Vaporwave (British English: vapourwave)[10] is an electronic music subgenre[11] that originated in the early 2010s and spread over the next half of the decade among various Internet communities. It is characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist fascination with entertainment, technology and advertising of the 1980s and 1990s, and styles of both corporate and popular music such as lounge music, smooth jazz and elevator music. Vaporwave music is interpreted as a critique or reflection on consumer capitalism and popular culture. Its name alludes to vaporware, a term for products which are announced but never released.[1]

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).[12] The style often involves classical sculpture, web design, surrealism, low-poly computer renderings, glitch art, VHS recordings, cassette tapes, Japanese art and cyberpunk tropes.[11][1][not in citation given]