Chillwave
Chillwave is a hazy, laid-back style of electronic pop from around 2009, built on faded synthesizers, simple beats and nostalgic, washed-out vocals.
It was made mostly by solo American producers working at home and spread through music blogs, where the name was coined half as a joke. Tracks borrow from 1980s synth-pop and soft rock, then blur them with reverb, tape-style wobble and lo-fi effects so they sound like a half-remembered summer. It is dreamier and less dance-focused than synth-pop and helped clear the way for vaporwave and bedroom pop.
Artists it is known for: Washed Out, Toro y Moi, Neon Indian.
- Family
- Alternative & Indie
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United States, late 2000s
- Also called
- glo-fi
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 4%
About 3,600 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have chillwave among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Chillwave artists
Blood Orange
Phantogram
Part Time
The Radio Dept.
George Clanton
ESPRIT 空想
Home
ODESZA
Cannons
Still CornersThe chillwave artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.