What the Heck is Chillwave?
Sometime during my foray into the world of electronica, I stumbled upon the microgenre known as “chillwave” and I immediately took a liking to it. It’s kind of exactly what it sounds like — music to simply “chill” to. It has roots in pop and electronic music and infuses a faded, dreamy, lo-fi sound, laid-back vocals, relatively slow tempos, and lots of effects. It relies on images and lyrics of daydreaming and nostalgia, usually of summer activities like the beach, the pool, or surfing. Chillwave can also be called glo-fi, bedroom pop, or hypnagogic pop, but I’m not really a fan of those labels. It’s influenced by and contains many elements of shoegaze, dream pop, indietronica, ambient, surf pop, and psychedelic pop. Oh, and many people think it was a quick fad and is already dead.
The more I research Chillwave, the more I realize that in fact, I know very little about it. I’m not familiar with many artists that are considered huge influences on the genre. Of the artists I do know and enjoy, I still have many albums to check out. Since music is an endless discovery for me, I’m sure I will continue finding new artists in the genre. Until then, here are 8 artists that helped introduce me to Chillwave.
