Long Live Vaporwave

Last year I was testing out a new Digital Audio Workstation, because the one that I’ve been using is extremely outdated. But I only had the trial version of this new DAWS, which didn’t allow me to save projects and then reopen them, meaning that as soon as I closed the program I would lose whatever I had been working on (of course this restriction goes away when you purchase the full version, but I wasn’t sure I wanted it yet).

So I ended up challenging myself to make a full vaporwave track in a single sitting, just for fun. (For the uninitiated: the original definition for vaporwave is music made by chopping and screwing samples from ‘80s and ‘90s pop songs—although over time it has come to signify more general modern electronic music that has that spacey, melodramatic, ‘80s pop feel).

On that first attempt I failed to make anything remotely listenable, but I really enjoyed the process. So I kept doing it, I tried quite a few times, and eventually managed to come up with a couple of passable songs. Here’s the one that came out most interesting, albeit with potato quality fidelity:

The song above was made from samples I plundered from Taylor Dayne’s “Tell It To My Heart”. This is one of the main reasons it’s so fun to play with vaporwave, because it’s an attempt to repurpose totally vapid and soulless music, and reframe it in a new internet-rabbit-hole kind of vibe that is still pretty empty and vapid, but fits thematically with the 21st century dystopia we live in.

The one below, which is the one that came out best as an actual ‘song’, was made from samples of “Summer Rain” by Belinda Carlisle:

You can also listen to them and download for free on my bandcamp right here.

I have other, more original music that I’ve been trying to polish for a very long time, but I’m not ready to post it yet, hopefully soon.

Anyway thanks for read- er, I mean thanks for listening! I know this is a silly post, but it’s fun to make this stuff and fun to share it. Let me know what you think of it in the comments!

What is dead may never die, but rises more vapory, and wavier than before…

Mr. Gibs