Glossary
Genre terms used throughout the main article, defined here in one place so the article itself can stay readable without re-explaining each one inline.
- Chillwave
- An early-2010s genre of hazy, reverb-heavy electronic pop that blurred conventional song structure into ambience. One of vaporwave's two direct predecessors — see Origins.
- Hypnagogic pop
- A style built from half-remembered fragments of the artist's own childhood media — cassette hiss, VHS warble, half-heard pop radio. Vaporwave's other direct predecessor — see Origins.
- Mallsoft
- A vaporwave subgenre built from the specific acoustic environment of the shopping mall — elevator music, distant food-court noise, PA chimes — rather than from a particular song. See Mallsoft.
- Eco-vapor
- A vaporwave subgenre layering field recordings of nature under warped new-age and environmental-documentary soundtracks, turning the genre's critique of consumer media toward packaged environmentalism. See Eco-vapor.
- Hardvapour
- A harsher, more distorted vaporwave subgenre closer to noise and industrial music than easy listening, with cover art to match. See Hardvapour.
- Simpsonwave
- A visual/audio hybrid pairing vaporwave-processed music with warped, slowed clips of television animation, usually The Simpsons. See Beyond music.
- Vaporware
- A software-industry term for a product announced but never released. The pun the genre's name is built on — see Vaporwave (lead).