Aesthetic

About

Aesthetic refers to a series of abstract images, photos and art that are known for feeling oddly perfect, either by having a running theme, following certain patterns or having color palettes that blend well with each other, it is normally described by outsiders as 2deep4u due to the abstract natures of it.

Aesthetic images tend to have a nostalgic underwater pattern, often including objects from the past (specifically he 80´s, 90´s) like videogame consoles, windows 98´s icons and desktop, as well as busts and columns with japanese letters and 80´s filters, however this is only one form of aesthethic (as well as the most common one) popularized by the music movement Vaporwave

Origin

The earliest instance of the use of the word aesthetic in that certain context dates back to 2010^[1] with the start of the vaporwave music movement, a genre that includes 80´s elevator music slowed down, as well as certain covers that consist of japanese characters, busts and windows icons,which were then called aesthethics.

Spread

After the increase in popularity of vaporwave, multiple blogs on tumblr appeared^[2]^[3], taking pictures within the same branch of vaporwave covers, soon they started to branch off to create their own types of aesthetic images, which could be described as oddly satisfactory and nostalgic.

This popularity was seen as more types of music outside of vaporwave would take on to its trends and bear similarities, one of which would include swedish rapper Yung Lean (shown below, left)

Soon after, multiple images parodying the original aesthethic started appearing on 4chan and tumblr^[4]^[5], mainly where the vaporwave movement started, normally mocking it with an overload of its own characteristics

On Jul 21, 2014, Youtube user 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).