There are millions of songs known to man, from Mozart to Lil Pump. Somehow, millions of music listeners have been captivated by modern pop music. This trend has been almost unbearable with regurgitated tunes all over the radio and social media. There is a chance you either totally agree with me and could have a candid conversation with me on the topic, or more likely you would enjoy punching me in the face as you blast Taylor Swift or Cardi B.

I grew up astray from most pop music. Rather than listening to the radio and hearing whatever insincere local garbage was playing, I heard the tunes from my dad’s iPod. Due to this luck and my dad’s personal taste in music, I didn’t have to hear any of the modern wasteland musicals. Listening to this music gave me a similar taste in music to my dad, which mostly consists classic rock with some exceptions.

Somewhere down the line I developed an interest in electronic music. I imagine I gathered this interest through my old friend who had shown me songs from artists like Skrillex. I fortunately outgrew that phase. Later I met another friend who directed me to a new genre of music that I had never discovered before, and it is a genre that I will hopefully forever enjoy.

While casually browsing the web one day, I heard the chime indicating a direct message. My formerly introduced friend had sent me a YouTube video link to the song by artist Macintosh Plus. I clicked the link as I tend to do. My ears were delighted to be experiencing what they were for the entire seven minutes and twenty-two seconds. My friend tells me before I can ask that it is called “vaporwave” and that he enjoys listening to it. I pretended to know what it was and told him I liked the song.

I had never been so withdrawn from reality before whilst listening to a song. I hadn’t memorably heard vaporwave before and I only now understand the genre. Vaporwave is one of the most recent, simple, and fascinating music genres. The lyrics in this song are practically irrelevant to me. The vaporwave genre is about taking a sample of an existing song and editing it to make it sound a certain way; the lyrics aren’t usually meant to mean anything. The title of this song is also fairly irrelevant as it consists of Japanese characters with the number 420 stamped in the middle.

So then, why this song? Why is this song important to me above all others? I catch myself day after day listening to this song purely for the effects it has on me. There is not one major special experience I have had with this song but many as it has allowed me to cross my very own mental threshold of reality when I couldn’t handle things on my own. There are other songs that can perform similar actions to this one, but there is still no song exactly like it.

My experience with this song has been limited in some ways, but not in others. I have used this song on many occasions to help me fall asleep. This song keeps me going in some ways. It’s a part of who I am, why I am. There is art and there is industry; this song is a lifestyle.

This song encourages me to be a specific way in life without it’s lyrics. The lyrics are there mainly to kickstart the beat in my head. When I hear “it’s your move” or “time is running out” I instantly remember how the song goes. When I hear “time is running out” I think about it a little bit, and then try not to. I use the song to not only catch the tranquil feeling it gives me but to escape, and pondering these existential thoughts doesn’t help. In an almost indescribable way, the song pushes me to be my best carefree self.

This song is undoubtedly a part of who I am, as is everything we as people experience on a daily basis. This song is fantastic, and a great introduction to the vaporwave genre. I acknowledge Macintosh Plus for creating such a fantastic product, as well as my friend for introducing me to it. Artists like Macintosh Plus keep art in the form of music alive. They battle trash industry music by creating genuinely good music, and that’s how it ought to be.