The music theory of V A P O R W A V E
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ต.ค. 2016
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Timbre’s effect on Emotional Response and Memory in music
oicrm.org/wp-content/uploads/2...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Phenomenology of Music
uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcon...
Esquire article on Vaporwave
www.esquire.com/entertainment/...
Kmart Collection of Vaporwave Stuff
archive.org/details/attention...
archive.org/details/KmartWeek...
Some not bad vaporwave I enjoyed
blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/
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Peace,
Adam - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
*M I C R O W A V E*
lol
R A D I O W A V E
f i f t h w a v e o f f e m i n i s m
W H Y. D O E S N T. THE. WAVES. STOP. COMING. STEVE.
M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M M
"Anyone could have done it. Yeah, but Macintosh Plus did." These were the words I helped me more in music than you realize.
That is honestly a very "to the heart of the matter" line about art. I love it.
It's bizarre...........I've been playing, writing, recording music for 20 years now. I'm 37 and feel a bit stuck in a rut in terms of just repeating myself too much. I need to get back to that feeling I have when I was younger and honestly...less informed in terms of theory. This video really clicked with me. And it made me delve into the whole vaporwave music terrain. Interesting journey. I think there's much to learn from it. Case in point: THIS song(the one at the end)...it's incredible. Very musically interesting. I wish more vaporwave was like this. This song doesn't simply take a song and slow it down. It takes a piece of audio that carries a certain "feeling" ....and then they warp it...and then they _expound_ on that theme and go in all sorts of interesting musical directions. Yet...there's something kinda pop about this. It's simple...but so interesting _sounding._
Honestly...Adam exploring vaporwave really fucked my brain up, in a good way. It's got me thinking about music entirely differently.
Yeah...a smart way for modern untalented "musicians" to do "art"...
Exactly. Anyone could have written "I wanna hold your hand"... but the Beatles DID it.
It’s the musical version of Marcel Duchamps “Fountain” a urinal turned on it’s side starting what we know as modern art
so, take a tune:
Slow it down: vaporwave
Speed it up: nightcore
got it
If you slow it more you make it become dark ambient.
No
Vaporwave adds stuff
Wait... Does that mean that "normal" music can be considered a combination of the two? Vaporcore or nightwave: The doubly ironic genre consisting of unmodified music.
@@exedeath And if you speed it more becomes speedcore lol
@@PainSled lol
Vaporwave is the most meta THING in existence. At this point what is vaporwave? A meme? A genre of music? A movement? An enlightened way of thinking? It’s amazing!!!
..the dialectical relationship between the means of production and the cultural expression of the proletariat
@@watsonunlimitedmusic Communism. You're saying saying it's communism. Or maybe it's just a bi-monthly curated box of snacks
trash
@@LordHondros I was about to say that hahah, yeah it looks like something communists would appreciate
Vaporwave is an attempt to capture the nostalgia of the consumerist world's settings and sounds in the way that we experienced them as young children, before we paid attention to any of it. It's an exploration of "letting go" when confronted with information overload, where the subjects don't matter, because they are either beyond our understanding or remarkably beyond our control.
Vaporwave strikes me as the musical equivalent of pop art, with a lot of the same arguments coming from both its fans & its critics. In the end, whether it's Warhol painting Campbell's soup cans or Macintosh Plus slowing down a Diana Ross song, it may not connect with you or seem like 'real art', but it certainly leaves an impression and makes some clear statements and IMO that's what art is really about.
I'd never thought of it that way before, but I feel like that's so accurate.
If you want to make statements, go into politics.
John Maloney, well said.
thank you
yoooooo
Your Arizona green tea turned into a Fiji water at the end...
It was so
_i r o n i c_
Pretty sure he did that on purpose, because the label was very well aligned with the camera as to be as legible as possible.
T HE E s t e TI C S
How does one notice that
He switched at 9:10
I don't care if it's a joke, or if it's lazy. I love the way it makes me feel. Not all vaporwave songs are as simple as slowing a song down. The one you mentioned has other things done to it. Various parts that loop, and skip, and all kinds of things to give you that old vhs type feel. Call me ridiculous, but I take vaporwave seriously. joke or not.
oh you're the guy who made that video about vaporwave, hi
based
sampling really takes a lot more skill than most people realize
What is vaporwave? Vaporwave is
_s e x t o t h e e a r s_
TylersYTgaming ???
Janusz Reguła LoL
NIPPLETON SHUT UP THE FUCK UP PLEASE
it just hiphop. plain old hip hop.
i thought it was asmr
I discovered vaporwave post-meme and love it unironically.
i'm of the generation that liked MADs and stuff like ran ran ruu, as well as youtube poops... maybe it's just due to me getting used to that beforehand, but at least with the samples adam showed, i can say ienjoy it unironically too.
i always thought vaporwave meant that kind of music you'd hear in a game like out run, this was my first time actually listening to true vaporwave.
best thing is, in many of his samples, i had no clue what the sound bites were from, especially his own.(da heck is kmart? i thought it was just a the market of apu in the simpsons...)
Shaun Dreclin eww furry
I love that 'literally anyone could do that' applied as a criticism to music.
Literally anyone can learn to play the guitar. I could teach anyone - literally anyone - to play some guitar in a very short space of time. To play it well would be another matter.
Same with sample based music. Literally anyone can do it. Doing it well is a totally different matter.
(great video by the way)
The same goes for modern visual art.
"Oh, I could totally just throw paint on a canvas like Pollock."
"- But, you didn't."
fuuuck blew my mind
Anders Panders
_Literally_ anyone?
I guess you could always find some extreme example where someone couldn't like say someone who didn't have the use of any of their limbs or was paralyzed from the neck down ...
... but aside from that kind of case I've seen a guy on You tube who didn't have any feet playing slide guitar like an absolute boss. Its one of the most impressive things I ever saw on here. Django Rheinhardt (arguably the greatest guitar player ever to have been recorded) learned to play guitar after an accident when two of the fingers on his left hand (the fretting hand) were fused together in a fire ...
Really my point was that for the vast majority of people anybody who is willing to put in the time to learn to play guitar can do so, and I reckon that is true. Its not some mysterious thing that is limited to only people who magically have some poorly defined thing called 'talent' or something like that. Its just a skill that you learn like any other skill.
There's a style of Japanese music called 'City Pop' which has recently had kind of a surge in popularity with western music fans because uh... the youtube algorithm started recommending Mariya Takeuchi's 'Plastic Love' to everybody??? for some reason??? regardless, a lot of vaporwave artists use city pop tracks as the basis for their plunderphonics (I know that Macaross 82-99 used a Takahashi Kadomatsu track just... completely unedited in one of their albums dfgdsf) and I think a lot of people approach it as the kind of corporate pop kinda music that vaporwave tends to make use of, and I thought that for a while when I started listening to it, but I've since come to think that - at least for a period - its project is somewhat similar to what vaporwave would be doing later.
Theres this album by an artist called Hiroshi Satoh called 'This Boy' (apparently a compilation album?) and it demonstrates it really well imo: th-cam.com/video/yFdSQACtewI/w-d-xo.html
If you listen to it, its clearly doing western pop stuff, but its making references to all different kinds of western pop. There are bits that are close to doo-wop type stuff, american songbook type stuff, surf rock stuff, and then theres power ballads & whatever, and disco, and its all melted down into this over-the-top early 80s synth pop style. Realizing it had this very 'close reading' of western pop made me think, 'hold on... is this art?' A lot of the songs are in english, and the lyrics are a lot of the time total nonsense - really meaningless! but they lyrics are like, haphazardly assembled western pop cliches, 'c'mon baby', 'for your love', 'make you satisfied', 'the futures in your mind', etc. It's appropriating western pop in that sort of way. I can't imagine how it must have sounded to a japanese listener in the early 80s, and I imagine there was some kind of cultural dialogue that was happening which is inaccessible to me - to some extent I cannot really listen to the music Hiroshi Satoh was making, because what he was making was - as you say re: vaporwave - more than the chords & scales, but that musical meaning is lost in translation.
Satoh's first album, btw, was called "Super Market"
Satoh's great! Love his album 'Awakenings' with Wendy Williams. Adam should do a video on CityPop. I bet it would get a lot of views, and expose many new people to great music that we should have had access to a long time ago.
HERE YOU GO. CASIOPEA.
th-cam.com/video/vKOekWuzk3o/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/7pvgHSVwMqQ/w-d-xo.html
Macross 82-99 is Mexican lol
@@GuitarHII oh I was just saying they were a later vaporwave (adjacent?) artist who sampled the japanese city pop stuff
Anri is Bae
8:09 I could taste that Arizona once you cracked it open
Nothing tastes like Arizona! Especially when it’s brewed in New Jersey! 😎
To the people who keep telling me to watching this video. I AM WATCHING!
+samuraiguitarist sigh...its a shitty internet genre that I glorify in this 11 minute exercise in sophistry. Enjoy, I guess!
I actually thought that song was really cool. But I'm not sure if there's some meme going around but I keep getting comments "have you watched Adam Neely's vaporwave video". Now I can say yes.
I had to dig through comments for twenty minutes, but I found it.
Perhapssss. But it does ring a ding on the sub consciences, eh?
starrider 1983 fuck you
so basically vaporwave does to music what Andy Warhol did to art?
uuuuuuuuh hahahaha roasted!
Pretty much exactly that, yes.
What is serious music? What does that even mean? If you don't find it entertaining that's one thing but it isn't any less musical than King Crimson or the 12 cellists of the Berlin Philharmonica.
I definitly approve your argument, as a die hard Crimson fan. Music is indifferent to personal taste or reason, and beyond seriousness and entertainment .Look at it as sounds, organized a certain way, that makes you feel certain feelings.
+tf2exe
Which is exactly what Pop art, and now vaporwave, does. Destroys and redefines. Art is no longer capturing the beauty of the world around you through a medium, it is about eliciting emotions and thought from the patron. Emotions are so easily created that modern art can be as lazy as it wants to be. You'll digress that there was no effort put into the piece, and boom, it is elicited an emotion, and the setting will frame you think about why you even care about the artist's efforts anyway. Modern art and Vaporwave blur the lines between ironic and sincere. Is it all just a circlejerk, or is it truly art in its own way?
4 Years late here but I've come around to thinking of Vaporwave as a modern Gothic aesthetic. Gothic took the iconography of and celebrated the downfall of the Victorian age. Vaporwave is doing the same of ultra consumerist capitalism.
Shane T I believe Contrapoints mentioned that in her “Opulence” video. I find that comparison super interesting
Gothic happened before the Victorian age lol
@@horizon5417 "her"
Gothic is a medieval style from 700 years before the Victorian era. You're thinking of neo-Gothic and that isn't what it was about either
Naota Kun yeah. I don’t see the problem here.
I love how the "great artist's steal" adage is still attributed every famous artist. In Pirates of Silicon Valley it was Picaso, here it's Stavinsky, in other places it's Tennyson or Faulkner. All the above mentioned people have actually used some variation on the quote, so great artists actually have stolen that quote in particular.
meta
Title of vid sounds like a college course at a prestigious university in the year 2030
Vsauce for science
3Blue1Brown for math
Adam Neely for music
Nico Ayala *PBSSpacetime for Science
Haha lol yes
Nico Ayala numberphile for math
jared dines for entertainment
music is win for technique
and rob scallon for expericing
Nico Ayala Bob Ross for Art
in the end your music was more like P R O G W A V E
V A P R G W A V E
@@mk_rexx - 【ＶＡＰＲＯＧＷＡＶＥ】
I once found a 20-ish year old Walkman at home. It hadn’t been used for at least 15 years. I tried to turn it on, which worked to my surprise, however the Backstreet Boys tape that played was extremely slowed down to the point of unintelligibility.
But I kept it on, and it sloooowly picked up speed. The result was basically vaporwave until it had reached normal playback speed after about 15 minutes. Since it was an old tape of mine, with outdated music in an outdated format, it became weirdly nostalgic to me. That experience made me embrace the _A E S T H E T I C_ in a new way. I’m guessing the original idea behind vaporwave came from a similar anecdote.
I think all the Wikipedia descriptions of vaporwave being a serious critique on consumer culture are more or less post-hoc attributions by people trying to make it into more than it actually is. I think vaporwave is an earnest, salacious expression of the notalgia of a generation raised on TV and dial up Internet.
So true.
LOL, vaporwave is what happens when a person lacks the talent to make their own music but smart enough to realize youtube won't take their video down for copyright infringement if they change the speed of the song.
Kill TV I think you hit the nail in the head. Those descriptions are trying to make Vaporwave seem more than it is or "Justify it", while it just isn't needed.
+boxcar swahzey Well you could say that about anyone who makes any kind of derivative work, and that's even assuming all Vaporwave is derivative (it's not). Most if not all big Vaporwave artists that I know of can and have made music of their own but choose to make Vaporwave for the same exact reason that everybody else does: they like the way it sounds. Just like how Andy Warhol completely had the talent to paint his own original things but chose to paint Campbell's soup cans because that's what spoke to him.
Kill TV Totally agree, and I fucking love it.
ＷＥＬＣＯＭＥ Ｋ-ＭＡＲＴ ＳＨＯＰＰＥＲＳ
as someone who relishes in vaporwave, retrowave, synthwave and all the waves, for me it's nothing to do with the nostalgia, i was born in the uk in the mid 90s, and half of the references, especially american ones go right over my head. the thing with timbre goes so much deeper. It's almost like lofi hiphop, sure on face value a lot of it sounds so samey, but you know when it's good, you can hear the craftsmanship in sampling, mixing, various effects, all that. and the rest is just a meme.
but i wish the 'purists' who love one and hate the other (referring to vapor/synth/retrowave again) would just admit they're all doing the same thing, of invoking an oversaturated impression of "nostalgia" just for different periods of music
I was it the 21st century but I somehow get nostalgic listening to vapor wave (btw I love future funk a lot)
It's bizarre...........I've been playing, writing, recording music for 20 years now. I'm 37 and feel a bit stuck in a rut in terms of just repeating myself too much. I need to get back to that feeling I have when I was younger and honestly...less informed in terms of theory. This video really clicked with me. And it made me delve into the whole vaporwave music terrain. Interesting journey. I think there's much to learn from it. Case in point: THIS song(the one at the end)...it's incredible. Very musically interesting. I wish more vaporwave was like this. This song doesn't simply take a song and slow it down. It takes a piece of audio that carries a certain "feeling" ....and then they warp it...and then they _expound_ on that theme and go in all sorts of interesting musical directions. Yet...there's something kinda pop about this. It's simple...but so interesting _sounding._
Honestly...Adam exploring vaporwave really fucked my brain up, in a good way. It's got me thinking about music entirely differently.
I get where you’re coming from. I have all these musical ideas but I doubt them and discard them almost immediately. It’s a habit I’m trying to get out of.
Cheers
Good analysis! I love your open mindedness and ability to think creatively and insightfully about this seemingly shallow type of music. I'm fairly ignorant about Vaporwave but I do listen to a lot of Synthwave. It seems to me that they both share similar traits. Both incorporate 80's and 90's nostalgia into the music. They both have strong retro aesthetic visuals as well. Whereas Synthwave is more musically diverse and celebratory with it's nostalgia, Vaporwave seems to critique and poke fun at it's origins, like a musical form of Pop art.
All of those genres overlap, Vaporwave, Synthwave, Retrowave, Cloud Rap, Trap even Chiptune and some others.
Synthwave is synthesized (more "from scratch" than vaporwave). That's the big distinction for me. It's more original music.
Exhalent Agreed.
I don't think Synthwave is that diverse, it's follows tiny fraction of 80s music, and many tracks sound too alike.
Yeah it's more focused towards that action/soundtrack style. A very specific sound if you ask me.
great video
oh shit your here
Artzie Music Hi dad
👌
Please Artzie, take Adam's awesome song and put on that some A E S T H E T I C S
Artzie Music I love your stuff
Using live drums at first sound almost feels like a departure, idve been compelled to put a low pass filter on them and maybe tape emulation to flatten them, but I really like how u approached this, this is what moves a genre forward. Beautiful tunes and brilliant insight as always, dude
Tune at the end was really interesting. Definitely didn't strike me as "vaporwave" as it normally exists, but almost a new branch off into something like vapor rock. Had a more hard-hitting sound in many parts, along with faster tempo and more vibrant, clear, uplifting notes. Very cool no matter what you call it, always glad to see new stuff touching on the genre.
The first time I heard this the words Progressive Vapor stuck in my head…wish he had made more, I love this track.
@@conflictmagazine Honestly, listening to Sungazer yesterday I was struck by the elements their music shares with vaporwave, so I was hype to find this video.
I just prefer the 'vaporwave' that recreates 80s Japanese pop music.
James Tarrou future funk? like LONELY GIRL?
Running in the 80's comes to my mind
Though it's not from the 80's
Yeah, but that's mallsoft to be exact
James Tarrou Future Funk?
Blank Banshee does just so awesome sampling, demonstrating Vaporwave is not just slowing down songs.
Kind of is, its be better if he wrote something that sounded like him
Patrick Star listen to Shinjuku Mad then
Macintosh plus was also more than just slowing songs down.
I feel like he shouldve also showed the side of vaporwave where instead of samples its also original work that gives the same nostalgic feeling without sampling such as 2814
@@DmitriDmitri Sick & Panic was totally sick and made me panic. People need to look past Flower Shoppe and at Vektroid's other stuff, they're lit.
I’m really digging the offshoots of vaporwave . Such as Retrowave, nightdriving, and cyberpunk/darkwave. My interest definitely started from nostalgia. A lot of the music reminds me of the soundtracks to cheesy eighties and early nineties movies. Movies I grew up and loved.
you had me at "f*ck you, earnestly learning about things can be really cool".
Put on the glasses, Adam, cuz now it's like Vsause all about the music.
Keeper Exactly!
hmm never thought of it that way
Haha lol yes
True enough hahaha! :D
I was promised that you would be drinking Arizona Iced Tea, but you switched to Fiji water, I feel cheated.
While I agree with your statement regarding the two beverages, a broken promise is a broken promise.
I brew my coffee with Fiji Water
ｎｏｔｈｉｎｇ ｉｓ ｒｅａｌ
I wash my car with fiji water
i urinate fiji water
"Yeah but anyone could do that"
"Yeah but MACKINTOSH+ was the one who did do it"
Exactly!
i once heard this crazy asian music while under the influence of LSD - i asked my friends what it was - turns out it was bruce springsteen's born to run! ever since then I've been thinking about music differently
"..because fuck you, sometimes earnestly learning about things can be cool..." You sir earned yourself a subscription at that moment.
Something that helps identify Vaporwave is the natural vibrato that occurs from using tape cassettes etc. I often wonder if vibrato, as an effect, gains it's ability to evoke emotion through a psychological connection with the natural vibrato of a person's wavering voice while near to crying. If so wouldn't that be a potential factor in this kind of music's popularity?
You mean wow and flutter?
genius, it's like the instruments/tracks are begging in a sense
Damn, good PhD thesis for someone right there.
"Ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ (ｎａｔｕｒａｌ ｆｒｅｑ ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ) ｉｓ ａ ｖｏｉｃｅ ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒｉｓｔｉｃ ｔｈａｔ ｉｓ ｓｏｍｅｔｉｍｅｓ ｃｕｌｔｉｖａｔｅｄ; ｆａｓｈｉｏｎｓ ｏｆｔｅｎ ｃｈａｎｇｅ. Ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ ｉｓ ｐｒｏｄｕｃｅｄ ｂｙ ｐｕｌｓａｔｉｏｎｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｃｒｉｃｏｔｈｙｒｏｉｄ, ｏｎｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｔｉｎｙ ｍｕｓｃｌｅｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｌａｒｙｎｘ. Ｓｉｎｇｅｒｓ ｃａｎ ａｌｓｏ ｕｓｅ ｖａｒｉａｔｉｏｎ ｏｆ ｓｕｂｇｌｏｔｔａｌ ａｉｒ ｐｒｅｓｓｕｒｅ ｔｏ ａｃｈｉｅｖｅ Ｔｒｅｍｏｌｏ (ａｍｐｌｉｔｕｄｅ ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ, ｓｏｍｅｔｉｍｅｓ ｃｏｎｆｕｓｉｎｇｌｙ ｃａｌｌｅｄ "ａｍｐｌｉｔｕｄｅ ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ"'; ) Ｔｈｅ ｂｅｓｔ ｔｒａｉｎｉｎｇ ｆｏｒ ａ ｓｉｎｇｅｒ ｐｒｏｂａｂｌｙ ｉｓ ｔｏ ｌｅａｒｎ ｔｏ ｓｉｎｇ ｂｏｔｈ ｗｉｔｈ ａｎ ｗｉｔｈｏｕｔ ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ, ｓｏ ｔｈａｔ ｉｓ ｃａｎ ｂｅ ｄｅｌｉｂｅｒａｔｅｌｙ ｆｏｒ ｓｐｅｃｉａｌ ｅｆｆｅｃｔ ｒａｔｈｅｒ ｔｈａｎ ｂｅｉｎｇ ｉｎｓｉｓｔｅｎｔｌｙ ａｎｄ ｒｅｍｏｒｓｅｌｅｓｓｌｙ ｐｒｅｓｅｎｔ ａｌｌ ｔｈｅ ｔｉｍｅ. Ｈｏｗ ｏｆｔｅｎ ｓｈｏｕｌｄ ｔｈｅ ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ ｏｃｃｕｒ? Ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ ｆｒｅｑｕｅｎｃｉｅｓ ｏｆ Ａｐｐｒｏｘｉｍａｔｅｌｙ ５ ｔｏ ７ ｈｚ ｕｓｕａｌｌｙ ａｒｅ ｊｕｄｇｅｄ ｔｏ ｂｅ ｍｏｓｔ ｐｌｅａｓｉｎｇ; ａｔ ４ ｈｚ ｏｒ ｌｅｓｓ ｔｈｅ ｐｉｔｃｈ ｗｉｌｌ ｓｅｅｍ ｕｎｃｌｅａｒ, ８ ｈｚ ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ ｂｅｇｉｎｓ ｔｏ ｇｉｖｅ ａｎ ｉｍｐｒｅｓｓｉｏｎ ｏｆ ｎｅｒｖｏｕｓｎｅｓｓ. ｈｏｗ ｍｕｃｈ ｓｈｏｕｌｄ ｔｈｅ ａｕｄｉｏ ｆｒｅｑ. ｂｅ ｃｈａｎｇｅｄ ｂｙ ｔｈｅ ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ? Ｅｘｃｕｒｓｉｏｎｓ ｏｆ ｈａｌｆ ａ ｓｅｍｉｔｏｎｅ ｏｎ ｅｉｔｈｅｒ ｓｉｄｅ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｃｅｎｔｒａｌ ｐｉｔｃｈ (３% ｉｎ ｆｒｅｑ) ａｒｅ ｎｏｔ ｕｎｃｏｍｍｏｎ. Ｍｕｃｈ ｍｏｒｅ ｔｈａｎ ｔｈａｔ ｉｓ "ｄｉｓｔｒａｃｔｉｎｇ" Ｍｕｃｈ ｌｅｓｓ ｔｈａｎ １% ｗｉｌｌ ｈａｒｄｌｙ ｂｅ ｎｏｔｅｄ; ａｒｏｕｎｄ ２% ｓｅｅｍｓ ｔｏ ｂｅ ｍｕｓｉｃａｌｌｙ ｐｌｅａｓｉｎｇ -- ｗｈｙ ｉｓ ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ ｃｏｎｓｉｄｅｒｅｄ ｄｅｓｉｒａｂｌｅ ｎｏｔ ｏｎｌｙ ｆｏｒ ａ ｔｈｅ ｖｏｉｃｅ ｂｕｔ ｆｏｒ ｍａｎｙ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｉｎｓｔｒｕｍｅｎｔｓ ａｓ ｗｅｌｌ? Ａ ｃｙｎｉｃａｌ ａｎｓｗｅｒ ｆｒｏｍ ｅｖｏｌｕｔｉｏｎａｒｙ ｂｉｏｌｏｇｙ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｂｅ ｔｈａｔ ｍａｎｙ ｈｕｍａｎ ｖｏｉｃｅｓ ｄｏ ｗａｖｅｒ ｗｈｅｎ ｔｈｅｙ ｓｉｎｇ' ｔｈｅｒｅｆｏｒｅ ｗｅ ｈａｖｅ ｃｏｍｅ ｔｏ ｂｅｌｉｅｖｅ ｉｔ ｉｓ ａ ｇｏｏｄ ｔｈｉｎｇ. ａｎｄ ｂｅｃａｕｓｅ ｔｈｅ ｖｏｉｃｅ ｄｏｅｓ ｉｔ, ｐｅｒｈａｐｓ ｗｅ ｔｈｉｎｋ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｍｕｓｉｃａｌ ｓｏｕｒｃｅｓ ａｌｓｏ ｓｈｏｕｌｄ. Ｗｅ ａｌｓｏ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｓａｙ ｔｈａｔ ｖｉｂｒａｔｏ ｌｅｎｄｓ ｗａｒｍｔｈ ｔｏ ｔｈｅ ｔｏｎｅ, ａｓ ｗｅｌｌ ａｓ ｄｒａｗｉｎｇ ａｔｔｅｎｔｉｏｎ ｔｏ ｔｈｅ ｓｏｌｏ ｌｉｎｅｓ, ｗｈｅｒｅ ｉｔ ｉｓ ｏｆｔｅｎ ｓｔｒｏｎｇｅｓｔ. --- ６ ｈｚ ｍｏｒｅ ｄｅｓｉｒａｂｌｅ ｔｈａｎ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｖａｌｕｅｓ ｆｏｒ ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ -- ｃｅｒｔａｉｎ ｎａｔｕｒａｌ ｂｒａｉｎ ｒｈｙｔｈｍｓ ｏｃｃｕｒ ａｔ ｓｉｍｉｌａｒ ｆｒｅｑｕｅｎｃｉｅｓ ｓｏ ｐｅｒｈａｐｓ ｉｔ ｉｓ ａｔ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｆｒｅｑｕｅｎｃｉｅｓ ｔｈｅ ｎａｔｕｒａｌ ｂｒａｉｎ ｒｈｙｔｈｍｓ ｏｃｃｕｒ-- ａｎｙ ｓｏｕｎｄｓ ｗｉｔｈｉｎ ｏｎｅ ｏｒ ｔｗｏ ｔｅｎｔｈｓ ｏｆ ａ ｓｅｃｏｎｄ ｔｅｎｄ ｔｏ ｂｅｃｏｍｅ ｍｅｒｇｅｄ ｄｕｒｉｎｇ ｐｒｏｃｅｓｓｉｎｇ ｂｙ ｔｈｅ ｈｕｍａｎ ｅａｒ ａｎｄ ｂｒａｉｎ ｔｈｕｓ ｍｏｄｕｌａｔｉｏｎ ｆｒｅｑ. ｍｕｃｈ ａｂｏｖｅ ５ ｈｚ ｗｉｌｌ ｂｅ ｃｏｍｅ ｈａｒｄｅｒ ｔｏ ｐｅｒｃｅｉｖｅ ａｓ ｓｕｃｈ; ｔｈｅｒｅ ｗｉｌｌ ｓｅｅｍ ｔｏ ｂｅ ａ ｈｏｍｏｇｅｎｉｚｅｄ ｒｏｕｇｈ ｓｏｕｎｄ ｉｎｓｔｅａｄ ｏｆ ａ ｒｈｙｔｈｍｉｃａｌｌｙ ｖａｒｙｉｎｇ ｓｉｍｐｌｅ ｓｏｕｎｄ" --- Ｍｕｓｉｃａｌ Ａｃｏｕｓｔｉｃｓ Ｄｏｎａｌｄ Ｅ. Ｈａｌｌ Ｔｈｉｒｄ Ｅｄｉｔｉｏｎ
I hear laurel
Vaporwave music makes me cry even if I’m not in a sad mood....
as a music student, this was hella cool!! thanks for putting this together, it was obvious how much time and energy went into both your research and creation
I can feel my mind expanding as I'm watching this
ｅｘｃｅｌｌｅｎｔ ｏｆｆｅｒｓ ａｔ ｋｍａｒｔ
Sarcastic Robot watch it high
Sarcastic Robot I C A N T O O
Ｍｅ ｔｏｏ
e x p a n d
Your Kmart song sounds like something that would play in Hell's waiting room. It scares me....
artboy598 it’s only scary because of our biology. It’s something that’s not familiar and we’re programmed to be scared of that.
That is exactly why when I showed my mum the Macintosh HD song, she said it creeped her out. I told her it was because it's what she's not used to, and it subconsciously makes her scared or uneasy about it. It does the same for me, but I ironically find it relaxing.
Well I felt comfortable, the first time I listened to vaporwave. I fell in love with it immediately.
So, I really don't know what you guys are talking about.
GET OUT
I've always felt like nostalgia-infused sounds bring along an eerie, somewhat creepy feeling as well. Huh
I, for one, enjoyed the drums in your song. It gives an "80s Rock Ballad" kinda feel, and it's very fitting. Great job!
The K-Mart sampling has a brighter sound, as if tuned up. The brighter sound also comes from a possible hi-pass filter, since this was played on elevators nonetheless.
So Adam, when I put a You Tube video on at half speed speed so I can figure out wtf the guitar player is doing, am I in V A P O R W A V E mode?
pretty much...
Does that mean that Rings of Saturn record in V A P O R W A V E mode?
H A L F S P E E D
EnterSkitarii RINGS OF SATURN
H A L F S P E E D
so it's literally just the pop art movement again then.
*watches documentary on pop art* so it's literally just the dadaism movement again then.
Tragamin06 lmao
Chuck Fristian without the gay ass political undertones
Pop art could be said to be a reaction to the rise of nuclear weapons and the Cold War, while dada was a reaction to WW1. Maybe vaporwave is a reaction to the internet or the years since 9/11?
Rip Steakface nah
The progression in that song is so good. I love seeing different takes on the vw genre
I love that the quote "lesser artist borrow, greater artist steal" is being quoted in the name of so many different artists...
I don't like the idea of hearing noticeable guitars or drums. For me, vaporwave is literally like a wave, rocking you in a sensory-heavy bearing ocean of melancholy and or nostalgia. And the ticking drums and guitar are like I'm being hit by giant waves and disrupting my peace.
Yes, I feel that the starting/ending song is actually a separate thing from vaporwave because of this. Adam may have blundered onto a new niche of his own accord by attempting to replicate with real instruments something that should have stayed inside a computer.
whatever it is, i dig it.
O K
and the video didn't look like 8 or 16 bits or an 80s painting with lots of purple, neon lights and stuff like that. I think what he did isn't vaporwave at all.
It's the same for me. I liked the video for what it is and I went on to read some of the articles he featured, but the song he composed absolutely did not do it for me. I think, just like in any other form of self-expression (purposefully avoiding the term 'art' due to the amount of hate in the comments and accusations of pretentionism that has plagued the genre), there are people (be it the artists or the majority of the listeners) who pick up on the superficial things, like the weird visuals, neon washed-out colours and distorted sounds, and then there are people who like to and have the capacity to experience the sense of inexplicable nostalgia, melancholy and longing for something that does not exist you describe.
Funnily enough, I know the guy who made 'simpsons wave', Played loads of mario kart with him
That's seriously my favourite vaporwave.
Is that Thornback?
I love watching these high so I can come back and watch for the first time again.
I'm so glad I am at an age where those old school windows is nostalgic, really sells vaprowave more when you grew up with those old systems and seen them grow into today
And then you have ＳＩＭＰＳＯＮＷＡＶＥ, that coopts the genre and remixes The Simpsons clips and audio tracks to create a kind of societal commentary that not only criticises modern consumerist society, but The Simpsons itself and the whole genre as self-parody.
How tf did you come to that conclusion, m8??
A very bad mixture. Given how acid can cause schizophrenia..
Everson Bernardes it was**** now its just the codeine clip repeated
Bart are you listening to ＶＡＰＯＲＷＡＶＥ?
Patrick Bateman couldn't have said it better.
Dream Catalogue elevated vaporwave to a whole other level where it's like metropolis ambient. I mostly listen to their take on the genre instead of most of the lulzy artists.
Aossic Freud
Yep. And the offshoot Dreamwave is a beautiful genre with its own identity.
Thank you so much for dropping that name. I searched it and was delighted at what I found! :)
Adhesive Sounds is another great label. Not so much next-level, but definitely worth a listen.
I usually learn something new when I watch your videos.Thanks,Adam.
Dude. I'm so obsessed with vaporwave! I don't know why, it just speaks to me. I feel connected to it. The same with Synthwave, Mall Soft, and Cyberpunk. I just love everything about these, and the art styles. ✌️😎
Thank goodness, a music reviewer that doesn't say "Vaporwave is shit because isn't original" +1 sub.
Music Theory and Vaporwave in the same sentence. Amazing!
mootbooxle
Kind of disgraceful really lol
Oh hey mootbooxle!
The sound of a dog fart is also applicable in music theory. Why won't vaporwave be?
And also Of!
That song at the end was objectively excellent. ~_~ Consider the fact that this opens up a whole new environment of musical creativity. There are _so many_ ways the "vaporwave" concept could be extrapolated on...reconfigured, evolved, etc.. If nothing else, it offers a very interesting foundation upon which to launch off of...it's potentially a very interesting songwriting tool.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, especially the performance at the end. Well done good sir.
This was such a great video. You made me feel how a feelings change and how they amplify like music does. I do experience the art form of this, I like it. First time I've ever heard of vapor wave but it sounds like it's every where! Life is music, music is life.
The drumline felt too complicated
yeah it was agreeably too fast and clashed with the general chill i found in vaporwave
Well, it SUCCS
def a different vibe, but I like it. If I wanted normal chill vaporwave there's plenty of other sources. I'd rather more artists change it up a little rather than repost the same type of shit over and over
It wasn't too different from Far Side Virtual's beats, and that's one of the earliest examples of the genre, or at least the clearest influence of the genre.
I thought it started out clashing (especially that highhat thing) but meshed quite well in the last half of the song.
Yep! It's all about memories. I like listening to vaporwave because of the nostalgic feeling it gives me. I was obsessed with technology we had in the 90s as a kid. My happiest memories were going to the shopping mall with my grandparents, hearing the slow jazz covers of popular songs over the loudspeakers and soaking up all of that visual stimulation. I think pink and teal are horrendous together but love seeing evidence of that tacky color scheme anywhere due to nostalgia.
OMG! I feel the same way!! I love/hate pink and teal!!! I miss malls.
The four colours of CGA graphics. Cyan, Magenta, White and Black.
I've watched video probably 10 times since it was released almost three years ago. Only now did I catch that you switched from the Arizona to a bottle of Fiji in the middle of the song. Bless you, sir
Adam, just started watching your videos and I gotta say: I'm surprised you're the only one on TH-cam talking about modern music with in depth analysis. Good work man. I mean it.
Someone should get a K-mart employee to put this on in the store, and film how people react to it.
Vaporwave is honestly the closest thing to an actual musical drug I have ever found.
This!!! The combination of nostalgia, melancholy and hope that vaporwave exhibits can genuinely make me feel like I'm on drugs. I think the reason for that is that when you listen to most other types of music, it brings up emotions (in some cases nostalgia), but those emotions don't imply a reality that exists outside of our own. The vaporwave aesthetic, which is heavily implied in its music, is almost utopian. A world where everything is exactly as you want it. When you listen to vaporwave (and other types of dissasociative music like vaporwave) you get a glimpse into that reality, and it is indescribably beautiful. I often get emotional when I listen to vaporwave, and then feel sort of empty when it's over. There is no other genre of music that can make me feel the way that vaporwave does.
@Noami and Corvin
You surely didn't hear about Jack Stauber.
I released a plunderphonics ep yesterday, that thing about bettering the borrowed work boosted my confidence a little, thank you for this video I personally enjoyed it
Really well done. Loved your take on the importance of timbre. That's what earned you a new follow from me. Thank you for this video. There's a Mr. Robot quality to the theory and the tune that I really liked.
Guys, please go give vaporwave a try.
Macintosh Plus was a purely experimental project by Electronic music producer Vektroid.
There are many other Vaporwave releases that aren't just slowed down music.
Did you just assume my gender?
I, for one, am glad you called me a guy
LemKuuja r
Isn't "guys" just kind of a figure of speech? like it can be used like "hey everyone"?
Sorry, english isn't my first language, I just learn listening from movies, games and internet videos.
LemKuuja hey man don't worry, your english is great! they're just....uh, it's a meme thing, they're not really serious. well, the first reply might be. (there are males who listen to vaporwave too.)
but guys can also mean "dude" or "male" however, obviously you were using it as to refer to everyone. which is common :)
When you took 2 seconds to remake macintosh plus I almost cried. It was beautiful
Atrip Entertainment thats not the only thing different about the song - though it does make up the majority of it
Great video! I've been lining to vaporware for about 3 1/2 years and still love it!
I love this sort of abstract analysis!! You watching your own song took its aesthetic to the next level. Is it weird that the more ironic something is, somehow, the more beautiful it becomes?
So, basically Vaporwave is opposite of Nightcore?
Anty-Cudak Prime shit vaporwave is...but not real vaporwave..
No that's Daycore.
What you're thinking of is daycore. Vaporwave is basically daycore but with chopping and screwing the original source material into something new.
Wouldn't the opposite of goodbye be...badbye?...
+mienHeld No it would be badhello
Note: MACINTOSH PLUS is a project name, the artist is called Vektroid
looking back; one of the most insightful videos you've created for electro-visual musicians.
I was not expecting this video to be so informative and technical (in a good way).
Great video man.
your track is definitly prog wave but i love what you said about v a p o r w a v e . . . .
congrats for making a new genre
It's clearly prepwave. Jesus.
did you just assume my genre?
^ good one
Interstellar Poops DEAR GOD I JUST ALMOST DIED FROM THAT COMMENT XD
These comments summed up:
50%: oh my god you have no idea what vaporwave is
49%: too much drums in the song to be vaporwave
1%: good video
The Clever Gamer 45/44/1/10% *Meme*
Vapourwave is like film noir; what people want it to be will never coincide with what it actually is and everyone is slightly unsatisfied.
It was a good video :(
I agree
So true
This has fast become one of my favourite places to visit on t'internet. Adam Neely imparts esoteric knowledge in a way that's almost subliminally easy to absorb. Every video is a mine of talking points. That tune at the end kind of reminded me of Tangerine Dream or Boards of Canada. The latter's edit of 'Trapped' seems to fit the vaporwave bill, just on another level of craft. Wonderful stuff Adam.
This track is sooo good!! You two are AMAZING
you just invented progressive wave. That happens when you're just too good and gets bored with that tempo
vapor prog, spread the news
Adam Neely we got you
Vaprog
Yeah but you've got your aesthetics wrong, its V A P O R P R O G
look up "And Using The Power Of The Internet" by Murder City
OMG he's drinking fiji water
You missed the point.
^^^
he is F I J I W A T E R
That Kmart song you made is awesome, love it 🔥
blown away by everything you produce
*ｉｍ ｊｕｓｔ ａ ｋｉｄ*
-ｉｍ ｊｕｓｔ ａ ｋｉｄ-
_ｉ ｍ ｊ ｕ ｓ ｔ ａ ｋ ｉ ｄ_
Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｊｕｓｔ ａ ｌｉｔｔｌｅ ｍｉｓｔａｋｅ
t h a t s w h y m y d a d k e e p s b e a t i n g m e u p
And now
Ｔｈｅｒｅ＇ｓ ｎｏｂｏｄｙ ｈｅｒｅ
A n d l i f e i s a n i g h t m a r e
_s o n o w i a m g o n n a l i s t e n t o s o m e e m o s o n g s_
I don't understand why people think this is only a meme, and not worth seriously listening too. Lots of songs turn from modest to fantastic after being messed with. Same concept with chopped and screwed. Sometimes you can take already great songs, update and turn them up a notch in the same fashion, like with futurefunk.
CreepinWhileYouSleepin for me almost every meme song I've found myself to geniunely enjoy, like the vaporwave genre
CreepinWhileYouSleepin Vaporwave is amazing
vaporwave is the reason i have fl i love to make a lil twist on songs
I just love vaporware, and your analysis is amazing, I found your channel recently and I cannot get enough of the content, thanks!
I loved the video and specially what you said about phenomenology in music. Cheers!
can't stop listening to this
same here
I wish there was a download link
Honestly, I just like the music. I don't care if it's a genre or a meme or not meant to be taken seriously. Still like the music
• Florence • Sammmmeeeee
same! that's why I listen Black metal and don't burn churches lol
I remember arriving here, back in 2016, after some random vaporwave+aesthetics Google search. I remember how impressed I was with his eloquence and the precision of his words. I kept watching his other videos from time to time, although not systematically since I am not a musician and often I don't really understand what he is saying. Anyway, almost 3 years later I find Adam Neally is sort of a star and also appears in videos of other remarkably interesting TH-camrs I like very much (notably Rick Beato). So, good work Adam, keep it up!
I had never stumbled onto Vaporwave prior to seeing this video, but I am glad that I did. This was extremely interesting and you complimentary Kmart track is awesome.
I was looking for a source on timbre and musical meaning and I kinda gave up, procrastinated by watching this video and you just gave it to me. You just saved my essay!
Boyan Botev There was a drive by in front of his apartment, and Adam called 911. The ambulance came and got Juan. Adam saved my ese, too.
here, thegreatgambeeno, have a like
What's throwing me off is that this Kmart sample is using a Yanni Sample from one of his early CD's so It's vaporwave sampling Kmart sampling Yanni ... too deep.
ajsmusicmadness I was legit wondering if anyone else would notice, my mother listened to Yanni endlessly when I was a kid
Which song?
I thought it was a Laurel sample.
exsto pffft, booooo Cx
slimsalad GET OUT
Lol
I FREAKING LOVE THIS VIDEO. Thank you again for make me entertaint :D
Two years have passed and i'm here again on one of my favorite TH-cam videos..
now speed it up and do the music theory of nightcore
also this video was posted on my birthday!! more the reason to analyze nightcore!
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Nightcore really isn't anything good. It's just speeding up a song, and that's LITERALLY it. Vaporwave involves a lot more than a tempo change.
Or go back and forth with the tempo, and have Vaporcore!
That drummer is awesome though. Gotta love a guy that'll play odd rhythms. Anymore of his stuff out there?
Dang love it thank you for walking us through this!
This is the video that introduced me to your channel :)