Vaporwave

Vaporwave is a sample-based genre characterised by heavily processed corporate mood and background (elevator) music, though the source material also includes Pop music, Contemporary R&B, Synth Funk, Smooth Jazz, and Exotica. It typically relies on techniques found in Chopped and Screwed—that is, cutting and slowing down samples—alongside other methods like looping, glitching, pitch-bending, panning, and heavy application of reverb, often transforming the sampled material into layers of Ambient sounds. Vaporwave's earliest form was known as Eccojams, named after Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. I, one of the foundational releases for the genre. As more producers adopted the style, vaporwave became the dominant term. The name itself is a spin on the 1980s term vaporware, which described a type of software or hardware that fails to be released to the public. Vaporwave alludes to this disconnection from reality with its warped and dreamy reinterpretations of the mass media from the late 1980s and 1990s, especially the rise in popularity of personal computers. Around 2012, vaporwave greatly expanded in online communities, with James Ferraro's Far Side Virtual and Macintosh Plus's Floral Shoppe becoming defining works of the period and giving significant exposure to the style. Even as it was emerging, producers began taking vaporwave into new territories. Acts like Blank Banshee and Vaperror incorporated Trap production into atmospheric old computer library sounds and 1990s pop music samples, consequently developing the sound of Vaportrap. Saint Pepsi and Macross 82-99 pioneered a House-derived offshoot that fused French House and Nu-Disco rhythms with vaporwave aesthetics; this was eventually dubbed Future Funk. As the genre grew in popularity, artists expanded beyond its original slowed-down corporate and background music bounds while retaining the visual aesthetic, hazy atmospheres and extensive sample usage as well as the 1980s and '90s nostalgia, while often releasing their music on associated netlabels. The self-awareness and countercultural overtones of the genre fostered many microgenres and niche communities, often causing dissent among vaporwave artists. Collectively, these styles came to be recognized as part of a broader Vapor movement that continued evolving throughout the 2010s and beyond. https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/vapor...