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Comment by cols | Hacker News Reader

I’ll start out by saying I’m an avid fan of vapor/synth/whatever wave. I’ve heard this argument before and I can’t be the only one to think it’s silly, right? A cursory search of Spotify, Bandcamp, or YouTube will show that ALL the “wave” genres are alive and well some 5 years after this article was written. Some artists have moved on to other aesthetics, some artists have continued to produce the same sound they always did. How is this different from any other genre?

Incidentally here’s some sweet tunes! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1APbMkLxJGgWT88wpKyCIA?si=...

As a side note, I just discovered another “wave” offshoot called “corporate businesswave”. What a time to be alive. https://open.spotify.com/user/blackscholescat/playlist/39pqs...

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For some data, here's a rough number of Vaporwave albums released per year (source: RYM[1])

2010: 11

2011: 63

2012: 168

2013: 348

2014: 572

2015: 1193

2016: 1144

2017: 812

2018: 816

2019: 798

2020: 732

2021: 269

[1]https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/vaporwave/

The classic Vaporwave tag may be on the decline because there are many offshoots, and also the sound and aesthetics are absorbed in other genres.

I would say Chillwave peaked around 2009. I was at uni when I was listening to it and I feel to old to "get into" it now.

You are never too old to get back into music you enjoyed when you were younger, if it was any good to begin with.

The only stuff I've found I can't go back to in the long run is the dreck-- the low quality, overly derivative or ethically questionable non-art. Everything else can fly again after you get over being burnt out on it. [That is, unless you grew up in the age of radio dominance, in which case there are probably several good songs that've been killed for you forever through overplaying.]

Corporate businesswave is so perfectly my aesthetic, thank you so much for the recommendation.

If you haven't heard, you should also check out Mitch Murder's Businessfunk mixtapes.

You might also be interested in PilotRedSun's animations and music. He has a kind of similar sensibility.

Animations: https://www.youtube.com/c/PilotRedSun/videos

(Most famous/viral one, though it's also the only one that isn't with music he made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGbhJjXl9Rk)

Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1mUiAjHzAI, https://www.youtube.com/c/Pilotredsky/videos

The Business Casual label on Bandcamp has some nice releases.

Datashat's Businessfunk mixes are the grandparents of businesswave: http://datassette.net/businessfunk/ and https://www.mixcloud.com/Resonance/near-mint-8th-march-2016-...

I really like Spirawave and other "low fi" synth/vapor wave remakes of old video game music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALgDxZZLDbA

If you haven't seen there is a really nice documentary called "The Rise of the Synths".

https://theriseofthesynths.com/ - it's beautifully shot and has John Carpenter as the narrator.

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