Chapter 318 The Music of 'Vapor Wave'
The heavy aircraft took off from the valley, and the blue air flow sprayed, slowly lifting the fuselage.
In the cabin, Tilan sat next to the seat by the window. There was an incubator on the round table in front of her. Five little birds were huddled together for warmth, wrapped in white fluff, like five plush balls.
The roar outside the window gradually weakened, and the aircraft slowly rose into the sky and began to accelerate.
As if remembering something, Tilan took out a small chip from her pocket. It had a bright dark pink color, dotted with bright blue foam dots like ink splashes, and it was very new.
After looking at the chip, Tilan waved gently to the self-discipline unit not far away and said something. Then it came to the girl with the player in its arms and placed the dark gray and wood brown player on the table.
The appearance style of this player imitates the old tape recorders, and it looks a bit retro and mechanical.
Press the button on it, the slot pops open, Tilan presses the chip in with her finger, then closes it, and soon the small screen of the player shows a changing array of colored dots, which then aggregate into a line of text.
['Polka Dot Recorder' - Mei]
Then the text fades away, and the dots representing the ups and downs of the tone appear, and then a slightly lazy and brisk song starts, which makes people feel relaxed, like being tipsy with wine, like walking in an alley at night, with lights flashing and bright walls covered with graffiti.
This is a gift from a singer from the Right Angle Star Region. Her full name is Mei Fantini Zenani, but generally people call her 'Polka Dot Recorder', which is her favorite title and one she chose herself.
Mei became famous relatively late. She was discovered to be a singer at the age of 29, and before that, she had been working and living as an ordinary cashier.
The Right Angle Frame Star Region is located in the south of the Federation territory, and is separated from the Four Leaf Crystal Star Region by three star regions. It was an early Federation star region, but the economy was not developed, and it was also full of pollution, toxicity, radiation, etc. It can be said that the situation is very similar to that of the Four Leaf Crystal.
However, unlike the Four Leaf Crystal, the Right Angle Frame Star Region is quite old, and its earliest development period can be traced back to the early Fourth Era.
There are still traces of the ancient times there, with a large number of abandoned steel buildings, giant projects across the continental shelf, rusty forest mazes on the seabed, and ancient machinery factories with smoke and steam curling around.
Mei grew up in such an environment. Her father was a mechanical repairman, and her mother made a living by making simple work meals with a steam furnace.
Mei did not go to middle school. She dropped out of school to work after graduating from elementary school. If it was an area under the jurisdiction of the Federation, it would not be like this, but the area where she lived was not. It was a small town in a sea of ruins full of radiation and rust, and the most frequent people were salvagers who came to search for treasure.
These salvagers drive modified submarines deep into the waters full of corrosive radiation and mutated sea beasts to salvage goods or items left over from the Fourth and Fifth Epochs. Occasionally, if they are lucky, they can find good antiques and then sell them in the Central Prosperous Star Region.
As a child, Mei did not have the conditions to receive music education. Her biggest hobby was probably to listen to the songs played by the old tape recorder at home.
It was an antique, said to be a product of the early Fourth Epoch, and could play music recorded on tapes.
The tape recorder was repaired by her father, who originally wanted to sell it for money, but because he saw that Mei was holding on to it when she was a child and refused to let it go, the father who loved his daughter finally gave up the idea of selling it for money.
There were only two tapes accompanying the tape recorder, and Mei listened to the songs recorded in them over and over again. No matter every beat in it, or the noise and blur in the tape, or even the place where the tape was stuck, she was deeply imprinted in her mind.
This also became her music style in the future.
At the age of 13, Mei began to help her mother cook meals and sell them to the salvage workers. Later, when she was a little older, she went to work as a cashier in a store in the small town.
The small town where they lived could not be connected to the federal central bank network, and the store could not afford expensive credit card machines. The transaction currency used was coins cast in green copper, which was an extraordinary metal, but the value was not high, and was used by the locals as a currency substitute.
Because it was located in an area out of federal control, this small town in the sea of ruins was extremely chaotic, but fortunately there were several local gangs to maintain law and order, so it was still livable.
During her time as a cashier, Mei was used to seeing all kinds of customers, whether they were semi-transformed humans, salvage workers with multiple mechanical arms, archaeologists wearing precious fabrics, or rude mercenaries, she gradually got used to it.
After a few years of anxiety and adaptation, Mei has completely adapted to the job of a store cashier. She can even take time out of work to play some music. What she likes most is to turn the tuning key of the recorder up and down, and listen to the freshness of a song in a tune-changing situation. This has almost become the only pleasure in her life.
There is an area that cannot be connected to the star network. The most entertainment for people is to watch videos and movies excavated from ancient ruins. As for the latest immersive movies in the Federation, sorry, they don’t have an immersive cabin to experience. Such things are too expensive, and they have to connect to the interstellar network. They cannot be used without a legal license.
In this way, until the age of 28, a traveler who came to this small town heard the music played by the cashier next door while drinking in a bar. With a bit of curiosity and novelty, he recorded the sound and asked Mei a few simple questions.
After that, the traveler left and edited the journey into a video and posted it on the star network. Later, people noticed the girl and the old recorder at her hand.
As modern residents, tape recorders are something that is not even introduced in textbooks. Many people are curious about it. It is also through the popularization of science by some netizens that they gradually learn about this ancient audio player.
As a result, Mei's figure left a small trace on the Internet.
In this way, until the second year, when another traveler came to this place, he specifically found Mei and wanted to see the tape recorder and listen to the songs played in it.
Once again, Mei stood in front of the camera. She turned on the old tape recorder. The mixed and unclear music in it, accompanied by the noisy voices in the background, the sound of wine glasses colliding, the roar of steam furnaces, and the sound of steel machinery colliding, together composed an extremely impressive scene.
And then the song that Mei hummed along with the music was recorded by the camera and appeared in the eyes of the public.
Three months later, the envoys sent by the Federal Central Council took Mei to the Central Star Region for testing and confirmed that she had awakened her talent as a singer. She also nicknamed herself "Polka Dot Tape Recorder" based on her childhood favorite.
The confirmation of May's talent as a singer sparked a lot of discussion on the Internet. Many people were obsessed with her novel and retro musical style, and then more people began to imitate her, until historians studied ancient history and officially named this style.
'Vaporwave' means retro, dynamic, soothing and smooth, with a sense of water vapor.
This kind of music sounds extremely romantic, and you can feel the feeling of water vapor just from your ears, just like its name steam wave/steam wave. Some people say "This is a moment that sounds like soaking in a big pink bathhouse, listening to retro dynamic music from the radio next door. The
old cathode ray tube TV, the dark pink and blue blurred light spots, the slightly hoarse and blurred music, the raindrops and windows full of traces of time, tell the end of an era, and the loss and sadness in the collision of wine glasses, like an intoxicating poison, making people addicted.
The antique player plays the slightly watery voice of Mei Ge, the hazy light spots jump, and the music like a little white noise sounds. , telling the old scenes in memory, just like the newspaper used to pad things at the bottom of the cabinet was turned out again, and the news and deeds reported in it, which were once popular and people cared about, had long been forgotten in the depths of memory.
Raindrops hit the glass windows outside the aircraft, blurring the scenery outside the window.
Leaning on the seat, the girl listened to the music of the rotating player, and time flowed quietly.
In this way, until the aircraft slowly landed in the South District 1 at night, the sky was raining, and outside the black rain curtain was a flashing screen and floating colorful light spots.
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"Heshia, do you know what chalk is?"
In the classroom many years ago, the teacher asked her, who had good grades, to answer the question because most of the other students in the class were sleeping or playing secretly at that time and did not pay attention to what the teacher said. After several fruitless criticisms, the teacher simply gave up on some students.
"Chalk is a kind of calcite, the main component of which is calcium carbonate, but unlike calcite, it is mainly caused by the remains of ancient microorganisms, so it has a soft texture, like condensed powder. In the distant past, it can be used as natural chalk to write words."
"That's right." The teacher sat down with satisfaction and then talked about geological changes and the impact of ancient biological activities on the entire geological environment.
Everyone knows that the activities of life leave traces, but the impact of these traces may not be realized by the public.
The activities of ancient organisms have profoundly changed the geological conditions of the planet. Who would have thought that the gray-white rocks pressed under the bottom layer were the remains of life in the distant past?
After all, there are so many gray and white rocks like this that people overlook that it is not a product of natural geographical changes, but a trace left by life.
There may be many galaxies and countless planets in this universe, but the number of them with chalk, calcite and oil can probably be counted on one or two hands.
Matter is common, but life is rare, even miraculous. Although those distant lives have long died, their traces of activities and their corpses still remain in this world, and even change the trajectory of today's civilization.
The discovery of oil has made great strides forward in the energy and power technology of civilization, catalyzing social changes, changing human lifestyles, and even creating different cultures and personalities.
The photosynthesis of ancient organisms produced oxygen that caused the extinction of a large number of lives, but also laid the foundation for the birth of larger lives later.
Even if some biological groups have long disappeared, the traces of their existence have deeply influenced later races.
Time did not disappear, but settled in another form.
Maybe it's a stone, or maybe it's a sound.
Individuals are tiny and helpless. Even if they spend their entire lives, they may be just tiny drops of water in the waves of the times. They can only see these and experience these.
Perhaps some drops of water are lucky and are born and emerge at the peak of the waves, so that they can see the most vast and beautiful scenery, but more drops of water are just ordinary and are caught in the waves. As the times progress, they surge, fall, and break silently.
Everyone is unique and different.
Another meaning of this sentence is that the world is not absolutely fair. Some people are born to run fast, fly high, jump far, and are smarter and more beautiful.
If you admit that more work, more pay, it means that the division between the rich and the poor will occur.
The party with more and more resources will become stronger and stronger.
According to the evolution of nature, strong individuals will continue to be selected and then survive, while weak individuals will be eliminated.
But the development of civilization is different from nature. The power of the ethnic group or the collective is far superior to that of the individual. Even weak individuals can easily defeat powerful and scattered opponents as long as they gather together.
In order to make countless individuals gather together willingly, we must consider their interests, give them due rewards, and ensure a fair system and environment.
If we want to ensure fairness, should we distribute according to the results of labor? This means that more work, more pay, and the emergence of rich and poor.
The weaker party will still face elimination even within the ethnic group. In order to get better treatment, these weaker parties will try to unite again. They are ethnic groups within ethnic groups, fighting against others to protect themselves.
As a result, new groups are born, which once again divide the ethnic groups, making them no longer close and weak. This is reflected in the tearing at the social level, and the different minds of different classes.
At this time, the more "fair" the law is, the more the advantaged party will crush the weaker party, causing the gap to further widen, until the whole society is torn apart, and everyone loses the future in the internal consumption struggle.
In order to make the whole society still cohesive, it is necessary to add patches, that is, while "more work, more pay", more should also be paid to the weaker parties, so as to bridge the gap, prevent the society from being torn apart, and rebuild a common emotional connection in this sharing and giving.
Such behavior is specifically manifested in the imposition of more taxes on high-income earners and the support and assistance of wealthy areas to poor areas.
The original intention is good, but the stronger the party, the easier it is to grasp power, cede one's own interests, and subsidize others, which is undoubtedly painful.
Humans are still animals, and they maintain the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. If it is another living life praying in front of people, there is a high probability that they will get harmless charity and sharing, but if they are faced with lifeless screens and numbers, how many people are willing to take out the fruits of their labor and hand them over.
Will it really be given to those who need it? Will it really be used well? Is it really not a scam by some politicians? Have everyone really paid it? Is such a tax really fair?
Suspicion and deception erode trust like poison. People are afraid to pay and afraid of being used. This makes them no longer believe in the collective, gradually separate and disperse, and then slowly become weak.
The dilemma faced by the Four-Leaf Crystal Star Region is just one of the many problems in the Federation.
When a group is large enough, it needs a strong skeleton to support and connect. In material reality, the Federation may still maintain a strong military force to deter separatist thoughts and various grievances, but in spiritual terms, it has long lost its initial prosperity and unity. The scene of being united and working together has slowly disappeared in history.
When the suffering of the poor areas is not seen and valued, the happiness of the rich areas will not be recognized.
People began to escape from reality and obsessed with the simple and beautiful past. No one expected the future anymore. Even if there were fantasies about the future, most of them were full of despair and pessimism.
The popularity of "vaporwave" style music is also the beautification fantasy of most people in the Federation today in the filter of the future and the old times. The intoxicated lights and hazy vocals have become a dreamland to escape the pain of reality.
The chalky calcite, the raw material for making cement and the cornerstone of the building, is now an inconspicuous gray powder, but it is also a tiny life that once existed one by one. It's just that such corpses are too common and ordinary, so people gradually forget its original appearance.
But the activities of life will still leave traces, which will continue to accumulate and settle. Even such a powerful Rose Federation will slowly be covered with gray and lose its former vitality and brilliance.
(End of this chapter)
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