Album Mock Production 2017

For my production task I have decided to create the front, back and inside covers of a vapourwave album. Vapourwave is defined as an electronic micro-genre, which originated in the 2010's. The micro-genre itself however, is based upon a nostalgia for the technological boom of the 1980's and 1990's. Early forms of the windows operating system and Apples Machintosh computers inspire not only the soundtracks but the imagery as well. Musically, Vapourwave is much slower than standard electronic music as it is modified from lounge and jazz music, which naturally have a slower tempo. Graphically Vapourwave displays abstract ideas of an existence unbound by cultural conformities of the physical world. Culturally Vapourwave is all about the unity of different people from all races and backgrounds in a digital world. 

The image on the album depicts a pink and a blue light, each in a cage overlapping each other on stone tiles in the night. Being in a cage, the pink light is representative of the human existence, and the belief that a person's life is very small and limited. And the blue light is representative of a digital existence and how limited it can be without human aid. The merging of the two lights therefore is illustrating how man and machine will be evolved with the aid of each other, and that only by creating a digital self can we really be free in the physical cage in which we live in. Moving along we come across the lack of a background image, I have used that to show the lack of our understanding of human existence and the universe. The absence of an image makes people question what should be there? And what does existence mean? Media theorist Jaques Lacan wrote about how humans, when they look in a mirror picture something they aspire to be: Desire is the desire of the other. Applying that to my album image; the image describes that only when we question our true existence and the place of that in our dark universe can we merge with another and become something greater than ourselves, reaching a physical existence that we truly desire.  

Vapourwave as a genre is all about questioning and then displaying those questions and theories in the form of music or art. The introduction of an early form of the internet in the 1980's had people pondering upon the perplexities of life itself. In 1996 Jameraquai, a famous pop music artist, produced the song: 'virtual insanity'. The lyrics described a fear of merging with technology. And that technology only produces excess, and will leave people 'living underground' with little to no actual physical existence. Ultimately however, as time progressed people felt more comfortable with living with technology and the song fell into the counter-type side of the argument. This argument has been continued for decades, as technology becomes more advanced by the day, international critics still take a negative stand point on all this 'smart technology' and its role in the modern-day world.  

Going back to the album, the name: 'Digital daydreams' is an oxymoron, as daydreams cannot be digital; thus, it contradicts itself. Daydreams are when a person detaches themselves mentally, from their physical surroundings, often thinking nice thoughts and fantasies. Digitizing those dreams would mean artificially creating them and thus, breaking natures law. The title itself sits above the image of the lights, this emphasizes the importance of the title as people look at the top of an image first. The font which the title is written is, uniformed and is displayed clearly. This makes sure that the person can easily see the title, whilst it maintains an aesthetic role. The work of the theorist Stuart Hall would not apply here, as because of the unity created by the anonymousness at which the music is created, there would be no alternative readings from backgrounds which have access to such things as the newest tech. Other backgrounds however without access to such things wouldn't be able to understand a lot of the concepts. Not having been exposed to the mass nostalgia of a 'simpler day', they would not understand the relation between such images and the deeper philosophical arguments in which they represent. 

Overall, I think that I successfully represented the cultural character of the vapourwave micro-genre to my target audience. By using my image and layout correctly, I have effectively conveyed an ideology of a digital unity, where the idea of harmonising with technology is a comforting thought rather than a distressing one.