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Appropriation is nothing new, but Vaporwave is

Vaporwave: a hybrid of Vaporware: A business term referring to a product which is advertised to the public but then never actually released, and the Marxist ideal of Waves of ideas, a constant repetition of ideals which are not concrete or meaningful in their philosophy. “Waves of vapor”.

An exploration of Copying, Style, Remixing and the Appropriation phenomenon using examples from Vaporwave music

Whilst remixing and reusing other people’s music is nothing new (its modern-day practice having its origins in Hip-hop and R&B and later in House and Trance genres), what makes Vaporwave different is in its origins: a once obscure and underground movement in music made possible through the existence of the internet (in particular social media sites like Reddit, Tumblr and later 4Chan’s  /music/ board), a “Digital Punk” movement if you will. What’s also new is the context in which it occurs: a  socio-cultural landscape in which  remixing, chopping, splicing and appropriating are practices that are ever so prevalent. Walter Benjamin’s anxieties surrounding the reproduction of art and its loss of genuineness could not have predicted the way in which this appropriation could become an art form in and of itself, in that through the blatant stealing of other people’s work and repackaging it as something else for free under an anonymous identity, there’s a form of protest and a movement defined by the contemporary context. 

To exemplify the different ways in which appropriating and remixing can establish various effects and convey different messages, I have taken several unique Vaporwave tracks and their respective videos, to explore how the practice of appropriation and remixing is made new and different in the Vaporwave movement, and how meanings are made new through the meta of the music itself. 

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Song: A1 Artist: Chuck Person Album: Eccojams Vol. 1 Video: Username: Lunar Panel The album that started it all, first uploaded in August 2010, Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1 is accredited for being the start of the Vaporwave genre. It was a simple joke of an album, remixing and splicing popular 80′s hits to the point of beyond recognition. However, this perfectly encapsulates the essence of Vaporwave: Irony. 

(For a short example, watch from 0:13 to 0:50)

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Song: リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー Artist:  MACINTOSH PLUS (Vektroid)  Album: Floral Shoppe Video:  Username: Sun Levi Vaporwave began as an aesthetic, its subject matter being internet culture, 80′s and 90′s pop-culture, early computer graphics, marble busts, pastel and neon colours, tropical landscapes and slow music from the 80′s and 90′s, mostly inspired by the likes of New Age and Smooth Jazz “elevator music”. However, this list would not be complete without a mention of Vektroid's (under the pseudonym Macintosh Plus’) Floral shoppe, the album that popularized the genre and has been appropriated countless times for the sake of humorous internet memes. A hallmark of early Vaporwave songs are long, drawn out and eerie notes and chords which easily make the listener feel uncomfortable.

(For a short example, watch from 1:08 to 1:51)

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Song: Veni, Vidi, Emi  Artist:  猫 シ Corp. Album:  Palm Mall  Video: Username:  KARATE KING 空手王  By changing the context in which something is presented you change the meanings and connotations attached to. Vaporwave was destined to be political due to a lack of ritual surrounding its interpretation and creation. Traditional music production is shattered and the middleman has been taken out, with anonymous artists creating seemingly thousands of quick and dirty tracks everyday, an extension of “copying and Pasting”, if you will, only to have these albums distributed for free, or for less than a dollar's value on websites such as Soundcloud and Bandcamp. Vapourwave can throw people off because in an age where everything is about the individual, all of this is anonymous.The whole thing becomes original, though it inherently isn’t, in its dizzying amateurishness.

(For a short example, watch from 0:00 to 0:50)

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Song:  Endless Escalation Artist:  Disconscious  Album:  Hologram Plaza  Video:  Username: Warhagu

What essentially started as a joke on blogging websites soon became a form of protest and a source of liberation for the young people producing and listening to these tracks. Vaporwave is very self-aware in that it is a glorification of stealing someone else’s work, repackaging it and selling it as something new. Early Vaporwave tracks oftentimes delve into the prevalent themes of globalisation, capitalism and the soul-crushing nature of neo-liberalism and postmodern consumerism. This in turn gave it the rather uncouth moniker of “meme music”, in that it is essentially the online practice of making memes made manifest into audio form. Like Internet memes, it goes against concepts of ownership, an anonymous art for anonymous people.

(For a short example, watch from 0:13 to 0:30)

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Song: Lotus Bloom Artist: Infinity Frequencies Album: Computer Death Video: Username: Ben Steed There were many changes that came to the genre as the years went by, as remixing and splicing were used to explore not just themes of globalization and capitalism, but also of android consciousness, technology and computers. Artists like Infinity Frequencies experimented with the idea, using sample sounds from software and synths.

(For a short example, watch from 0:50 to 1:05)

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Song: Neo miami Artist: Vektroid Album: Neo Cali Video: Username: Nick By contrast, Neo Cali by Vektroid explored this concept but with a more uplifting tone, representing what computers and robots can be like when fully functional and ready for use.

(For a short example, watch from 1:53 to 2:13)

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Song: AMMONIA CLOUDS Artist: Blank Banshee Album: Blank Banshee 0 Video: Username: Toby Kassulke Vaporwave was doomed to die in a pit of cynicism and apathy unless something was to change. A genre perpetuated by young people splicing and dicing tunes could only last so long before things became stale. Enter artists like Blank Banshee, who revitalized the genre with the use of trap influences. The question then became about how else an artist could use the practice of artistic appropriation to keep things innovative and fresh? (For a short example, watch from 0:12 to 0:48)

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Song:  ://start_up_seq.exe Artist: Vaperror  Album: Mana Pool  Video:  DREAM CATALOGUE™

Vaporwave production soon after evolved to become a genre professional mixers, artists and DJs could participate in as well, gaining traction in another facet of the online community with a refined sound which stayed true to Vaporwave’s original essence. 

(For a short example, watch from 1:40 to 2:07)

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Song: COME UNTO ME Artist: §E▲ ▓F D▓G§  Album: WEAK WAVES EP  Video: Username: FORTRESS Oceangrunge is a subgenre of Vaporwave that mashes digital noise with ‘90s rock akin to bands like Nirvana, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Its intention is to create jarring noise that mimics the sound of the ocean, an act of defacing the popular and conventional. Whilst strictly speaking a remix genre one must ask, has it been spliced and bastardized to the point of beyond recognition? 

(For a short example, watch from 0:30 to 0:47)

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Song:  CUMULUS FRACTUS Artist:  ECO VIRTUAL Album:  ATMOSPHERES 第1  Video:  Eco Virtual  Art is everywhere, even in places where we do not realize it is there, a saturation of audio and video. In some instances it’s so embedded into the background that we do not think about the authenticity and nature of what we are hearing or seeing at all. ECO VIRTUAL uses the example of a weather channel to bring to our attention the art that oftentimes eludes us, bringing to the foreground music which we’ve never asked as to where it came from or who made it. 

(For a short example, watch from 0:13 to 0:34)

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Song: Decay Artist: HOME Album: Odyssey Video: Username: Lucien Hughes When interrogating common ideas of remixing and appropriating music, Walter Benjamin’s question centers itself around the concept of authenticity. How authentic can a piece of music actually be if all of it comes from something stolen from another artist? Odyssey by HOME, in contrast, whilst appropriating sounds from funk and computer devices, consists of songs that are actually original, a step away from conventional Vaporwave.

(For a short example, watch from 0:26 to 1:08)

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Song:  恢复/Recovery  Artist: 2814 Album:  新しい日の誕生/Birth of a New Day Video: DREAM CATALOGUE™  Can a piece of music such as this one by 2814 be described as something manmade? The sounds are all digital and, as far as the listener is concerned, almost unnatural. Is the loneliness we create for ourselves as such as well, perhaps? Though we may be closer together physically we live in a society that fosters loneliness. 

(For short example, watch from 1:23 to 1:50)

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Song: Bae City Rollaz (w/ИΔΤVИ) Artist: YUNG BAE Album: Bae Video: Username: kevincrave One subgenre that came out of Vaporwave is Future Funk, and is arguably its most popular. Through the splicing and remixing of old Japanese pop songs Yung Bae produces a sound which is upbeat and catchy rather than droning and eerie, and combined with a stream of old Japanese commercials, creates a sense of longing and nostalgia for a time which seemed like only yesterday.

(For a short example, watch from 1:38 to 2:00)

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Song: Cherry Pepsi Artist: SAINT PEPSI Album: Hit Vibes Video: Username: David Dean Burkhart SAINT PEPSI appropriates upbeat ‘80s pop and old pepsi commercials to evoke a sense of fond but blinding nostalgia in an ironic and comical manner in this tune. The song and video are parodies of both the tone which corporations use try to sell you commodities, laden with empty promises and connotations which have nothing to do with the product itself, as well as the romanticized view contemporary Western pop-culture seems to have of the 1980s as this amazing point in time where ‘Everything was awesome’. This music video does not tear away our rose-tinted spectacles, but tightens them to an almost uncomfortable level.

(For a short example, watch from 0:36 to 1:21)

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Song:  木野 まこと  Artist:  マクロスMACROSS 82-99  Album: Sailorwave Video: Artzie Music In late 2013  マクロスMACROSS 82-99 released Sailorwave, a Future-funk album dedicated as a tribute to Japanese animation and popular culture, particularly ‘Sailor Moon’. Whilst the album did delve into themes like the plasticity and disposable nature of capitalist-produced mass popular-culture and the consumption of it, it did this more as an ironic celebration rather than a critique of it, which is captured in the catchy, upbeat samples used in its songs, which any listener can easily enjoy.

(For a short example, watch from 0:22 to 0:47)

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Song: Plastic Love Artist: Night Tempo (feat. Takeuchi Mariya) Album: Pure Baby Maker Video: Artzie Music In the later years of the movement as the genre developed further, artists like Night Tempo started taking popular songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s and, rather than splicing them to the point of something almost unrecognizable, remastered these songs with slightly increased tempos and added drums and snares, whilst still keeping the core sound of the original song in respect of the original artist. 

(For a short example, watch from 0:22 to 1:04)