Vaporwave

Published on 2025-12-27 13:31:14

Vaporwave is a micro-genre of art and music that emerged on the internet in the early 2010s. It originated from sampling and remixing 1980s and 90s corporate music (elevator music, smooth jazz), TV commercials, and early internet culture. As an aesthetic, it serves as an ironic, surrealist nostalgia for consumer capitalism, techno-utopian promises, and globalization. By repackaging obsolete pop culture symbols, it creates a memory of "a future that never happened." Its core lies in a sense of dislocation and a fascination with digital ruins. Visual Characteristics Color & Light (Pastel & Surrealism): The palette is dominated by soft, dreamy Pastel colors (millennial pink, mint green, lavender, baby blue). However, this is not a warm cuteness, but a hallucinogenic, artificial color scheme, often accompanied by Lo-Fi noise and color distortion. Iconography & Collage: Visually, it relies heavily on the illogical collage of disparate elements: Classical Sculpture: Greco-Roman busts (e.g., Helios, David), often glitched or wearing VR headsets. 90s Tech: Windows 95/98 UI, pop-up windows, primitive 3D renders (dolphins, pyramids, checkerboard floors). Consumer Symbols: Fiji Water, AriZona Iced Tea, Pepsi logos, empty shopping malls. Japanese Elements: Random usage of Katakana or Full-width English characters (ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ) purely as decorative symbols. Glitch & Decay: It simulates VHS tape tracking errors, scanlines, pixelation, and chromatic aberration, aiming to convey an atmosphere of "digital decay" or "fading memory."

Style System

**Role:** You are a Frontend Artist specializing in "Internet Aesthetics" and "Brutalist Web Design." You blend modern CSS3 power with the nostalgic visual language of Geocities and Windows 95. **Task:** Build a Vaporwave aesthetic landing page for "VIRTUAL_PLAZA_95". **[CONFIGURATION]** - **[STYLE_NAME]:** Vaporwave (Aesthetics) - **[TECH_STACK]:** HTML5 + CSS3 (Embedded styles). - **[PAGE_STRUCTURE]:** Marquee Header, Collage Hero, Window Grid, Pricing, Footer. **Technical Requirements:** 1. **Global Variables (`:root`):** - **Pastels:** `--vapor-pink: #ffb7b2;`, `--vapor-mint: #c7f2e3;`, `--vapor-blue: #a2d2ff;`. - **Retro UI:** `--win-gray: #c0c0c0;`, `--win-blue: #000080;`. - **Fonts:** `--font-serif: 'Times New Roman', serif;` (Crucial for Vaporwave), `--font-mono: 'Courier New', monospace;`. 2. **Visual Effects (CSS Aesthetic):** - **Windows 95 Style:** Create a class `.retro-window` with distinct 3D borders (`border-top: 2px solid white; border-bottom: 2px solid black; background: var(--win-gray)`). Add a "Title Bar" div inside with a gradient background. - **Text Styling:** Use `text-shadow` to create "WordArt" style gradients on headings. Use `letter-spacing: 5px` to simulate Ｆｕｌｌ－Ｗｉｄｔｈ text. - **Backgrounds:** Use CSS `repeating-linear-gradient` to create checkerboard floors or grid lines. - **Glitch/VHS:** Add a subtle `@keyframes` animation to images that applies `filter: hue-rotate()` or `transform: skewX()` randomly to simulate a broken VHS tape. - **Blend Modes:** Use `mix-blend-mode: exclusion` or `difference` for overlapping text to create that surreal collage look. 3. **Layout Strategy:** - **The "Collage" Feel:** While using CSS Grid/Flexbox for structure, use `transform: rotate()` and negative margins on specific elements to make them look like a scattered collage of stickers. - **Marquee:** Recreate the `<marquee>` tag effect using CSS animations for the header text. 4. **Specific Elements:** - **Hero:** Must feature a Serif headline (e.g., "ＶＩＲＴＵＡＬ　ＲＥＡＬＩＴＹ") against a gradient background. - **Pricing:** Style pricing cards to look like old floppy disks or VHS tapes. - **Scrollbar:** Custom colorful scrollbar (Pink track, Blue thumb). - The design should feel "intentionally retro" but code should be semantic and modern.