Computer Music Is Boring, But It Doesn’t Suck

In my last blog post I talked about music that is made by computers and how in jazz or typical music genres it can degrade the quality of the music. To offer up some opposing points of view on that matter, I think that computer music does have a place on its own, specifically in a genre known as vaporwave.

I was first introduced to vaporwave this year by my fiancé, an artist and notorious nerd. At first, I thought what I was listening to (Macintosh Plus – Lisa Frank 420/Modern Computing) was an obscure artist from the 80’s. I quickly realized it was not and assumed it was a joke song until I loved it. I downloaded the full album and my family was soon cursed by Lisa Frank 420.

Vaporwave was established as a genre in early 2011. It is typically made from distinct sounds and commercials from the 80’s and 90’s or mixed from a combination of elevator music and smooth jazz. However, these sounds alone are not what create vaporwave. Vaporwave is the distinct sound of these songs and genres being slowed down, sped up, or re mixed in a “low quality” way. This is reflected by low quality, psychedelic cover art that is mixed up with memorabilia from the 80’s and 90’s including tropical backgrounds, Japanese culture, and marketed products. The genre is almost completely anonymous due to copyright reasons, and it is also the first genre to be entirely based through the internet. This makes vaporwave the first entirely globalized music.

The inherent value of vaporwave is that although it takes the most capitalistic and reminiscently consumeristic sounds from the 80’s and 90’s, take “Saint Pepsi” for example, it makes something totally different out of them. For example, a lot of this art style shows purples and neon greens. Vaporwave takes these same colors and makes them pastel, ultimately removing its context and exposing the genres tendency towards consumerism.

Beyond its original intention of exposing consumerism, it is also easy listening. The genres popularity stems from the amount of creativity within the genre as well as its audience’s enjoyment from being able to work or study while it plays. In other words, it’s catchy without being distracting. Vaporwave is good computer music because it not attempting to be any other genre. It fully embraces internet culture, has a clear message, and can be taken at face value.