Subgenres

Flap
Flap is an absurdist (heavily distorted) parody of trap. The genre began with HKE's 2018 proto-flap predecessor: Charming Devil. As "Flappers" began to take to Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and YouTube, themes such as self-aggrandizement, the mundane, brand awareness, animal critters (inspired by the Dream Catalogue Chaos Era), and the memetic phone game Flappy Bird started to take shape via hip-hop flow & lore. Flappy Bird quickly became the icon for the movement. These Flappers often targeted the 2010’s Mumble Rap trend, with style and satire. In January 2019, netlabels Jah's Imprint and Air Flap One began uploading albums with the new Flap moniker. Vapor Memory (the internet music YouTube archive) began uploading onto its offshoot channel, Flappy Memory, as well. The run was short lived. Since then, artists on Jah's Imprint and the obscure corners of SoundCloud have grown the sound into distorted auto-tuned madness. As such, the genre has been compared to Hyperpop. Flap would go on to clash with the greater Dreampunk scene as HKE (under the M & Chesumasuta aliases) and Shima33 (as Yung Flapzilla)—signature Flapper and general manager of Dream Catalogue—showcased the genre on the label & CANVAS podcast. As a result, Shima converted his YouTube account into the single oriented New York Flap Exchange, to further separate the two demographics. The group struggled to find its ground and lasted from May to July in the year 2020, before Dream Catalogue shifted focus back onto Dreampunk as a whole. With Jah’s Imprint slowing down in output in 2020, Flap is without a bastion. The status of this subgenre is currently unknown, but many suspect (and fear) that its fate will be much like that of Icarus.

Intervapeur
Intervapeur focuses on life ambience coupled with Dreampunk sounds. Often focusing on the biological aspects of life, Intervapeur is in and of itself an escape from the cyberpunk hell of the city. Field recordings, nature samples, and synthesized drones are three primary means of crafting these soundscapes. The term started to rise to prominence in the second half of 2019 & early 2020, as it was adopted by the Hollow Point One label with artists such as rütRTL, Sent Down Girl, and SUN CORP. quickly taking the helm.

Hardvapour
Hardvapour, pioneered by wosX (formerly known as Wolfenstein OS X) with support from HKE (as Sandtimer) in 2015, is anti-Vaporwave in nature. Hardvapour contrasts Vaporwave's use of smooth samples & appeal for nostalgia to [instead] craft harsh downtempo-like beats, gabber influenced bass, dark ambient soundscapes, and uncanny sound design. While the two genres may vary significantly, many of the early Hardvapour artists came from the Vaporwave scene, albeit their mindset and goal had changed drastically. The style started to grow in the late 2010's, on labels such as Antifur, PYRAMIDS, SHUT_INS, HVRF CENTRAL COMMAND, and House of the Leg, drawing artists such as AUT2M, Yoshimi, DJ ALINA, and New Shoppe. In the early days of the genre, Antifur and HVRF adopted an Eastern European mythos in conjunction with the warn-down/ dystopian urban landscape, which was often depicted in their album descriptions, cover art, and social media presence. This cultural identity unified Hardvapour with a common geography & lore. With the major players slowing down or shifting away from the style, most of the Hardvapour centric labels have either closed down or gone into stasis (circa 2021). For more information, see the: Hardvapour Wikipedia page.

Post-Internet
Post-Internet is a vague term for experimental music that branched off from Vaporwave and Plunderphonics. Taking place after the undefined “golden age of the internet”, the integrity of art has absorbed the levels of irony and meme culture of the digital world. As Vaporwave artists began incorporating hybridized styles of music, new microgenres such as Vaportrap, Vapornoise, and Ocean Grunge began to form. These new genres found a home in the obscure corners of Bandcamp during the mid to late 2010’s. Post-Internet doesn’t dictate a specific visual or auditory style, but humorous or post-ironic tones would often be incorporated.

Example of producers innovating Vaporwave into new genres include §E▲ ▓F D▓G§, 猫 シ Corp., Blank Banshee, Death’s Dynamic Shroud.wmv, and R23X.