halfmatthalfcat 3 days ago

Favorite vaporwave rendition of this: https://adamneelymusic.bandcamp.com/track/k-m-a-r-t

2
amiga386 3 days ago

From "The music theory of V A P O R W A V E" where Adam Neely not only explains and critiques Vaporwave but takes a big steaming dump on it by creating the track that captures and parodies its entire aesthetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdVEez20X_s

He got his source material directly from this archive.org collection, as it says in the opening titles:

"On October 2, 2015, Mark Davis posted his prized collection of digitized K-mart elevator music cassette tapes to archive.org, free for anybody to use.

Vaporwave producers rejoiced."

isoprophlex 3 days ago

Excellent video, thanks for that.

I thought this remark in the comments was pretty interesting:

> Something that helps identify Vaporwave is the natural vibrato that occurs from using tape cassettes etc. I often wonder if vibrato, as an effect, gains it's ability to evoke emotion through a psychological connection with the natural vibrato of a person's wavering voice while near to crying. If so wouldn't that be a potential factor in this kind of music's popularity?

kibwen 3 days ago

It's a good video, but I wouldn't go anywhere near as far as saying he's taking a "big steaming dump" on it. He takes pains to explain why the experience of listening to a piece (accounting for the emotions that a given piece evokes) takes ultimate priority, and the trappings of classical music theory only follow from there. To a listener it doesn't particularly matter if a piece of work is unserious, amateurish, low-effort, etc. if the emotions that it evokes are genuine, and nostalgia is a legitimate emotion to evoke, and sampling from period-appropriate music only enhances that effect.

crabmusket 3 days ago

Here's a whole remix album based on these recordings:

https://juicytheemissary.bandcamp.com/album/attention-kmart-...