Chillwave (also known as glo-fi or dream-beat) is a subgenre of indietronica and hauntology that was popularized in the late 2000s. The genre relies heavily on nostalgic themes and very reverb-heavy vintage synths that create chill relaxing melodies.
Structure[]
Chillwave is characterized by a faded/dreamy pop sound, escapist lyrics about the beach, psychedelic and lo-fi aesthetics, mellow laid-back vocals, low tempos, lots of reverb, and vintage synths. It's a loose emulation of 80's electropop and new wave and associates itself with nostalgia and memory.
History[]
The earliest chillwave album was Paraiso by Haruomi Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band, recorded in 1977 and released in 1978.[1]
The term chillwave can be first seen in a July 2009 post by "Carles", the manager of the blog Hipster Runoff. The blog was known for its ironic posts on new trends. He used the term to describe a host of rising bands, all similar to each other. This marks the first time a genre was popularized by the Internet. The genre didn't gain mainstream use until 2009, marked "the Summer of Chillwave", for a plethora of artists releasing chillwave.
Chillwave's decline began in the mid-2010s. At this point, too many artists were doing it, and critics began to admonish the style as becoming formulaic. By 2016 the genre completely fell out of popular consciousness. Many critics assert, however, that it's worth examining because its simple existence "says far more about a music generation than the music itself ever did." By this time the genre was being used as inspiration in vaporware, hypnagogic pop, synthwave, and other related genres.
References[]
- ↑ Male, Andrew (3 April 2023). "Ryuichi Sakamoto And Yellow Magic Orchestra: The Ten Best Albums". Mojo. Retrieved 9 March 2025.