Vaporwave is a musical and visual art genre, originating in the 2010's. It is characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist fascination with entertainment, technology and advertising of the 1980s and 1990s.
Many have interpreted vaporwave music as a critique or reflection on consumer capitalism and popular culture, as its name alludes to vaporware, a term for products that are announced but never released.
The visual style of vaporwave (as seen on album covers and music videos) is commonly referred to as aesthetics (often stylized as "ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ", with fullwidth characters).
The style often involves classical sculpture, web design, surrealism, low-poly computer renderings, glitch art, VHS recordings, cassette tapes, Japanese art and cyberpunk tropes.
