Vaporwave: A Dystopian Musical Codex

by Ekko Iruka

Although there is much diversity and ambiguity in its attitude and message, Vaporwave sometimes serves as both a critique and a parody of consumerist society, '80s yuppie culture, and new-age music, while sonically and aesthetically showcasing a curious nostalgic fascination with their artifacts.

Genres: Nonfiction

158 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2015

Reviews

[L.S. Popovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a ridiculous book. Clearly a scholarly thesis converted into a paperback. Hundreds of references gathered and mashed together from disparate corners of the universe like Wikipedia, Derrida, Aristotle, Nietzsche, dozens of album reviews, band discographies, magazine articles, quantum theory papers, along with analyses of dystopias, Foucault, Heidegger, Rorty, Lyotard, Deconstructionism, post-post modernism, urban planning, consumerism, marxism, virtual reality, dialectics, video games, and countless other tangents. Literally hundreds of scarcely related topics under one glimmery roof. Very little attempt to connect the philosophical analogues to Vaporwave aesthetic. There are a few pages on the musical genre and sub- and micro-genres. No color pictures. Double columns of dry, mind-numbing digressions down far-reaching rabbit holes. This reads more like a technical manual of cultural definitions than a study by someone obsessed by memes and vibrant, outmoded imagery. I was fascinated by the paraphrases of philosophical works, which were woven together under haphazard chapter headings. If you are a purveyor of glitch art, remixes, situationist quandaries, and cyberpunk content, you will find a few pages of useful information and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary words. This is a manic, hyperventilating attempt at Unified Field Theory through a wafty silicone-injected lens, ironically publishing in book-form the crippling conglomeration of post-consumerist ennui and technological mind-rape with all its concomitant sidelines, backgrounds, and related screensavers. The future is a binary, incomprehensible web of networked word-associations. Derrida says there is no context. But without context we are white noise. (Oddly enough it lacks any mention of scrimshaw.)