Synthwave (also called outrun, retrowave, or futuresynth[5]) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s.[2] Other influences are drawn from the decade's art and video games.[3] Synthwave musicians often espouse nostalgia for 1980s culture and attempt to capture the era's atmosphere and celebrate it.[9]

The genre developed in the mid-to late 2000s through French house producers, as well as younger artists who were inspired by the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Other reference points included composers John Carpenter, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis (especially his score for the 1982 film Blade Runner), and Tangerine Dream. Synthwave reached wider popularity after being featured in the soundtracks of the 2011 film Drive (which included some of the genre's best-known songs), 2012 videogame Hotline Miami as well as its 2015 sequel, 2017 film Thor: Ragnarok and the Netflix series Stranger Things.

The first book exclusively on the history of synthwave was released on December 27th, 2023. Entitled “The History of Synthwave”, the book was written by Herkimer Throckmorton.

Synthwave is a microgenre[10][11] of electronic music[1] that draws predominantly from 1980s films, video games, and cartoons,[12] as well as composers such as John Carpenter, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream.[13][14] Other reference points include electronic dance music genres including house, synth, and nu-disco.[15] It is primarily an instrumental genre, although there are occasional exceptions to the rule.[16] Common tempos are between 80 and 118 BPM, while more upbeat tracks may be between 128 and 140 BPM.[17]

"Outrun" is a synonym of synthwave that was later used to refer more generally to retro 1980s aesthetics such as VHS tracking artifacts, magenta neon, and gridlines.[16] The term comes from the 1986 arcade racing game Out Run, which is known for its soundtrack that could be selected in-game and its 1980s aesthetic.[14][18] According to musician Perturbator (James Kent), outrun is also its own subgenre, mainly instrumental, and often contains 1980s clichéd elements in the sound such as electronic drums, gated reverb, and analog synthesizer bass lines and leads—all to resemble tracks from that time period.[19] There is also a visual component on synthwave album covers and music videos. According to PC Gamer, the essence of outrun visuals is "taking elements of a period of '80s excess millennials find irresistibly evocative, and modernizing them so they're just barely recognizable."[20]

Other subgenres include dreamwave, darksynth, and scifiwave.[7] Journalist Julia Neuman cited "outrun", "futuresynth", and "retrowave" as alternative terms for synthwave[5] while author Nicholas Diak wrote that "retrowave" was an umbrella term that encompasses 1980s revivalism genres such as synthwave and vaporwave.[16] Darksynth is influenced by horror cinema.[21] Invisible Oranges wrote that darksynth is exemplified mainly by a shift away from the bright "Miami Vice vibes" and "French electro house influences" and "toward the darker electronic terrains of horror movie maestro composers John Carpenter and Goblin" also infused with sounds from post-punk, industrial and EBM.[22]

Origins

Kavinsky performing in 2007

Synthwave originates from the mid-2000s[23] or late 2000s.[4] Diak traced the genre to a broader trend involving young artists whose works drew from their childhoods in the 1980s. He credited the success of the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City with shifting "attitudes toward the '80s ... from parody and ambivalence to that of homage and reverence", leading directly to genres such as synthwave and vaporwave.[16] The influence of Vice City was also noted by MusicRadar.[10] Molly Lambert of MTV noted the song "Love on a Real Train" by Tangerine Dream in the film Risky Business (1983) was a major influence, with "ornately repetitive synth patterns, hypnotic chimes, and percussive choogling drum machines".[14]

The mid-2000s French house acts David Grellier (College), and Kavinsky, who had created music in the style of 1980s film scores, were among the earliest artists to be part of the emergence of synthwave.[5] Key reference points for early synthwave included the 1982 film Blade Runner (both the soundtrack and the film itself), 8- and 16-bit video games, 1980s jingles for VHS production companies, and television news broadcasts and advertisements from that era.[4] According to NME and MusicRadar, the 2011 film Drive was a major influence on synthwave, and included a track by Kavinsky, "Nightcall" in the film's soundtrack,[24][10] as well as David Grellier, Johnny Jewel, and several tracks by Cliff Martinez.[10] EDM.com described Kavinsky as a "synthwave pioneer",[25] while the horror blog Bloody Disgusting describes Carpenter Brut as a "synthwave icon".[26]

Popularity and legacy

In the early 2010s, the synthwave soundtracks of films such as Drive and Tron: Legacy attracted new fans and artists to the genre.[7] Drive featured Kavinsky's "Nightcall" and "A Real Hero" by College and Electric Youth, which catapulted synthwave into mainstream recognition and solidified its stature as a music genre.[4] The genre's popularity was furthered through its presence in the soundtracks of video games like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon and Hotline Miami, as well as the Netflix series Stranger Things, which featured synthwave pieces that accommodated the show's 1980s setting.[4][27] Nerdglow's Christopher Higgins cited Electric Youth and Kavinsky as the two most popular artists in synthwave in 2014.[12]

In the mid-2010s, "fashwave" (a portmanteau of "fascist" and "synthwave")[8] emerged as a largely instrumental fusion genre of synthwave and vaporwave, with political track titles and occasional soundbites, such as excerpts of speeches given by Adolf Hitler.[28] The phenomenon was described as self-identified fascists and alt-right members appropriating vaporwave music and aesthetics.[29][30] Elsewhere, there was a growing trend of Russian synthwave musicians whose work espoused nostalgia for the Soviet Union, sometimes described as "Sovietwave".[31]

In 2016, British band The 1975 released the critically acclaimed synthwave-influenced track "Somebody Else". The track comes as their third single for their second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It. It has been cited as a major influence on many contemporaries' work, such as Lorde, Tate McRae and Olivia Rodrigo.

Synthwave remained a niche genre throughout the 2010s. In 2017, PC Gamer noted that synthwave influences were to be felt in early 2010s gaming releases, primarily of the "outrun" subgenre, including Hotline Miami and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.[20] Writing in 2019, PopMatters journalist Preston Cram said, "Despite its significant presence and the high level of enthusiasm about it, synthwave in its complete form remains a primarily underground form of music."[4] He added that "Nightcall" and "A Real Hero" remained "two of only a small number of synthwave songs produced to date that widely known outside the genre's followers."[4]

The 2019 virtual reality game Boneworks heavily features the synthwave genre in its soundtrack,[32] which was composed by Michael Wyckoff.

In 2020, "Blinding Lights", a synthwave-influenced song by R&B artist the Weeknd[33][34] topped US record charts, the first song to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic.[35] Matt Mills of Louder wrote in 2021 that the genre "had exploded into the mainstream, cramming dancefloors and soundtracking blockbusters."[36]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Robert (23 September 2016). "On The Synthwave Genre and Video Games". Surreal Resolution. Archived from the original on 2020-01-20. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  2. 1 2 3 Hunt, Jon (9 April 2014). "We Will Rock You: Welcome To The Future. This is Synthwave". l'etoile. Archived from the original on 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
  3. 1 2 3 Neuman, Julia (June 23, 2015). "A Retrowave Primer: 9 Artists Bringing Back the '80s". MTV Iggy. Archived from the original on 2015-06-23. Retrieved 2015-06-23.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Cram, Preston (2019-11-25). "How Synthwave Grew from a Niche '80s Throwback to a Current Phenomenon". Popmatters. Archived from the original on 2019-11-28. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Neuman, Julia (July 30, 2015). "The Nostalgic Allure of 'Synthwave'". New York Observer. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  6. ↑ "25 Favourite Italo Disco Tracks". electricityclub.co.uk. 12 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2021-11-30. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Young, Bryan (25 March 2015). "Synthwave: If Tron and Megaman had a music baby". Glitchslap.com. Archived from the original on 2019-02-14. Retrieved 2015-05-19.
  8. 1 2 Hann, Michael (December 14, 2016). "'Fashwave': synth music co-opted by the far right". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
  9. ↑ Calvert, John (13 October 2011). "Xeno and Oaklander - Sets & Lights". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 2015-09-13. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Music, Future (2021-05-12). "The beginner's guide to: synthwave". MusicRadar. Archived from the original on 2021-05-17. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  11. ↑ Maxwell, Dante (September 20, 2019). "Music Microgenres: A Brief History of Retrowave, Acid House, & Chillhop". Zizacious. Archived from the original on July 19, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  12. 1 2 Higgins, Christopher (2014-07-29). "The 7 Most Essential Synthwave Artists". Nerdglow.com. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
  13. ↑ Hunt, Jon (9 April 2014). "We Will Rock You: Welcome To The Future. This is Synthwave". l'etoile. Archived from the original on 2017-07-11. Retrieved 2015-05-18.
  14. 1 2 3 Lambert, Molly (2016-08-04). "Stranger Things and how Tangerine Dream soundtracked the 80s". MTV.com. Archived from the original on 2016-08-21. Retrieved 2016-08-28.
  15. ↑ Cram, Preston (2021-06-24). "What is Synthwave? • Electrozombies". Electrozombies. Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Wetmore 2018, p. 31.
  17. ↑ "Synthwave: 5 Production Essentials | ModeAudio Magazine". ModeAudio. Archived from the original on 2020-07-05. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  18. ↑ Prisco, Jacopo (18 September 2021). "How Out Run changed video games forever". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 2021-11-04. Retrieved 2021-11-04.
  19. ↑ McCasker, Toby (2014-06-22). "Riding the Cyber Doom Synthwave With Perturbator | NOISEY". Noisey.vice.com. Archived from the original on 2015-05-04. Retrieved 2015-05-19.
  20. 1 2 Iwaniuk, Phil (2017-10-04). "How synthwave music inspired games to explore a past that never existed". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 2021-08-14. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  21. ↑ Hickman, Langdon (June 22, 2020). "Master Boot Record's Dark Synthwave Injects Cyberpunk Into New Adventure Game "VirtuaVerse"". Invisible Oranges. Archived from the original on 2021-04-19. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  22. ↑ Aprill, Joseph (February 29, 2020). "GosT-ly Horror: Darksynth Master James Lollar Talks Metal, Movies, and More". Invisible Oranges. Archived from the original on 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  23. ↑ Neuman, Julia (July 30, 2015). "The Nostalgic Allure of 'Synthwave'". New York Observer. Archived from the original on 2016-09-25. Retrieved 2016-05-16.
  24. ↑ "Kavinsky on his return and a new collaboration with The Weeknd: "It's happening soon"". NME. 2022-02-11. Archived from the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  25. ↑ Sunkel, Cameron (12 February 2022). "Kavinsky Confirms New Collaboration With The Weeknd". EDM.com - The Latest Electronic Dance Music News, Reviews & Artists. Archived from the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  26. ↑ Miska, Brad (2022-01-27). "Carpenter Brut Returns With Horror-Themed Album 'Leather Terror' and Nightmarish Video for Single 'Imaginary Fire'". Bloody Disgusting!. Archived from the original on 2022-02-04. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  27. ↑ "A Guide to Synthwave Part II – Drive, Blood Dragon & Hotline Miami". Hey Nineteen. 2017-06-22. Archived from the original on 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
  28. ↑ Bullock, Penn; Kerry, Eli (January 30, 2017). "Trumpwave and Fashwave Are Just the Latest Disturbing Examples of the Far-Right Appropriating Electronic Music". Vice. Archived from the original on 2017-02-06. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  29. ↑ Farrell, Paul (2018-05-18). "Fashwave: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Archived from the original on 2020-05-23. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  30. ↑ Hermansson, Patrik; Lawrence, David; Mulhall, Joe; Murdoch, Simon (2020). The International Alt-Right: Fascism for the 21st Century?. Taylor & Francis. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-429-62709-5. Archived from the original on 2020-08-03. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  31. ↑ Luhn, Alec (July 29, 2015). "Russia's musical new wave embraces Soviet chic". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
  32. ↑ "Bonetones: The Boneworks OST, by Michael Wyckoff". Michael Wyckoff. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
  33. ↑ "[LISTEN] The Weeknd's 'Blinding Lights' Is Yearning Synthwave". uproxx.com. 29 November 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-12-03. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  34. ↑ "How Dua Lipa and The Weeknd are bringing the 80s back… again". BBC News. 2020-03-31. Archived from the original on 2020-04-08. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  35. ↑ Molanphy, Chris (9 April 2020). "Why the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" is the first chart topper of the coronavirus era". Slate. Archived from the original on 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2022-01-16.
  36. ↑ Matt Mills (2021-06-02). "Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments: synthwave guru takes a walk on the dark side". loudersound. Archived from the original on 2022-01-16. Retrieved 2022-02-13.
  37. ↑ "Doc'n Roll Film Festival - The Rise of The Synths". www.docnrollfestival.com. Archived from the original on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2019-09-30.

Bibliography

Media related to Synthwave at Wikimedia Commons

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