VAPORWAVE
What is Vaporwave?
Vaporwave is a retro-futurist internet aesthetic that remixes the 1980s and 1990s into something simultaneously nostalgic and uncanny. Think soft neon gradients, chrome 3D text, pink-and-teal color palettes, glitch effects, VHS noise, and lo-fi “mall music” ambience—built from chopped-and-screwed samples of elevator jazz, smooth R&B, corporate training videos, and early digital soundtracks. As a genre of music, vaporwave leans on slowed tempos, heavy reverb, and looping fragments that feel like memories of consumer culture: department stores, late-night infomercials, Windows-era UI sounds, and the first wave of glossy “future” branding.
A E S T H E T I C
As a visual style, vaporwave pulls from early web design, Japanese typography, classical sculpture, grid horizons, and surreal digital collage—often framed as commentary on capitalism, technology, and disposable luxury. You’ll see it overlap with synthwave, outrun, and lo-fi aesthetics, but vaporwave tends to be more ironic, more dreamlike, and more “found footage” in spirit. Whether you’re searching for vaporwave art, vaporwave wallpaper, vaporwave design, or vaporwave music playlists, the core appeal is the same: a pastel, glitchy time capsule that turns old tech and commercial nostalgia into a vibe you can wear, watch, and listen to.