Written by: Lyhan Maldonado
Many people argue they shouldn’t have given their children access to the internet at a young
age, but I disagree. In retrospective, I find it surprising that I was able to spend most of my
days outside riding bikes, climbing trees and throwing toys with my neighbors, and then
getting home to play with toys and surf on the web with my parents Acer laptop; Windows
XP was the new thing back then.
I remember being very young. I’m not able to really pinpoint what age, but I was probably
less than 12 years old. I scrolled through the most American parts of YouTube through my
Samsung Galaxy S4 with some cheap wired headphones. I can’t tell you what video I
encountered, but I know it was a meme. From the aux chord to my eardrums “リサフランク
420 / 現代のコンピュー.” I didn’t know what it was, but I still illegally downloaded the
song.
Floral Shoppe is the purest of internet sensations. It spread online as a meme. The joke was
editing its album cover with other characters and adding its music to absurd videos. They
weren’t particularly funny then and even less now, but it started to brew something
interesting on the internet. No one seems to agree when the genre started; some argue it
started with Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1, released in 2010, others say it’s Devon
Hendryx’s DREAMCAST SUMMER SONGS, recorded earlier around 2007 and 2009. These
two artists will later enjoy fruitful carriers under the names Oneohtrix Point Never and
JPEGMAFIA. Either way, the “hype” was caused by Macintosh Plus (or Vektroid).
I don’t think there’s a genre more disregarded as joke than Vaporwave. For years, the
discourse surrounding it has been completely shut down by a simple phrase: “so vaporwave is
just taking existing songs and slowing them down?” A comment like this, posted 9 years ago,
has gathered over 16 thousand likes. While yes, Vaporwave does utilize sampling music from
multiple eras, it goes beyond “just slowing them down.” It repurposes songs by splitting,
mashing, and modifying their pitch, instruments, and mixing. Think about it: are paintings
just color? Are songs just vibrations in the air? Are books really just words? We know they’re
more than that. You could argue “リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー” and Diana Ross’
“It’s Your Move” are the same song, but they both have their own unique listening
experiences.
How could someone listen to death’s dynamic shroud’s eccentric album I’ll Try Living Like
This and think it is “just stealing from other songs?” How could someone listen to haunting
yet beautiful works of t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 and claims they’re “just songs slowed
down?” How could someone ignore the virality of George Clanton’s “Warmpop” and claim
there’s no interest in vaporwave anymore?
Of course, I write this while next to my desk lies more than a dozen vaporwave records, as if
the reason why my closet can’t fully close isn’t the framed 24″ x 36″ death’s dynamic shroud
signed poster that I just can’t seem to know where to hang, in the same room I spent an entire
summer listening to a 16 hours of Virtual Dream Plaza. It may seem extraordinary, but at
least a couple more thousand people have done the same. Jokes don’t last particularly long,
but this music has been alive for more than a decade. If vaporwave is still considered a
meme, then it is the reel I never scrolled past.
Featured Image Caption: Vaporwave is NOT a meme.
