Guide · 6 min read
What is vaporwave music?
Vaporwave is a genre and an internet aesthetic from the early 2010s. It takes the background music of the 80s and 90s (smooth jazz, elevator muzak, adverts, soft R&B), slows it down, loops it and drowns it in reverb until it sounds like a half-remembered shopping trip in a dream.
Where it came from
Vaporwave grew up on music blogs, Bandcamp, Tumblr and forums around 2010 to 2012. Records often named as early touchstones are Daniel Lopatin’s Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1 (2010), James Ferraro’s Far Side Virtual (2011) and Macintosh Plus’s Floral Shoppe (2011), whose slowed-down sample loops became the sound most people picture.
What it sounds like
- Slowed and pitched-down samples of old commercial music, often looped for a long time.
- Heavy reverb and tape wobble, so everything feels far away.
- Smooth, glossy instruments: fretless bass, electric piano, saxophone, digital synth pads.
- A feeling more than a beat: nostalgia, irony, calm, a little melancholy.
What it looks like
The visuals matter as much as the music: pastel pink and teal, sunsets and palm trees, old computer desktops and screensavers, VHS fuzz, marble busts, shopping malls and Japanese text. This site borrows that look in a gentle, readable way: a 90s-style desktop, VHS-tape channels and a taskbar player.
Vaporwave, chillwave, synthwave and lofi
| Style | When | Sound | Here? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vaporwave | Early 2010s, online | Slowed, looped samples of 80s/90s smooth jazz, muzak and pop; lots of reverb; pastel early-web visuals. | Sample-based, so often not safe to use in videos. |
| Chillwave | Around 2009 | Hazy synths, washed-out vocals, nostalgic summer feel. | Closest relative of Purrple Cat’s dreamier albums. |
| Mallsoft | Early 2010s | Vaporwave that sounds like an empty shopping mall: echoey muzak, crowd murmur, fountains. | Inspired the Dream Mall channel (no store recordings used). |
| Future funk | Early 2010s | Upbeat, French-house-style chops of disco and Japanese city pop. | Much faster and danceable; not what this site plays. |
| Synthwave | Mid 2000s on | 80s film and game soundtrack synths, drum machines, neon driving vibes. | A cousin, not vaporwave; more polished and energetic. |
| Lofi hip hop | 2010s | Dusty drums, jazzy chords, vinyl crackle, made for studying and relaxing. | Purrple Cat’s home base. |
So is Purrple Cat vaporwave?
Honestly, no, not in the strict sense. Purrple Cat writes original lofi and chillwave: dreamy synths, soft drums, warm keys. There are no chopped-up samples of other people’s records. What it shares with vaporwave is the mood: neon cities at 3 A.M., space screensavers, pastel sunsets, the fuzzy feeling of an old memory. If that mood is what you love about vaporwave, you will feel at home here.
Where to start
- Space and screensavers: CH01 Cosmic Screensaver
- Neon city nights: CH02 Midnight Drive
- Hazy, half-asleep chillwave: CH03 Hypnagogic Haze
- Mallsoft-inspired plaza vibes: CH04 Dream Mall
- Aqua sunsets: CH05 Aqua Horizon
Can I use vaporwave music in my videos?
Classic vaporwave is built on samples of other people’s records, so it is rarely safe to use. Purrple Cat’s music is original and licensed CC BY 4.0: free with credit on all social media platforms and in livestreams. Just don’t upload it, or remixes, samples or covers of it, to music streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube Music, because that causes false Content ID claims. Credit it like this:
Music by Purrple Cat
