Genre

Vaporwave

Early 2010s, entirely online (Bandcamp, Last.fm, Tumblr, 4chan); grew out of chillwave and hypnagogic pop around 2010-2012.

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About Vaporwave

Sample-based internet music that slows, loops and smears 1980s and 1990s smooth jazz, elevator music, lounge and R&B under thick reverb. It is nostalgic and dreamlike, with an ironic or satirical eye on consumer culture. Offshoots include future funk, which applies the method to disco and French house, and vaportrap.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org · Checked Oct 2026

Essential artists 7

  • 2814 · 2014–2020 · London, UK and Sterling, Ohio, US
    Duo whose Birth of a New Day (2015) drew wide critical praise and landed them on Rolling Stone's 2015 list of artists to know.
  • Blank Banshee · 2009–present · Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
    Blank Banshee 0 (2012) fused vaporwave with trap into "vaportrap", and The Fader called Blank Banshee 1 a definitive document of the vaporwave era.
  • James Ferraro · 2004–present · Rochester, New York, US
    Far Side Virtual (2011), The Wire's album of the year, is often credited with helping spark vaporwave, and he is named as a progenitor of hypnagogic pop.
  • Macross 82-99 · 2013–present · Mexico City, Mexico
    Neo Tokyo and Sailorwave (both 2013) are commonly cited, with Saint Pepsi's Hit Vibes, as the origin of future funk.
  • Oneohtrix Point Never · 2004–present · Boston, Massachusetts, US
    His 2010 tape Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 helped inspire vaporwave; he has since won the Cannes Soundtrack Award for Good Time and produced for The Weeknd.
  • Saint Pepsi · 2012–present · Farmingville, New York, US
    One of the most popular future funk artists; his 2013 album Hit Vibes is commonly cited as a starting point of the style.
  • Vektroid · 2005–present · Portland, Oregon, US
    Her Floral Shoppe (as Macintosh Plus) is considered the first album fully defining vaporwave, and she played a central role in creating and popularising the genre.

Labels, collectives & more 5

Artists tagged Vaporwave 58

The most connected 48. See them all on the scene map.

Related genres

ExperimentalWitch houseWave

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