Glitchcore, which is both a style and a sound, emerged around the same time that the pandemic did. Aesthetically, it plays on tech nostalgia, replicating the vibrant and abstract patterns, some like heat maps, created by bugs on early computers. Essentially it’s another form of anemoia (longing for something never experienced) that’s so important now as the industry focuses on Gen-Zers who weren’t around to experience the 1980s or Y2K the first time around.
Some print designers seem to have fallen under glitchcore’s spell for spring 2022, making modish pixelated and techno-psychedelic patterns that mimic the visuals of computing mistakes. Nostalgic or not, they’re another reminder of how wrapped up we are in the digital age.
