He has been credited as a pioneer of the 21st century genres hypnagogic pop and vaporwave, with his work exploring themes related to hyperreality and consumer culture.
[2] With the release of his polarizing 2011 album Far Side Virtual [9] on Hippos in Tanks, Ferraro's work abruptly embraced MIDI music technology and corporate Muzak.
[2] Following the release of Far Side Virtual, Ferraro's work became increasingly influenced by contemporary hip hop and R&B, as seen on albums such as Sushi (2012), NYC, Hell 3:00 AM (2013), and Skid Row (2015).
The work starred German actor Christoph Schüchner as an "undead" Steve Jobs, "the surrogate of a deranged AI, a data mongrel comprised of all our networked activity", and also featured chorales by PHØNIX16.
[13] His works are known for being conceptual in nature and for uniquely expressing specific modern subjects; his albums have incorporated themes of consumerism, cybernetics, emaciation, social experience, hyperreality,[7] post-9/11 New York,[13] lo-fi counterculture,[7] and the collapse of civilization.
His 2011 work Far Side Virtual is often credited for helping to spark the development of the internet-based micro-genre vaporwave, although he has not considered himself a part of its history.
[14][15][16] In a 2009 issue of The Wire, David Keenan characterized Ferraro as a progenitor of an emerging post-noise music style dubbed "hypnagogic pop", in which memory and nostalgia for retro formats (especially 1980s recording technology and culture) acted as a defining characteristic.
[17][18] Red Bull Music Academy described the concept of Ferraro's albums as regarding the "dark underbelly of masculine culture in the digital age.
[6] According to Ferraro, the consumerism concept of his albums came from his interest in "signs" and "symbols" and the fact that they lose their identity due to "excessive repetition.
"[6] His works have been compared to theories of French sociologist Jean Baudrillard, who stated that only "symbols" and "signs" have destroyed any sort of real meaning and that human activity is "only a simulation of reality.