Question 02 / 09
Why is it called vaporwave?
The name folds “vaporware” — the tech-industry term for a product announced and never shipped — into the “-wave” suffix that electronic genres like chillwave already used. Some readings also tie it to Marx's “all that is solid melts into air,” which fits a genre about hollow consumer-tech promises. Producer Will Burnett is generally credited with coining the term around 2011.