Mallwave and its sister genre, Mallsoft, emerged as niche subgenres of Vaporwave during the early 2010s, primarily through platforms like Bandcamp and YouTube. The aesthetic centers on the haunting yet comforting atmosphere of 1980s and 90s shopping malls, often utilizing reverb-heavy muzak and imagery of abandoned corridors, glass elevators, and neon food courts. These memes tap into anemoia—nostalgia for a time one has never actually lived through—or the specific melancholy of dead malls that once represented the peak of consumer culture. On social media, Mallwave is used to evoke a sense of isolation, consumerist hauntology, and the surreal feeling of being in a liminal space.