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We Still Love Vaporwave (Part 2)

8 great albums from the grown-up period of the genre (2016–25)

Stephan Kunze's avatar
Stephan Kunze
Aug 31, 2025
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Vaporwave first appeared in the early 2010s, but the genre’s golden age lasted for just a few years.

The aesthetic would get co-opted by the mainstream, but the music – due to its heavy use of unlicensed samples – wasn’t set up for commodification.

By the middle of the decade, the hypetrain moved on.

Some producers kept to the original style, developing …

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