The Internet, Consumerism, and Music

Originally written January 5, 2022

    Very few artists are credited with the creation of something entirely unique. Some may point to the Velvet Underground or Captain Beefheart as monoliths in underground music, creating masterpieces unlike anything before or since. As time progressed new and interesting ideas seemed fewer and far between. With the rapid evolution of technology and communication, ideas are spread more rapidly and farther than every before. Trends come and go within the blink of an eye, most unaware of its existence at all. In this modern digital age, it is becoming harder and harder to conceive a totally original concept like it once was. Everything feels like it’s been done already. It’s all become the same. The rising and falling tides of fads wash over us, repeating on loop every 30 years or so. This sterilization of creativity and musical exploration makes Chuck Person’s Eccojams Vol. 1 all the more fascinating and awe inspiring. 

During the hot summer days of 2009, a strange video was uploaded to the video sharing website youtube.com. In this video, a hazy apparition of a rainbow colored road appears in the foreground, bending and twisting at will. Behind it an unwavering view of a low polygon cityscape. Stars in the sky rotate above, as if on a strict timer. The visuals are fascinating for sure, but the real attraction is the soundtrack. On first listen, devoid of context or background information, it sounds like a slowed down version Chris de Burgh’s “Lady in Red” skipping in a CD player. Eccentric yes, but ultimately negligent. Unbeknownst to most at the time, this random surreal video on an unknown YouTube channel would lay the foundation for one of the most profound artistic movements of the Internet age: “Vaporwave”. 

Daniel Lopatin has created an entirely new simulacrum within his music, something so unlike its copy it becomes a new starting point of ideas. Taking pop hits of the 70s and 80s, and twisting them ever so slightly in just the right ways to make a new elegant take on the concept of music creation. Though simplistic in its creation process, maybe even boring, it symbolizes something intrinsic within the music industry: the recyclability and frivolousness of pop music. Pop music has always had the connotation of being bland and soulless associated with it, especially those of pop stars with international success. Some pop music is truly innovative and pushes the boundaries of its genre, but in all honestly much of the music spat out by big conglomerates is in fact bland and soulless. Lopatin had a brilliant idea: why not take pop to its logical conclusion? Make music out of existing pop music. Eccojams is a dystopian view into an alternate future. One where radio music is taken to its absolute limit by capitalism at its fullest potential.

Listening to Eccojams feels like a half remembered dream. It’s a hazy view of what was once known, now fading from memory. Only a few scenes and phrases can make it through the fog, repeating ad infinitum in your mind as you desperately try to grab at what is fading slowly. The concept is childishly simple: take short phrases from existing songs and slow them down and loop into long passages. Lopatin takes what was once thought to be similar, and makes it seem mysterious and unfamiliar. Like an empty mall or abandoned city streets, something feels off about the album. Despite how offputting Eccojams sounds at first, you can’t help but be entranced by the atmosphere. The whole project is heavily dowsed in echo and reverb, not in a psychedelic way, but in a so drowsy you forget where you are way. Bits and pieces of songs that once were are Frankensteined back together, usually using only seconds long fragments to build long interludes of looping vocals. Over time the samples build on top of each other, creating a wave of sound that washes over you little by little.

Most people will probably never know of Daniel Lopatin, let alone of a one off project he produced over 10 years ago limited to 50 cassettes. But they will definitely know of his legacy. Vaporwave, while still alive, has long past its cultural peaks. The majority of music fans, as well as internet users at large, remember vaporwave as a blip in time, a passing fad, a meme. Yes, vaporwave was viewed largely as a joke, but its influence on underground music throughout the 2010s cannot be understated. Eccojams has spawned a wave of new and fresh electronic music spanning a spectrum of styles, all based in the vaporwave production Lopatin created. Not only that but cloud rap has benefited greatly from the atmosphere of vaporwave, adopting the ethereal and dreamlike production into its style.