Aesthetic

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About

Aesthetic, often stylized as a e s t h e t i c or ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ in either uppercase or lowercase fullwidth characters, is a term that refers to retro-inspired visual art and music associated with the vaporwave subculture, which typically include Japanese lettering and nostalgic themes from 1980s and 1990s computer operating systems and video game consoles. Additionally, the term is widely associated with the 2012 vaporwave song "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー" by Macintosh Plus.

Origin

The term has its origins in the philosophy of art, in which "aesthetics" is considered the study of beauty and taste. In the early 2010s, the term was adopted by vaporwave enthusiasts with the rise of the genre on Tumblr, often accompanied by art styles from the 1980s and 1990s. On February 14th, 2012, the Vaporwave artist Macintosh Plus released the album Floral Shoppe which included the song "リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュー" that many began associating with the term "aesthetic" (shown below). Over the next five years, YouTuber ramiendoche's upload of the song gained over 7.4 million views and 24,000 comments.

Spread

On November 24th, 2013, Vaporwave artist Savvy J uploaded a music video titled "♋ AESTHETIC ♋" (shown below).

On July 21st, 2014, YouTuber FrankJavCee uploaded a satirical video on how to make vaporwave, in which he heavily mentions the use of aesthetics and describes it as a ''pretentious hipster way of saying beautiful'' (shown below, left). On December 30th, the /r/vaporwaveaesthetics^[7] subreddit was launched. On February 23rd, 2015, YouTuber KidPOV uploaded a music video titled "The Aesthetic Song," which parodies the use of the term in online communities (shown below, right).

On July 15th, YouTuber FrankJavCee uploaded a satirical tutorial video titled "HOW TO VISUAL AESTHETIC part one" (shown below, left). On November 13th, Redditor Hp9rhr submitted a post asking "What is up with a e s t h e t i c?" to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[6] On December 13th, YouTuber Eviqz uploaded a vaporwave mix titled "ＡｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃＭｅｍｅｓ" (shown below, right).