Andrei's Vaporwave Era

Andrei's Vaporwave Era is an ongoing obsession user Andrei has with the music genre an occasional aesthetic of Vaporwave. The era started in Summer 2022.

## Timeline

On April 13th, 2022, Andrei heard his first ever Vaporwave album, Infinity Frequencies' 2018 Broken Transmission classic *Between Two Worlds.* It is well known that Andrei had seen the album when looking at the RYM genre page of Broken Transmission, and was intrigued by the album's cover and descriptors. The leading theory is that Andrei had originally seen the Broken Transmission genre on 2011's *Replica* by Oneohtrix Point Never. Andrei's original rating for the album was an 8/10.

Although he really enjoyed the album, Andrei didn't return to Vaporwave until a few months later in July, when he listened to the famous Vaporwave album *I'll Try Living Like This* by Death's Dynamic Shroud. Andrei had known about the album for a while, but finally decided to listen to the album because he wanted to listen to more plunderphonics. While he didn't think the album was amazing, Vaporwave had caught his interest, and later that night he asked his fellow Hellfire Chat members for Vaporwave recommendations. Portuguese sensation Rater ratings suggested *新しい日の誕生* (Birth Of A New Day) by 2814. Andrei's subsequent liking of the album is seen as the start of the Vaporwave Era.

The next Vaporwave album Andrei listened to was *仮想夢プラザ* by Virtual Dream Plaza, on of the top rated Mallsoft albums on RYM. Andrei discovered the Mallsoft subgenre from *Between Two Worlds*, where it was a secondary to the album (a decision that Andrei strongly disagrees with).

The next few weeks saw Andrei on a listening spree of Vaporwave, not always rating all that he heard. It was during this time that he listened to "Classics" in the genre, such as *Floral Shoppe* by Macintosh Plus, *Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1* by Chuck Person, and *星間性交* (Interstellar Intercourse) by t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者.

Although it has slowed down a bit since the summer, Andrei insists that the Vaporwave era is still ongoing. He still regularly views the Vaporwave charts, and considers and sometimes chooses vaporwave albums when deciding the next album he listens to.

## Influence

The Vaporwave Era has proved to be quite influential. The obsession led to Andrei's appreciation of related genres like Plunderphonics and Hypnagogic Pop. It also had a big influence on the Hellfire Chat, where the phrase "Stfu I'm listening to \_\_\_" which originated from the obsession became very popular with many variations. Andrei has said himself that if he were to make his own music, he would likely make vaporwave or a vaporwave inspired project. He discovered artists like Infinity Frequencies, James Ferraro, Oneohtrix Point Never, and t e l e p a t hテレパシー能力者 during this time, some of which became some of his favorite artists.

It is because of this obsession that Andrei was legally allowed to put "Vaporwave Enthusiast" in his AOTY bio.

## Trivia

* Andrei has Vaporwave officially listed as one of his favorite genres on RYM
* Fellow AOTY user Doofly is also an official Vaporwave enthusiast, and them and Andrei often discuss vaporwave together.