Does anyone feel alienated by the toxic positivity of modern vaporwave community?

[nobo]

I won't pretend to be an OG of vaporwave or anything. I was definitely late to the party.

In the early 2010s, I still listened to mostly punk and hardcore and that kind of music. By 2016 I was internally conflicted by not being intersted in rock music as much anymore but I didn't really know that was the problem. I just felt "not that interested in music lately." When I found vaporwave, that resparked my interested in music and I was on a rabbit hole of post-Internet music from then on.

Around covid times, I started to socialize with a lot of people on Discord and Twitch who were involved in a rebranding of vaporwave. They were transforming it from niche music for people like us on the bowels of the Internet into EDM plur rave scene. It's not that I think the sounds necessarily got bad ... it's the community.

I'm not even talking about going full edgelord here. Obviously you can't expect people on Discord and Twitch to vibe with that. But the best way to describe it is "toxic positivity."

The turning point for me was when Viper the rapper got arrested. We were not even allowed to discuss the case as news was coming out because it was "making people uncomfortable." And bear in mind, there was no one giving hot takes or opinions about it. It felt like I had got pulled into the machine who is trying to sell records to people with modern sensitivies and I just realized I don't want candy ravers with VHS tapes tone policing me from talking about current events.

I basically fully left vaporwave communities at that point.

I don't know if this is a hot take here or not, but in my opinion the turning point was Electronicon. Vaporwave belongs to the Internet.

I guess I was just wondering if anyone else had experiences like this.

 

[Alice N Chain]

I mean to be fair, the haydays of the 2010's vaporwave where it was seen as this new thing of the internet, and the genre was drawing in crowds of people who really didn't "get" it, and everyone and their dog trying to create their own vaporwave music and A E S T H E T I C is over. Maybe it's just how I view it, but it's grown more niche from my observation, so if were to blow up again, hostility would be more common. But I don't lurk too much discord or leddit communities on certain topics, too many braindead zoomers.

The turning point for me was when Viper the rapper got arrested. We were not even allowed to discuss the case as news was coming out because it was "making people uncomfortable." And bear in mind, there was no one giving hot takes or opinions about it. It felt like I had got pulled into the machine who is trying to sell records to people with modern sensitivies and I just realized I don't want candy ravers with VHS tapes tone policing me from talking about current events.

I do draw the line on sanitation of topics, understandable breaking point.
Also I've seen what the Rave heads and wooks adore, you do NOT want them.

 

[nobo]

Also I've seen what the Rave heads and wooks adore, you do NOT want them.

Yeah. The section of vaporwave I'm talking about can best be described by people who think (or thought around the 2020 era) that the future of vaporwave was festivals, Electronicon, Twitch live streams and so forth. The only reason they were online to begin was because Covid stopped them from doing more Electronicon.

 

[punisheddead]

I basically fully left vaporwave communities at that point.

I had no idea vaporwave communities were even a thing still (besides my lovely agora) let alone that they were toxically positive, but I'm not really surprised. This happens with ancient communities when the once really popular media becomes niche, i don't know why it happens but it seems like the community gets scared of the future of said media and then tries their hardest to will a positive outcome via toxic positivity. It's just weird and annoying and I can't stand it.

They were transforming it from niche music for people like us on the bowels of the Internet into EDM plur rave scene.

This too, pisses me off so much. It happens all the time with niche genres and musicians, either the community or the musician themselves try to make the media "more palatable" to normies by making it shit and not what the original media was. Then they lose the core audience and get stuck with the normies but because they're so much of them everyone sees it as a big success.

 

[RisingThumb]

I don't know if this is a hot take here or not

Agora road tends to be pretty welcoming to all sorts of views, and the discussions tend to be productive.

I also think focusing on something being a "hot" take is the wrong view. You should be saying what is right by your mind, and sticking to it, not crumbling to the popular view of the day. If you don't know what is right by your mind, you can both feel it, and critically view the situation, as well as discussing it in a place that doesn't try to shut down discussion left right and center.

I wouldn't be surprised if you're right. I think vaporwave appeals to those who are nostalgic, and nostalgia is usually your rose-tinted glasses seeing the past. Not a surprise that people get used to things being all rosy and nice, and disagreeable things become so abrasive they'd rather avoid any discussion of it.

This too, pisses me off so much. It happens all the time with niche genres and musicians, either the community or the musician themselves try to make the media "more palatable" to normies by making it shit and not what the original media was. Then they lose the core audience and get stuck with the normies but because they're so much of them everyone sees it as a big success.

I have a quote that stuck with me from an email correspondence I had.

i'm not really interested in promoting things, be it #### or the
websites. promotion just tends to attract the sort of people who are
attracted by promotion, you know? managing expectations usually ends
up being more trouble than it's worth. it's not as if we're hiding...

It's not as if we're hiding...

 

[Some_porcupine]

q: is cyberpunk/synthwave 80s vaporwave?
q2: is this vaporwave? -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESmZKFe6B0Y&list=PL9CUfp200TTO8MkvJCkBMsV7g1QhDaroz

 

[Math Equal Angelic Mantra]

The turning point for me was when Viper the rapper got arrested. We were not even allowed to discuss the case as news was coming out because it was "making people uncomfortable." And bear in mind, there was no one giving hot takes or opinions about it. It felt like I had got pulled into the machine who is trying to sell records to people with modern sensitivies and I just realized I don't want candy ravers with VHS tapes tone policing me from talking about current events.

I was more shocked at how shocked people were that Viper was a deranged dirt bag. I mean what do you think "You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack" means? Kidnapping a woman feels like an oddly Viper thing to do.

Yeah. The section of vaporwave I'm talking about can best be described by people who think (or thought around the 2020 era) that the future of vaporwave was festivals, Electronicon, Twitch live streams and so forth. The only reason they were online to begin was because Covid stopped them from doing more Electronicon.

Makes sense Ravers would gravitate to Vaporwave during lockdowns since it is the genre of the terminally online while being the closet thing to EDM in terms of production, though the genres are completely different in how they are meant to be enjoyed. Hopefully they've largely flown off like birds who's traditional migratory mating island is not being used for secret government weapon's testing anymore.

 

[UltramarineWeather]

Just listen to 90s shoegaze, you get "similar" aesthetics, more music with actual effort put in and almost no normalfags (since it's basically a dead genre).

 

[Some_porcupine]

Just listen to 90s shoegaze, you get "similar" aesthetics, more music with actual effort put in and almost no normalfags (since it's basically a dead genre).

Yeah I feel both happy and nostalgia. Tho the sounds of the genre got pretty repetitive pretty quick which is pity

 

[UltramarineWeather]

Then you reach for its inspiration of ethereal wave and dream pop, heh. But yeah, there aren't thousands of Cocteau Twins, Curve and MBV.

 

[nobo]

Vaporwave does have comfortable nostalgia but it also has confused and disorienting dark vibes at times. Sometimes they mix up and you can't tell which is which. That's the way I like it personally.

 

[K0WLOON]

The thing always happens, an underground genre infiltrates the mainstream, one gets a final wave (no pun) of ones who had a foot in the OG days straddling the line between the underground and the industrial commoditization then the thing goes to shit. It happens every time a thing makes it to the mainstream. One has personalyl seen this 2ice before but it goes before this one's days.

One goes from MY War and Songs About Fucking then a Cobain comes thru and the next thing you got is Silverchair is on the TV. One goes from In on the Kill Taker and Mineral and then a *insert early oughts crossover emo/post-hardcore band with underground cred here* and then one turns around&the ones are doing the fucking Plaid White Shirst or whatever the fuck they were called.

We have seen the days of Lopatin and the Ramona/Vektroids doing a thing that is artistically vital and then George Clapton switches to doing reheated pop and the other ones ripping off Daft Punk and Anoraak and doing c-tier Pertubator clone shit getting the giant moneydicks.

The thing may not be as massive as the earlier eamples but the thing, for a bit, was all the rage for egirls and twinktokkers who think Etch-a-Sketch is vapor. Yung Bae is suddenly vaporwave


EDIT to also say that, Discord is a shithole and all the communities there are, in one or another, the equivalent to swimming in spit