It’s fleeting and I like that — Journal #10 ISP
For my final journal for this ISP I will be discussing ideas that have become prevalent in ongoing dialogues that I have had from members of the vaporwave community. So far, my inquisition has been gladly received. I have engaged in dialogues with 12 different members of the community, all of whom said they will gladly continue to engage in discussion with me for the remainder of this project. I have found this to be a good sample size, as I can remember particular things about the individuals, and they come from rather diverse backgrounds. Although I would very much like to engage with at least one female vaporwave community member. Here are some of my initial findings:
Out of all of those who responded, all were male. This was interesting considering the first response I received implied gender and sexuality diversity in the community.
“I identify as a straight male, but this is a great question. Very interested to see what you find out on this one, because I’ve noticed a lot of vaporwave listeners identify as trans/queer. Most noticeable on Twitter where people list things about themselves in their bio. Heaps of trans people. Lots of prolific artists are super gay. There was a hilarious episode with furries a few months back.”
All respondents said that their sexuality was straight, apart from one.
“I identify as male and my pronouns are “he” and “him”. I consider myself bi-sexual and have been married for four years to my wife who is 100% aware of this and supports me.”
I am curious about this response because they signal that they are married, which I presume means they are at least in their mid-20s (but maybe not). Although I am not sure (waiting for a reply). This is interesting considering that the majority of my informants fall in the 18–24 age male demographic. My initial assumptions are that people connect with vaporwave as it invokes a sense of nostalgia and a utopian electro-paradise world. At this stage of my research I believe it comes from growing up in a generation of developing media technology, being the first generation born into an era with the internet, and then watching alongside as globalised media reaches new limits, and new people (while intertwined with commercial and capitalist process).
The vaporwave community is, much to my relief, a very globalised community. I assumed that it would be, as the formation of the (virtual) community takes place in a non-geographic space. Out of the twelve respondents, they are based as follows:
Oregon, USA
East Coast USA
Northern Carolina, USA
Nebraska, USA
DC, USA
Ontario, Canada
Rural Australia
Southern England
Novi Sad, Serbia
Czech Republic
Croatia
Israel
At this stage I do not feel as though I am in a position to comment on the implications of different user’s geographic locations.
I also asked the informants to describe in a short description what the appeal of vaporwave is to them. This was perhaps the most illuminating in understanding the multifarious ways the genre has been interpreted. It appears it does not signal a single function.
“I like vaporwave because it has this feel of something old found and made into something new.”
“The thing I love most about Vaporwave is the emotions, so many great Vaporwave songs feel so emotionally charged to me and I am in constant awe of musicians that can translate the emotions they are feeling into incredibly beautiful music”
“I come from an experimental music background. I attended a residential high school for the arts in my home state and got exposed to avant-garde art very early. I’ve always been interested in high-concept works and music criticism in particular is something to which I’ve always been drawn. Not criticism in the sense of what I like or don’t like about a piece of art, but evaluating the piece and its context… Though it’s become a bit of a punchline now, the supposed “radical political underpinnings” of vaporwave were something to which I was also drawn. I’ve been a leftist for as long as I’ve been politically active and vaporwave’s cultural critique of nostalgia, consumerism, and corporate-curated environments was a very attractive ideological framework for me.”
“I like how some of HKE’s [Hong Kong Express, VW artist] stuff takes you away like a film soundtrack.”
“I love vaporwave because it gives me a feeling of nostalgia, eerie kind of feeling.”
“I don’t know why I like vaporwave. I think I’ve found myself just in owe of its existence more than anything else. It’s a meme but not really, a unique genre but not really and a new type of art but not really. I like that it’s artists are (for the most part) anonymous. I like how stupidly challenging it is with album titles written in other languages and how dreamlike the music itself can be. It’s fleeting and I like that.”
From these responses I summarized the main ways the genre connects with the listener: as political, emotional, nostalgic, musically interesting, being unique, aesthetic and fantastical means. I would argue that emotional, nostalgic, aesthetic, fantastical perhaps fall under one cognitive umbrella. More research needs to be done into this, considering that Krystine Irene Batcho in Nostalgia and the Emotional Tone and Content of Song Lyrics mentions the multiple levels that nostalgia can function (such as ‘sad’ nostalgia connected with social-togetherness and ‘happy’ nostalgia connected with solidarity). I need to keep dialogue open with my informants to probe deeper into how their musical meaning is formed.
User Milanchic, a vaporwave fan from Serbia, went into quite a detailed description of their different levels of engagement with the genre.
“What I enjoy in vaporwave the most is a sense of being lost in thought but reassured by a feeling that everything will be alright. However, vaporwave is much more than that. It can be also invigorating …
I find the aesthetic aspect visually very pleasing, although I think that it sometimes gets too recycled and boring, depending on the artist. I lately saw couple of pieces that included elements from my country [Serbia] that didn’t include japanese lettering, Arizona ice tea, skeleteons, pokemon or anime and it was quite refreshing. I like the colors, classical roman/greek elements, japanese lettering and the corporate feel but I think much more can be done with those elements without simply recycling them. As with most things, I think the simplicity is king and that goes for aesthetics also. The art is often too cluttered and chaotic, and even though some might say that is the point, it actually takes away a lot from the art itself and prevents it from being more than just a meme.
I generally don’t like the sadboy subculture and its influence in vaporwave which includes art as well as elements of trap music (I tolerate some Blank Banshee stuff) since it reminds me of my teenage years, although those didn’t exist when I was a teen. It’s actually that cringy feeling you get when you think about how naive, dumb and inexperienced you once were and now you’re glad that time of your life is over.”
Important here, is how Milanchic mentions the influence of other sub-cultures on the genre, and vice versa. This is something I have identified as very prevalent in online music communities. Often genre’s or aesthetics with similar styles will go through a contestation stage through forums (such as the vaporwave subreddit) where they are deemed appropriate or inappropriate from the communities response (such as ‘upvotes’ or more explicit comments).
The next stage of my research goes deeper into movements of the community online, and different forms of contestation in the genre/community. This is to find how fluid or definitive this virtually-based genre is.
