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mattyb712

What was the deal with "chillwave?"

I've been in the mood for hazy, dreamy, dream-pop style music lately and decided to finally check out Washed Out. I think they're a pretty cool combination of sounds and I can see myself listening to them a bit this summer.

But I've seen reference to this "chillwave" genre being controversial. What's the deal? I'll admit the name "chillwave" is kind of awful, but is there more to it? What's the state of this "genre" now?

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ntry

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Washed Out is really great. A few people did it incredible well (Washed Out, Neon Indian, Toro Y Moi). The controversy overall was that the focus was mostly on the nostalgic feel of the music rather than songwriting or song form. I personally love Washed Out and Toro Y Moi - who both moved beyond that sound.

Also controversy came from the fact that ton of people copied the formula with less success. It was easy to recreate the vague feel with heavy reverb on synthesizers and by excessively using a production technique called side chaining (what gives the records that pumping/abruptly-wavy feel).

PepeSylvia11

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If it hasn't already begun SynthPop is going that same route. The over abundance of meaningless, big beat, darting synth structures is gonna kill any hope the genre had.

mattyb712

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I feel like synthpop always has (well, since the 80s) and always will exist though. The term itself may be less and less descriptive, but as an overarching genre I can't see it disappearing.

PepeSylvia11

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True. I didn't mean it'll die, it definitely won't since it has its place, just more that it will be taken less seriously I feel. People won't be looking to it for incredible albums, even though with the sound and style it could be pulled off.

ThatParanoidPenguin

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Chillwave is dead, but it biggest artists do still make music. Like other people said, it was kind of a meaningless term, and while I was a huge fan, I'm not surprised it had zero staying power. Honestly, I'm just glad that my favorite artists of the subgenre, Neon Indian and Washed Out, still make music (though I'm still waiting on something from the former).

lushacrous

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I feel like it just didn't organically become a thing, and was kind of a forced (from fans and bands) fad that blew its load waaaaay too fast. Also, as a word, it doesn't really mean much of anything, and I don't think there's ever been a band that was pure chillwave, and instead every single chillwave band's sound/genre could somewhat easily be described without using the word "chillwave". So I think chillwave is dead in the same way that any serious definition of the word hipster is dead.

jaytothe

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First and foremost, people had trouble buying into it because the term 'chillwave' was coined by someone who is basically a joke writer (people who just got into indie music the last couple years won't understand how much influence and run said writer received for a few years). I think chillwave is sort of a cheesy phrase, but not any more than 'rock and roll' or 'hip hop'.

Second, it had a weird rise because a bunch of artists had very similar sounds out of nowhere in a very short period of time. Almost all of these artists were making their debut EPs and such at this point, so a lot of people sort of had the feeling like 'apparently anyone can pick up their computer and become a chillwave star', since there seemed to be a new chillwave artist every week at its peak.

Third, I think artists that don't really play traditional instruments inherently rub a portion of the musical public the wrong way. Add that with the fact that a lot of chillwave borrows sound from the 80's and you have a lot of people feeling like these artists are phonies and no-talents.

Furthermore, the most successful artists to come from chillwave so far are ones that moved away and "evolved" from that sound quicker than others (Toro y Moi, Washed Out). People see this and the relatively short time that it dominated the indie blogosphere as affirmation that chillwave was just a fad.

That said, I think almost everything I said above is backward thinking. I love a lot of the music to come out of the chillwave era, and Neon Indian, who is still probably one of my three favorite artists right now, was last making music that sounds close to what it did during that era. I love all music, and I think the people who dismiss something for having a dumb genre label are equally dumb.

[deleted]

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something to note is that chillwave occurred in conjunction with the peak of the 'hipster' movement in its most recent conception, hyped to hell by blogs like hipsterrunoff and the like, which is in part responsible for the backlash it received.

MightyProJet

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I think one of the crucial factors is that it evoked a non-specific feeling of nostalgia. They all had a sound that sounded sort of familiar, like the song sounded like something you loved as a kid, but had forgotten until now. For me, this was especially the case with Toro Y Moi. It all sounded so familiar, but I couldn't place it.

Then about 3 weeks ago, Chaz curated an hour-long playlist for Sirius XMU that was 90% mid-to-late 70s underground soul-pop.

THAT WAS IT.

That swooning soul groove. That not-quite-famous-enough-to-be-remastered fuzz. The way that it borrowed well-known soul motifs, without sounding like it copied anyone. It was that perfect combination of fake-familiarity and a blink-and-you-miss-it sound.

marceloadelar

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I personally was taken back then by some of the bands, and I still love Toro y Moi and Washed Out, since they've moved on to a more accomplished and broad sound. But things like teen daze, blackbird blackbird, millionyoung, sun glitters and memoryhouse/tapes have not hold through and are quite relegated to that sort or polaroid-y/gorilla vs bear feel. The nostalgic thing it's probably what hits the most. Bands like Wild Nothing, Real Estate, Beat Connection, Friendly Fires and Blue Hawaii were commonly placed among the "chillwave trend" back then, but I don't think there's much similarity between them except some "naive-craving take me back to that summer when I was 14" feel.

[deleted]

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The only chillwave band I ever listened to was Neon Indian and they're coming out with new stuff. Other bands I've listened to did not pull it off very well. Never really saw it as a trend because I didn't discover the genre till 2 years ago. In fact....I don't know anybody who listens to chillwave. If anything its just a continuation or inspiration from shoegazing or 80's/90's dream pop.