NIKE7UP: Destroying Pop Music Since 2010 (and still no one's heard of him)

Hello all,

It's time to discuss one of my favorite musicians of all time: NIKE7UP, a remix artist that focuses on chopping & screwing pop music into heavy non-traditional club bangers.

NIKE7UP is an artist shrouded in mystery, there is almost nothing known about him or his identity, he rarely posts on his social media pages and has only posted a handful of songs but each song is more tantalizing than the next. NIKE7UP's mysterious underground practices don't end there; his minuscule following can be confidently described as "cult" (at most) and he has been known to randomly show up at NYC nightclubs and perform but this is a rare occasion that is never promoted. NIKE7UP is an enigmatic artist surrounded by rumor and conjecture but there is no doubt that his music is fresh and unique.

NIKE7UP's music can be characterized by heavy driving beats set over chopped and screwed pop music. When considered separately these characteristics may seem generic and uninteresting but mixed together the result is something unique. I will refer to my personal favorite NIKE7UP song "SO REAL NIKE7UP BELONG TO MIX"; this is a song that feels as though it's at home when being blasted over the buzzing speakers of some destroyed makeshift red-lit club in the basement of a hipster drug den. The compressed Mandy Moore vocals in the intro offer a bit of misdirection, making the audience feel as though they are just getting another run of the mill remix until 5 seconds later when a deep, buzzing synthetic bass beat over powers the vocals and sends the audience spiraling into a dark dream state of dub club catatonia; listeners feel compelled to turn off the lights, close their eyes and just bounce with the beat.

Another great example of NIKE7UP's dark, unique stylistics can be found in his song "ME MYSELF & TIME NIKE7 <3 MIX" (this song is download only but the download is small and safe). The song begins with a effect driven restyling of Demi Lovato's vocals with a heavy driving beat. The vocals repeat for minutes while the effects and back beat morph and dissolve into others and then the song snaps back into a fast beat with new vocals leading the audience to think the song has hit its peak; there can't be any surprises left right? Wrong. The second wave of Lovato lyrics and beat continue for another few minutes gradually slowing down with almost unbearable tension until the song breaks into a loud explosion of digital bass that seems to pound in your chest and you can't help but dance along in an almost orgasmic release of anticipation. This song could drive a club of X poppers into an unstoppable and likely fatal dance freak out reminiscent of something you'd see in a movie about drunk college kids.

Whether or not these stylings are up your alley they are certainly an interesting and new take on club remixes. With only a few thousand followers, NIKE7UP offers a truly underground take on club remixes, taking it into the realm of dark heavy digital remix rather than the poppy upbeats that many remixes currently thrive on.

NIKE7UP is a personal favorite of mine and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Check out NIKE7UP's complete catalog on Tumblr. It's free.

Thanks for reading,
Alex

Vaporwave Music

Hello All,

Out there in the vast entity that is the internet, there exists a new genre of music that was created to only exist in a hidden, low-key online only venue and after an explosion of new fans it was labeled a dead genre by its creators. This genre of music is called Vaporwave and its incredibly interesting.

Vaporwave music was created by musician Chuck Person (aka Daniel Lopatin of Oneotrix Point Never) with the release of Eccojams Vol. 1 which was posted into a music forum where it quickly gained fans and sprouted many forum boards dedicated specifically to sharing and creating Vaporwave music. The movement continued to grow from there, quickly developing many contributing artists and manifestos, until finally an online only event was created where lead Vaporwave contributors would invite fans to secret chat rooms where they could watch the artists perform via videochat; this event was called SPF420 and was considered the birth of Vaporwave. The Vaporwave community grew exponentially after the event and the number of contributing artists skyrocketed. Here is an image detailing essential Vaporwave artists that was created and shared to aid listeners in sorting through the masses of Vaporwave artists. Give some of the artists a listen here, here and here.

Vaporwave is characterized by a highly digitally manipulated dreamy sound created from chopped, pitch shifted and effect driven remixes of 90's commercial jingles and pop music meant to convey the feeling of drifting through a digital mall of the future.. Many songs are titled in Japanese or written as computer files and all accompanying visual media is highly rooted within a distorted 90's digital consumerist aesthetic. The Vaporwave community describes this aesthetic through a manifesto of sorts:

"Global capitalism is nearly there. At the end of the world there will only be liquid advertisement and gaseous desire. Sublimated from our bodies, our untethered senses will endlessly ride escalators through pristine artificial environments, more and less than human, drugged-up and drugged down, catalysed, consuming and consumed by a relentlessly rich economy of sensory information, valued by the pixel.

The Virtual Plaza welcomes you, and you will welcome it too."


After the release of this "manifesto" and a related article, the Vaporwave community experienced another population/popularity burst and more artists began contributing and (according to the original contributors) changing the genre from its original stylistics; after this burst the community then began to consider Vaporwave to be a "dead" genre despite the fact that artists were/are still creating and sharing Vaporwave music.


And this all happened within a few months. Online. At no point in the life of Vaporwave was there any physical media.


And it's all free.


Check out some more artists:

Saint Pepsi- Hit Vibes

Disconcious- Hologram Plaza

Unpleasant Nostalgia- 2D Memories




Thanks for reading,

Alex

Shaye Saint John and the Experimental "Deep YouTube"

Hello All,

I've been deliberating a proper way to introduce you all to the experimental side of YouTube, which is often called "Deep YouTube" or "That part of YouTube".  I've found the perfect introduction- meet Shaye Saint John and prepare yourself. Shaye Saint John is a quintessential introduction to the mind numbing, confusing material that is consistently uploaded to the depths of YouTube and missed by many.

Deep YouTube is a place on YouTube that many people reach after following the downward spiral of related videos until reaching hidden, under viewed content that has been pushed out of the public eye by popular, more viewed videos under similar search tags. It can typically be challenging to consciously get to Deep YouTube but it is easy to identify when you have reached it.

A Deep YouTube video can generally (not always) be identified by a relatively low view count , a lo-fi or digital aesthetic, garbled or highly compressed audio, and unflinchingly bizarre content matter. Many of these films are simple videos that have no purpose other than to confuse, humor and assault you with avant-garde or experimental imagery and sound. Not all Deep YouTube videos have a purpose or were created for artistic gain, many are simple editing or animation experiments that were never intended to reach the internet, but somehow did.

But this is not the case with Shaye Saint John; every SSJ film was created with purpose by the late Eric Fournier who had heavy ties to The California Institute of Abnormal Arts; there is very little information on Fournier other than speculation on his death and his online persona Shaye Saint John.

The SSJ films are incredibly interesting; watching them produce a unique feeling of confusion: do you react with laughter, screaming, or crying? Its tough to describe this feeling without experiencing it first hand, so watch this and be conscious of how the video makes you feel.

Are you disgusted? Amused? Terrified? Horribly confused? All of these feelings are appropriate. In fact, feeling confused after watching SSJ seems to be the exact intent of Fournier. The combination of brainless dialogue, the lo-fi aesthetic and cheesy Windows Movie Maker effects culminate to create a series of films that look like they came directly from an asylum and make you feel like you belong in one.

This is why I believe SSJ and other experimental Deep YouTube videos to be important; in a time where shock value, irony and insincerity reign over media, these Deep YouTube videos still find a way to instill genuine feeling into an audience through rejection of classic structure or logic and by embracing heavily stylized low quality imagery and sound that forces the viewer to challenge their view on the need for structure in media.

Shaye Saint John-

Intent- While information on Eric Fournier is limited, the info out there states that Shaye Saint John was a character created to confuse and terrify the few lucky enough to encounter his films. There is clear intent by Fournier to create a piece of art with his work as SSJ, although the exact reasoning and theory remain to be seen, although I believe it to be Fournier's attempt to instill genuine confusion within an audience that has become numb to internet media.

Oddness- The SSJ films are incredibly odd and confusing, to the point of being legitimately disturbing. There is almost no way to describe how odd the films are without experiencing for yourself. So here is another, I'm sure you'll agree...it's odd.

Findability- Shaye Saint John is easy to find online. His name is scattered throughout the internet and videos are posted on multiple websites and forums randomly in hopes that viewers will stumble onto them and have an intense reaction. The point of the SSJ films is not to find them and watch them, but to encounter them when you'd least expect and have yourself a confusing good time.

Satisfaction- Personally, I find SSJ to be very satisfying. The films create genuine confusion. But the true satisfaction of Shaye Saint John comes from sharing the film and watching others go through the same roller coaster of confused, disgusted, disturbed emotion. It's truly a communal experience. None of us really get it, and that's great.


Other Deep YouTube videos:

Sausage Groove

You're Correct Horse

The New Kid

Snospis Eht

Sad Toy Cats

2016

Mom Ordered Ants for My Birthday

Garfielf


What are some of your favorite Deep YouTube videos? Comment and share!

Thanks for reading,
Alex