Published : 2026-01-14

Music, Aesthetics, and Nostalgia: Ideological Appropriations of Digital Audiovisual Trends

Abstract

Music has always served as a medium for conveying ideological content, but in the digital age it has gained new possibilities for reinterpretation and adaptation. This article examines two internet- based aesthetic-musical movements—vaporwave and synthwave—as well as their ideological appropriations in the form of subgenres such as laborwave, tradwave, and fashwave. I explore how these nostalgia-driven styles become spaces for various political and propagandistic narratives. Particular attention is given to the phenomenon of the “colonization” of internet audiovisual aesthetics and how their elements can be utilized as tools of influence in the digital sphere.

Keywords:

vaporwave, synthwave, nostalgia, audiovisual propaganda, internet culture



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Roczniki Humanistyczne · ISSN 0035-7707 | eISSN 2544-5200 | DOI: 10.18290/rh
© The Learned Society of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin & The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

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