Vaporwave

Originating as an internet-based microgenre, vaporwave recontextualizes the sonic detritus of late 20th-century consumer culture. It primarily utilizes manipulated, slowed, and pitch-shifted samples drawn from smooth jazz, Muzak, and R&B, often drenched in reverb and phasing effects. The aesthetic critiques and simultaneously aestheticizes corporate capitalism and retrofuturist technology, constructing a sense of hollowed-out nostalgia and digital melancholy. Its influence propagated rapidly through online communities, shaping both visual art and a new generation of sample-based electronic music before splintering into numerous sub-styles that carry its thematic DNA.