History of Vaporwave
3D Billboard for 2 Chainz live in Times Square on 47th & 7th NYC
During the early 2010s, a genre of music started becoming popular on internet forums such as Reddit and Tumblr. The genre of music was named Vaporwave. It was the first ever music category that was not originated in a discrete location or area rather it was totally created and developed online. This makes it the first ever completely globalized music genre.
The music was inspired by a merger of a lot of different fields which include the 1980s and 1990s culture, glitch art, Japanese subcultures, the origins of digital graphics, Roman figures, and a combination of new age, funk, and smooth jazz music. It all started when Daniel Lopatin who was also known by the alias Oneohtrix Point Never released an online mixtape with series of hits from the 80s that were slowed down and divided into chunks that were repeated throughout the whole song. Lopatin created it as a joke meant to be just for fun but it made an impression on the internet.
The proper first album of the genre came in late 2011 named Floral Shoppe. This contained a combination of soul and funk slowed down, cut up, and recreated to form uncomfortable, bizarre sounds that were repackaged into this album. It became popular and so did the creator Macintosh Plus who already had many other aliases releasing other similar tunes. However, these tunes created a place for themselves among people who liked bizarre 80s elevator music. One song that especially gained fame was MACINTOSH PLUS - リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュ or better known as Macintosh Plus 420 because that is only part readable to those who didn’t know Japanese at the time. However, it is translated to Computing of Lisa Frank 450 // Contemporary highlighting the Diana Ross song It's your move slowed down and repeating the same misunderstood lyric for 7 minutes.
The majority of people at the time didn’t know about Vaporwave and most people still don’t but Vaporwave didn’t die off like some other music genres. The reason why Vaporwave’s kept going is because of the idea behind it. Artists found Vaporwave as a means to take old original music and song lyrics then convert them into this unusual repetitive music that had a niche market online. Along with the wave of music, the visual art with it was also recognized. These were termed as Vaporwave Aesthetics or otherwise written as A E S T H E T I C S. Just looking at the art form gives you nostalgia from the 80s and 90s. The art style is an amalgamation of anime, cartoon, computer hardware, early digital graphics, altered reality, brand names, glitches, and Asian characters that were heavily edited with crisp edges and lines.
In terms of media distribution, Vaporwave was mostly limited to YouTube videos and series. However, like any other online trend, major corporations ironically imitated the Vaporwave Aesthetics for their marketing campaigns. Major examples of these are Retail Archaeology and Dan Bell’s Dead Mall Series. Another industry that got on to the bandwagon of Vaporwave is the Lifestyle and Fashion industry. Vaporfashion was a real trend in the day, giant companies like Nike got in on the Vaporwave themed clothing along with other less known brands like Vapor95 and Neon Talk. These companies used the Vaporwave Aesthetic designs and art styles on their shoes, tracksuits, and other items in their lineup to cash in on the Vaporwave trend. Not only that, but many video games at the time also used Vaporwave themed backgrounds and music. Best known examples are Broken Reality and Mall Quest. However, we can list out countless other such games as well.
Vaporwave may have a fair share of enthusiasts and a pretty good fanbase but even now many people still have no idea what Vaporwave is. Whatever the case may be, we at Blunt Action want this art style and aesthetic to grow in popularity. More recognition should be given to the first ever fully globalized music and art style. Hence why developers here at Blunt Action are really inspired by the trend of Vaporwave and the Vaporwave Aesthetics. We have several projects in which we utilize the Vaporwave art style. Some of these projects include Sabrina Carpenter’s visuals for Good Morning America and the Branding Designs for Vualá Sorpresa. We invite you to browse the projects section on our website and also check out our Instagram for more of our work on Vaporwave and Vaporwave Aesthetics.