chillwave
Sign in to saveAlso known as glo-fi, downtempo pop, dream-beat
Chillwave is a music microgenre that emerged in the late 2000s. It is characterized by evoking the popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s while engaging with notions of memory and nostalgia. Common features include a faded or dreamy retro pop sound, escapist lyrics (frequent topics include the beach or summer), psychedelic or lo-fi aesthetics, mellow vocals, slow-to-moderate tempos, effects processing (especially reverb), and vintage synthesizers.
Key facts
- Music genre.name
- Chillwave
- Music genre.stylistic_origins
- Bedroom pop dream pop lo-fi hauntology psychedelia electronic indie pop synth-pop electropop shoegaze new wave R&B ambient funk indie rock new-age yacht rock light rock downtempo pop post-noise
- Music genre.cultural_origins
- Late 2000s, United States
- Music genre.instruments
- Vocals synthesizer sampler
- Music genre.derivatives
- Cloud rap vaporwave
- Music genre.other_topics
- Chill-out music Internet music
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Toro y Moi at Hard Rock Cafe.jpg
Show 1 more fact
- inception
- 2008-00-00
via Wikidata · CC0
~19 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Musical origins
- Etymology and hypnagogic pop
- Peak popularity
- Summer of Chillwave and early vanguard
- Vaporwave
- Decline
- Legacy and critical perspective
- 2008 financial crisis, summertime, and escapism
- Internet music genres and validity
- Related terms
- Glo-fi
- References
- External links
Chillwave is a music microgenre that emerged in the late 2000s. It is characterized by evoking the popular music of the late 1970s and early 1980s while engaging with notions of memory and nostalgia. Common features include a faded or dreamy retro pop sound, escapist lyrics (frequent topics include the beach or summer), psychedelic or lo-fi aesthetics, mellow vocals, slow-to-moderate tempos, effects processing (especially reverb), and vintage synthesizers.
Chillwave was one of the first music genres to develop primarily through the Internet. The term was coined in 2009 by the satirical blog Hipster Runoff to lampoon microgenres and indie acts whose sounds resembled incidental music from 1980s VHS tapes. Prior to this, the music would have been labelled as shoegaze, dream pop, ambient, or indietronica. Leading acts included Neon Indian, Washed Out, and Toro y Moi, who gained attention during 2009's "Summer of Chillwave". Washed Out's 2009 track "Feel It All Around" remains the best-known chillwave song.