Slowed + Reverb

Submission 18,810

About

Slowed + Reverb is remixing technique popular among amateur music producers that involves slowing the tempo of a song down and adding a reverb effect to it. The technique is a simpler version of the chopped and screwed technique developed in the 1990s by DJ Screw and has been called a "gentrified" version of it. Starting in 2020, the increasing popularity of the technique, particularly among Gen Z listeners on YouTube and TikTok, resulted in it becoming a subject of memes. Slowed + reverb remixes are generally associated with feelings of melancholy and wistfulness.

History

Chopped and Screwed

Slowed + reverb is a derivative of chopped and screwed, a hip-hop remixing technique developed by Houston producer DJ Screw.^[1] The chopped and screwed technique involves slowing the tempo of the song down and applying a number of techniques to make the song sound "chopped-up," such as record scratching and skipping beats (example video shown below).

Both slowing and adding reverb have been elements of vaporwave, a music genre that achieved major popularity online in the mid-2010s. For example, リサフランク420 / 現代のコンピュ, the second track on signature vaporwave album Floral Shoppe, is based on a slowed-down sample of the 1984 song "It's Your Move" by Diana Ross, with reverb effect also applied (seen below).^[2]

Slowed + reverb developed into an independent technique in 2017, when Houston-based producer Jarylun "Slater" Moore, inspired by DJ Screw, started producing slowed + reverb remixes of popular songs and uploading them to YouTube.^[3] The original channel has since been deleted. The first video uploaded by Moore, a slowed + reverb version of Lil Uzi Vert's song "20 Mins" accumulated over one million views within one month and over four million views prior to being removed. On February 25th, 2018, Slater reuploaded the video, with the reupload gaining over 27 million views in three years (shown below).

In 2018 and 2019, the technique gained widespread popularity on YouTube with slowed + reverb remixes often being set to clips from anime series (example videos shown below, left and right).

[This video has been removed]

Online Recognition

In 2020, following the popularization of the genre on YouTube, the remixing technique gained further recognition. In March 2020, Wecb^[2] published an article on the trend titled, "What’s Up with ‘Slowed + Reverb’ Music?" In April 2020, Pitchfork^[3] then published an article about slowed + reverb remixes.

On December 13th, 2019, and February 1st, 2020, Twitter^[4]^[5] users @keshimusic and @m1kes_ made the earliest viral tweets about the genre, with the posts gaining over 400 retweets and 2,500 likes and 1,400 retweets and 5,500 likes, respectively (shown below, left and right).

In 2020, slowed + reverbed remixes gained notable popularity on TikTok. In early August 2020, TikToker @songpsych posted a now-deleted video in which she analyzed the popularity of slowed + reverb remixes, crediting Slater with the creation of the genre. On August 11th, 2020, Twitter^[6] user @netfreak_gab posted the video to Twitter, where it gained over 1.2 million views, 3,700 quote tweets and 5,000 likes, with other users pointing out that DJ Screw should be given proper credit^[7]^[8] (example tweets shown below, left and center). On August 14th, 2021, @songpsych posted a follow-up TikTok^[9] in which she explained that DJ Screw's chopped and screwed remixes inspired slowed + reverb remixes (shown below, right).

Use in Memes

The increasing popularity of the remixing technique online found reflection in memes starting in August 2020. The initial memes commented on the melancholic mood of slowed + reverb remixes.

On August 8th, 2021, Instagram^[10] user sosa_on_the_beat posted the earliest discovered meme about slowed + reverb remixes, a Clever Thoughts meme that received over 61,000 likes in one year (shown below, left). On August 23rd, 2020, Instagram^[11] page music.shitposting posted a meme that gained over 25,000 likes in one year (shown below, center). On September 14th, 2021, Instagram^[12] user unfriendlymemepage posted the earliest found meme that ridiculed the seeming overuse of the remixing technique. The post gained over 3,700 likes in one year (shown below, right).

In the following year, slowed + reverb remixes have been referenced in multiple memes, including both memes which highlighted the melancholic mood associated with the remixes and memes ridiculing the overuse of the technique.