art in general, if anything I'd suggest listening to the titular track North Point Mall or Coffee Time.

[@Thomas-ze7mz]

Awesome vid as always pad !

[@PadChennington]

thank you Tommy boi !! :)

[@ut2k4wikichici]

was walking through a local mall jsut before closing i love that feel, shame retail is dead.

[@davidannett3322]

Sam Goody, getting kicked out by the rent a cops, Software Etc, Sbarro Pizza, pennies in a fountain pond, ｔｈｅ ａｒｃａｄｅ. I miss a good mall.