I've kept up on it some and still find most of it boring & uninspiring, or as if it has moved into the territory of other already established genres, whilst adding an ironic 80's aesthetic. To me I feel as if I could get the same effect as listening to a vaporwave track by drinking too much cough syrup and passing out while I Can't Go For That by Hall & Oates plays on a loop in the next room over.
I do find the song B:/ Infinite Login by Blank Banshee quite tolerable though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYM0kEJM8mU
And I enjoy FrankJavCee's breakdown of vaporwave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyt_87yCyNw
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 17:32:49 -0800
Subject: Re: What is Vaporwave?
From: alecwild6@gmail.com
To: coda27@hotmail.com
CC: idm@hyperreal.org
If you think Vaporwave has consisted of slowed down 80's songs since 2013, I would suggest you check out any of the popular releases from the past 2 years. Vaporwave is pretty far past that at this point
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 5:30 PM, c. jones <coda27@hotmail.com> wrote:
Vaporwave is hipster kids from the late 90's/ early 00's reminiscing over a time they didn't exist in by ironically & lazily sampling 80's hits and slowing them down so as to they're doing something new and original, when in reality they're just contributing more and more detritus to basically what's an inside joke.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2016 17:11:59 -0800
Subject: Re: What is Vaporwave?
From: alecwild6@gmail.com
To: ben@diamondste.in
CC: kit.mauldin@yahoo.com; idm@hyperreal.org
Yeah, Vaporwave is kind of weird in the sense that it was born out of an aesthetic and then evolved so much beyond it while keeping the aesthetic evolving. I've seen some really interesting discussion on what Vaporwave becoming so ambient-focused in releases like 2814 means and where we draw the lin on what is and isn't vaporwave.
The Vaporwave documentary is great but was unfortunately released before "I'll try living like this", which I and many others consider the best vaporwave release of 2015. If you haven't listened to it, give the track "Somebody Home" a listen. I truly believe that the overstimulation and grooves of that song are going to become a theme of vaporwave at some point soon.
I think the vaporwave rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than a lot of people think, but it's a very weird genre to break into.
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Ben Diamondstein <ben@diamondste.in> wrote:
I don't mind academic. From what I can tell, Vaporwave seems to have a lot of commentary attached to it, so I'm not surprised there's a lot of academic-level discussion around it.
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 4:58 PM, Christopher Mauldin <kit.mauldin@yahoo.com> wrote:
Adam Harper who writes occasionally for the Wire and Dummy Mag is kind of the vaporwave ur-guru. Obsessive and academic. His blog, in case you have a few millennia of free time to burn:
http://rougesfoam.blogspot.com/
From: Ben Diamondstein <ben@diamondste.in>
To: Idm List <idm@hyperreal.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 4:50 PM
Subject: What is Vaporwave?
In respect to the "Best of 2015" thread, I figured it may be worth bringing the Vaporwave topic to another email.
I'm fairly new to this list, so I've been hesitant to ask about Vaporwave, but it seems like something people have thoughts on.
Here's a video I found in my own research that seems to do a pretty good job describing the history of (which is actually very interesting).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdpP0mXOlWM
But again, it's kind of academic. Anyone here into Vaporwave and can explain a bit of why/what? It seems that people are generally very opinionated on it in the more well-respected music circles. Plus, it seems to have a very devout following, considering the obscurity of it. Seemingly like IDM in its infancy.
This is the song that people often reference most closely with the genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU8HrO7XuiE
Thoughts? Opinions? Bueller?
--
From the desk of Alec Wild
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From the desk of Alec Wild