Just listened to this because youtube recc'd me some Fantano wannabe's video essay on "signalwave". I know this album is old as shit and vaporwave is past dead but after listening to this for a few minutes I just have to say, what a fucking waste, not just this album, but the genre in general.
Made me feel that Vaporwave is a really sad genre, at least as far as the better quality albums and artists in the genre. You have some decent composers and producers who ruin what could have just been good MIDI module / sample based music, by filling it with memes and references to commercials for no reason. There's no reason that the vaporwave sound has to be associated with commercials or memes, it's really just the sound of gear from a certain era. The inclusion of all the meme bullshit comes off to me as a kind of cowardly irony-armor. A way of creating an out for the artist to say "oh yeah.. heh.. I was just joking man like... it's not that serious I mean it's full of memes after all it's 'just a meme'" if their music is criticized (or more likely a way of hiding from their own internal criticism of their work). You see it in tons of artists with the inability to be really serious. In the case of vaporwave I'd guess most artists are insecure about the sound of the gear, and the soft, pastel vibe of the music they're making, so they make fun of exactly those things and pretend that they're ironic.
tl;dr vaporwave is actually just another outgrowth of the same artistic cowardice that produced !!ZANY WACKY!! shit like Faith No More, Bill Wurtz, Zappa, and others.
Concerning this album, there's decent ambient music here, with some genuinely good moments with cool textures and nice harmonies, and then two seconds later, the audio from some fucking youtube meme or commercial comes in (yes I know that's the vaporwave thing, that's what I'm criticizing in this post), completely breaking whatever emotional space had been created and ruining your experience. Imagine you're listening to a nice folk song and in the middle of the song the artist stops playing and says "remember that youtube video of that kid stuttering on Reading Rainbow?" and then resumes playing. The memes and commercial usage (when they are recognizable and not just used as audio material for actually composing music) clumsily slapped here and there throughout the tracks destroy everything the artist creates over and over again within the 10 or so minutes I listened to this incredibly frustrating album.
Jonathan Lopez
This album is amazing, albeit sloppy at points. Absolutely euphoric at other times.
Vaporwave is not dead, btw.
Gabriel Hall
You can't argue that it wouldn't be better if he got rid of all the meme/advertisement shit and just kept the music. The aesthetics and referential bullshit of the genre are completely unnecessary and substantially detract from the music. The only reason for it is cowardice and jumping on a bandwagon / trying to market your shit by being part of a movement.
Isaiah Anderson
>There's no reason that the vaporwave sound has to be associated with commercials or memes, it's really just the sound of gear from a certain era. The inclusion of all the meme bullshit comes off to me as a kind of cowardly irony-armor. A way of creating an out for the artist to say "oh yeah.. heh.. I was just joking man like... it's not that serious I mean it's full of memes after all it's 'just a meme'" if their music is criticized (or more likely a way of hiding from their own internal criticism of their work). You see it in tons of artists with the inability to be really serious.
Totally agree with this part, btw. I disagree that this applies to vaporwave as a whole, there are those that take what their doing with sincerity. I wouldn't say that [irony] is a function of the genre, or the scene, either.
Christian Martin
i was going to write something about how vaporwave is really two things that get confused with eachother: slowjam fetishism and midi fetishism, but i am retarded. instead do not ask me anything and just listen to this album
Yeah that misapprehension of the idea is annoying, there are a lot that think it's just this surface idea when really (and not in a pretentious way) it's sort of multi-faceted in that it isn't necessarily about the aesthetic representation but using that very thing and idea as a vehicle to invoke genuine moments that are both nostalgia and novelty. The novelty being the structure of the song as a portrait of the artist via a particular selection and repetition of parts. As well as a slew of other things that are implied in this process such as the enhancing of cultural context and feeling, re contextualizing, deconstructing, glitch caverns, the hypnotic quality of digital ephemera/worlds, or even blowing it apart completely, they all evoke a singular quality that is embedded in the style of the process, and this unifies vaporwave but also hinders it, in a way. There is an edge to which these things can be explored, the way say, dekooning or pollock, or picasso found a bleeding edge in abstract expressionism.
Jacob Sullivan
saw that video too. to me the dude seems really fucking pretentious, just as the rest of the circlejerk vaporwave community. "oh look, ive pitched down this 80s song, doesnt that sound amazing, now buy my album on bandcamp that entirely consits of stolen music.
i havent given this album a shot yet, because i really dislike the whole pretentious and self-righteous vibe of the vaporwave "community".
there was one guy in the comments that recommended boards of canada to him and he was like (the dude who made the video): "boards of canada is an artist i wanted to look into for a while but didnt have the chance yet" or sth. along those lines.
meanwhile the dude reviewed or listened to like 100+ vaporwave albums. what a söyboy, doesnt listen to sound design and creative masters like boc who do all of their stuff on their own, but feels the need to create this shitty vaporwave echochamber on youtube.
fuck him and fuck vaporwave. i will still give this album a shot, because his description, ill admit it, made me curious. but i suspect this might be paid marketing/shilling orchestrated by the artist.
Jaxson Allen
>I don't like this so it is just bad
Jacob Johnson
>im too retarded to read a post and answer to the points made so i just write brainlet oneliner that completely misses the point
Ayden Ortiz
You're trying too hard. >found a bleeding edge That's not how the term "bleeding edge" works. It just means "the newest thing". Stop trying to sound smart. No one gives a shit about your conceptual blah blah high-art brow hand-waving. I guarantee you that 99.999999% of the people who like your music / the music of any vaporwave artist, like it because they like the way it sounds, not because of some conceptual poopoo.
Jonathan Jones
Just because you get mad when someone else makes an effort, doesn't make you right. Lol you won't address anything mentioned despite not contributing anything other than "boc is good because original" which I agree with anyway. If anything you're just uneducated - that's your own problem. You should probably find some good albums to listen to.
John Foster
Also, if you knew what I was referencing in regards to an edge - and I listed their names - you'd know what to say.
there are no points. you dislike the youtuber - great, no disagreement you think boc is great - no disagreement
>fuck him and fuck vaporwave >circlejerk vaporwave community >oh look, ive pitched down this 80s song, doesnt that sound amazing, now buy my album on bandcamp that entirely consits of stolen music. >i really dislike the whole pretentious and self-righteous vibe of the vaporwave "community".
you sound like a child lol fuck right off with your banal shitposts
Charles Ward
Climbing The Corporate Ladder fuckin' slaps though
Noah Barnes
I'm OP. not the angry poster who hates vaporwave. I just thought your post was extremely pretentious and it's actually much simpler than anything youre describing. people like things that sounds good. Vaporwave has the potential to make some good sounds, so people like some of it. That's it. No conceptual poopoo.
Hunter Gonzalez
I could care less that you feel anything at all. I spoke my mind and articulated an idea, and some thoughts.
no one disagrees that good sounds are good. That doesn't imply that there arent things to be thought about - you just are choosing not to think about it, which is cool too - and as a reminder i merely spoke my mind. your contribution has really amounted to nothing more than a bunch of angry posturing and basically trying to bottleneck the conversation but again, that's your problem.
Also I find it hilarious that you insist on conceding to being so one dimensional, maybe just accept that different people like things for different reasons? Unless you just came here to shit talk
also youre samefagging
Jaxon Anderson
you sound like a child because i havent heard any argument from you so far. banal shitposts blablabla. great arguing faggot.
the point is that this dude made it his life mission to review vaporwave albums (which seems more like shilling them judging from that video). vaporwave in and of itself is just stolen music. thats it. thats what the whole genre is based on. sorry if that doesnt impress me.
yes i think its pretentious to praise that trash while having never heard of boards of canada.
but yeah now youre referencing your post here i can see where youre coming from. youre the most pretentious cunt ive ever seen. its all pseudointellectual blabla trying to justify stealing 80s music and adding reverb and calling that high art by using fancy pretentious buzzwords. so youre just a """"""""misunderstood"""""""" butthurt vaporwave """""""""""""""""""""""artist""""""""""""""""""""""""""" gotcha!
Colton Foster
see
Liam Lopez
holy shit you're insecure. I made one post criticizing your obvious tryhard pseud post. Fucking calm down.
David Gonzalez
you can't make a post without cursing. whos a child and whos insecure? maybe try articulating your self better, and you might get along with other people better
Benjamin Cruz
i can't wait to come back in the morning and attempt to understand who the asshole is here
Jordan Powell
>you can't make a post without cursing >you sound like a child lol fuck right off with your banal shitposts yeah imagine being as deluded as this guy lmao
Eli Green
>oh dear >mummy!!! mummy!! >he's cuuuuuhhhhhsing mummy!!!! oh deaaaahhhhh he's cuuuuuhsing mummy! please stop him!!!! Are you actually the pseud who made the video essay? Lol what's wrong with you?
Cameron Morgan
>seems really fucking pretentious, just as the rest of the circlejerk vaporwave community
>enhancing of cultural context and feeling, re contextualizing, deconstructing, glitch caverns, the hypnotic quality of digital ephemera/worlds, or even blowing it apart completely, they all evoke a singular quality that is embedded in the style of the process, and this unifies vaporwave but also hinders it, in a way. >dekooning or pollock >picasso found a bleeding edge in abstract expressionism
thats what i meant by pretentious vaporwave community btw ;^)
William Campbell
nice you found the one line. i knew you'd hunt for it - its not like you are actually arguing, and its not like 99% of your other posts aren't riddled with lame ad homs --
you're just angry... just admit it, you didn't come here to discuss anything you just came here because you wanted to be "right"
and that's why this thread will die, and why your shameful /samefagging/ will do the same to probably many other threads
Cooper Anderson
Care to elaborate instead of just using implied green text and being lazy about it? I have to assume if I made the effort to explain my position further, you'd just trash it anyway - but to be honest the reading comprehension seems lost on you if you cant understand it anyway.
basically you don't have to assert how smart you are by downplaying your inability to understand others. sounds like a real personal problem. something your shit posting wont fix im afraid lol
Camden Garcia
>lame ad homs oh look, the intellectual vaporwave professor is pulling out his book of logical fallacies to try to win his sinking argument. i can do that too btw: >you're just angry... just admit it, you didn't come here to discuss anything you just came here because you wanted to be "right" has nothing to do with the argument at hand, your dodging the points >nice you found the one line. i knew you'd hunt for it - its not like you are actually arguing, and its not like 99% of your other posts aren't riddled with lame ad homs but you ARE arguing right? so calling me out for cursing but doing it yourself is fine? also how do i have to hunt for it, were having a discusission here, and that involves me READING your POSTS you FUCKING MORON. lmao.
>and that's why this thread will die, and why your shameful /samefagging/ will do the same to probably many other threads not an argument, burden of proof of samefagging is on you retard. thats like saying yeah god exists you cant disprove it so it must be true.
youre just a retard mate, and confirmed every prejudice ive had about vaporwave fans.
Joseph Perez
you've derailed the thread so bad, you don't even know what you're arguing about.
If you're not interested in the intellectual discussion, and the realm of it in association with vaporwave, then what are you here for other than to trash it and say that there can be no intellectual discussion about it?
you either
>a. think there is nothing authentically "deep" (by your standards) that can be said about vaporwave
>b. you have some axe to grind against the "psuedo intellectuals"
b., being especially appalling because you're acting the exact opposite of someone intelligent by just throwing around a bunch of insults and failing to engage the conversation in a friendly way. So instead of actually trying to confront or pick apart anything I'm saying, you resort to name calling and using "pretentious" as your common denominator, which I have to say is very lazy of you.
I stated a number of things you could have talked to me about, but instead you insisted that I level with your rather disappointing post which didn't have any substance to begin with to be honest.
>i havent given this album a shot yet >self-righteous vibe > just as the rest of the circlejerk vaporwave community.
...like this is hardly anything worth starting a conversation over, not even because youre being negative, just because you're not really saying anything - you just are whining.
you're just a big baby
Angel Hall
vaporwave threads are simultaneously the worst and best threads on Yea Forums
Zachary Butler
this post is way too long to be bait I hope it is though, otherwise it'd just be sad
Landon Gray
Holy fucking projection. I did not expect this thread to be so good. If anyone wants to on-topic post again, that would be cool too.
Ethan King
>you've derailed the thread so bad, you don't even know what you're arguing about.
ive stated my opinion on the genre as a whole and why i dislike it, i was even referencing the video and the guy who made it. if thats "derailing a discussion" for you, im gonna tell you a secret: the nature of discussion is, that they might deviate a bit and that people will state their opinions.
>conversation in a friendly way this is Yea Forums m8, not reddit.
also yes youre right actually. it does make me angry. i AM angry because of vaporwave. and heres why: ive been making music myself for a long time. ive played several instruments. its hard to get an audience these days, even if youre trying to be original. meanwhile your average vaporwave artist just slams together a few 80s samples and radio intermissions and calls it some new memegenre name (like """"signalwave""") and boom there you have it, multiple thousands of views and the circlejerk party begins.
i get what youre trying to convey. nostalgia this nostalgia that. criticism of consumerism blablabla. dude i know stuff about vaporave. but there doesnt need to be a billion iterations of the same idea. the idea has been conveyed now. its done. now its just stealing 80s music.
James Wright
no.
Gabriel Gomez
I have gone all the way to 2019 without listening to vaporwave, I'm going to listen to this blind, wish me luck
Jace Brooks
>Fantano wannabe's video essay on "signalwave" >what a fucking waste, not just this album, but the genre in general. >Vaporwave is a really sad genre >vaporwave in and of itself is just stolen music. thats it.
point in case. you don't actually want to discuss anything you're just too simple minded to want to even have friendly, open minded discussion with someone who thinks differently than you. if you're so dead set in your perspective, there's no point in even discussing it? But why start a whole thread if not to have discussion?
If I had to give you another chunk of what I think to chew on, despite already writing something out that you reduced to a one line response/insult, you'll just respond in the same way. For example, I made a reference to painting. Have you heard of Dadaism? why don't you have a look at the pic related and just, I dunno, consider it, then disregard it again if you want. I'm not asking you to like it. I'm not saying you even have to like it. This isn't about reddit or Yea Forums. it's about the words on the screen and the things being said.
The fact remains that there are reasons for people liking things. I dont care that you don't like my reasoning. it doesn't by way of you having an opinion make it invalid or without merit. I get that you don't believe that those things that people enjoy about it are objective. in a sense you are right because people enjoy music mostly for what it simply appears to be. but by your logic vaporwave degraded because it became too accessible. I agree. If you can see the parallell in abstract art then you understand what I mean. There are some good abstract pieces, but there is a lot of bad ones. A lot. Main reason is accessibility. Same thing with punk music. So this conversation could go on. it's not a matter of vaporwave being deep specifically, you could get deep about anything... and some think thats wankery. your world.
>tl;dr my definition of vaporwave is objectively the right one Except it's not and everything you say is literally your opinion made to sound like fact.
Leo Gutierrez
It's "case in point". Pseud game needs work. Also, not sure if you're clear on this but you're replying to more than one person. And there's more than one dirty, filthy curser in this thread.
Christian Garcia
I have no idea how you got that from my post but holy shit vaporwave fans are incredibly easily triggered. Are they all like this? Is this thread a fluke?
Ryder Long
you can jerk me off all night but what I really want to know is are you going to make me cum?
Cameron Thomas
why is everyone on this site so afraid of sincerity? is your whole life a living walking post-ironic hell? like this guy, dodgy mckgee overhere playing now you see me now you dont. got any arguments kiddo?
David Edwards
The whole point of this thread is that I wish vaporwave artists would stop relying on ironic mememing and just make sincere music. How are you so confused? Try treading everything again.
Lucas Lopez
first off stop treating multiple guys as the same guy. that would help your arguing. iam this guy: and you still didnt engage with my points. mainly stated here:
Lucas Cruz
the discussion started off fine, until I expressed my feelings. Then (you) exploded lol.
so if I had to simplify, then yes i would agree - but at the same time there are people doing things like that sincerely and even outside of "plundering" as you said -
which yea, that's true, it's stolen. dadaism and collage worked the same way - people complained about the same things. dadaism led to cubism led to abstract expressionism and so on.. my point? if you need something that better explains the so called "cultural context" of vaporwave MY suggestion would be to look at art movements that parallel it. Otherwise all of the
>intellectual gobbeldy gook
wont matter one iota. Generally I think these intellectual-isms are just fun after thoughts. So I don't get why this has to be an argument really. I can't sit here and convince you that it's about some philosophical stuff if on the one hand a lot of people just dont get into it for those reasons. Daniel Lopatin coined the term "ecco jams" and that is really what a "vaporwave" song is - and Daniel stated, in his interview that it was just this fun thing that he liked to do, and encouraged others to do.
I totally get your grievances, and I think that its a shame for musicians in the instrument sense.But can we really say that there is no artistry, or even deeper meaning especially when someone approaches a medium, any medium with sincerity? My honest opinion is just to adapt and innovate. I don't think vaporwave as an idea has yet to reach where it could really go, and have always wondered about musical groups with instruments that could preform in this glitchy style without the use of sampling. There are possibilities. James ferraro comes to mind. Vaporwave to me isn't about "intellectualisms" but something else, a feeling, which I explained here I think those that get that will make music that reflects those qualities and step away from it because something better will evolve out of it. I
Brayden Collins
You're still responding to the wrong person. Is this your first day?
William Mitchell
I totally and completely forgot about nmesh. Holy shit. Thanks.
Joseph Green
why not address what you think is relevant instead of being pedantic ?
Blake Wilson
>I totally get your grievances, and I think that its a shame for musicians in the instrument sense.But can we really say that there is no artistry, or even deeper meaning especially when someone approaches a medium, any medium with sincerity? My honest opinion is just to adapt and innovate. I don't think vaporwave as an idea has yet to reach where it could really go, and have always wondered about musical groups with instruments that could preform in this glitchy style without the use of sampling.
care to give feedback on my album once it's finished? im the frustrated musician. i do work with glitches and nostalgia elements but almost no samples. would be really cool if you would give feedback on it. all free of course. if yes contact me here: [email protected] or discord: PaxMayne#1252
