Synthwave

This article is about the house-influenced genre from the 2000s. For topics related to the term used in 1980s magazines, see Cold wave (music), Minimal wave, and Dark wave.

Synthwave
Other names
  • Outrun
  • retrowave
  • future synth
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsMid-to late 2000s;[4][5] France, Western Europe
Subgenres
  • Darksynth[7]
  • dreamwave[7]
  • scifiwave[7]
  • Spacewave
Other topics

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.[8]

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), the 2012 video game Hotline Miami as well as its 2015 sequel, the 2017 film Thor: Ragnarok, and the Netflix series Stranger Things.

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Synthwave is a microgenre[9][10] of electronic music[1] that draws predominantly from 1980s films, video games, and cartoons,[11] as well as composers such as John Carpenter, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream.[12][13] Other reference points include electronic dance music genres including house, synth, and nu-disco.[14] It is primarily an instrumental genre, although there are occasional exceptions to the rule.[15] Common tempos are between 80 and 118 BPM, while more upbeat tracks may be between 128 and 140 BPM.[16]

"Outrun" is a synonym of synthwave that was later used to refer more generally to retro 1980s aesthetics such as VHS tracking artefacts, magenta neon, and gridlines.[15] 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.[13][17] 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 analogue synthesizer bass lines and leads—all to resemble tracks from that time period.[18] 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."[19]

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.[15] Darksynth is influenced by horror cinema.[20] 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.[21]

Origins

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Kavinsky performing in 2007

Synthwave originates from the mid to late 2000s.[22] [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.[15] The influence of Vice City was also noted by MusicRadar.[9] 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".[13]

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,[23][9] as well as David Grellier, Johnny Jewel, and several tracks by Cliff Martinez.[9] EDM.com described Kavinsky as a "synthwave pioneer",[24] while the horror blog Bloody Disgusting describes Carpenter Brut as a "synthwave icon".[25]

Popularity and legacy

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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][26] Nerdglow's Christopher Higgins cited Electric Youth and Kavinsky as the two most popular artists in synthwave in 2014.[11]

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.[19] 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,[27] which was composed by Michael Wyckoff.

In 2020, "Blinding Lights", a synthwave-influenced song by R&B artist the Weeknd[28][29] topped US record charts, the first song to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic.[30] Matt Mills of Louder wrote in 2021 that the genre "had exploded into the mainstream, cramming dancefloors and soundtracking blockbusters."[31]

In Dec 2023, the first ever book about the history of synthwave was released, by Herkimer Throckmorton.[32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Robert (23 September 2016). "On The Synthwave Genre and Video Games". Surreal Resolution. Archived from the original on 20 January 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Hunt, Jon (9 April 2014). "We Will Rock You: Welcome To The Future. This is Synthwave". l'etoile. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Neuman, Julia (23 June 2015). "A Retrowave Primer: 9 Artists Bringing Back the '80s". MTV Iggy. Archived from the original on 23 June 2015. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cram, Preston (25 November 2019). "How Synthwave Grew from a Niche '80s Throwback to a Current Phenomenon". Popmatters. Archived from the original on 28 November 2019. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e Neuman, Julia (30 July 2015). "The Nostalgic Allure of 'Synthwave'". New York Observer. Archived from the original on 25 September 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  6. ^ "25 Favourite Italo Disco Tracks". electricityclub.co.uk. 12 May 2018. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  7. ^ a b c d e Young, Bryan (25 March 2015). "Synthwave: If Tron and Megaman had a music baby". Glitchslap.com. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  8. ^ Calvert, John (13 October 2011). "Xeno and Oaklander - Sets & Lights". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  9. ^ a b c d Music, Future (12 May 2021). "The beginner's guide to: synthwave". MusicRadar. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  10. ^ Maxwell, Dante (20 September 2019). "Music Microgenres: A Brief History of Retrowave, Acid House, & Chillhop". Zizacious. Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  11. ^ a b Higgins, Christopher (29 July 2014). "The 7 Most Essential Synthwave Artists". Nerdglow.com. Archived from the original on 25 September 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  12. ^ Hunt, Jon (9 April 2014). "We Will Rock You: Welcome To The Future. This is Synthwave". l'etoile. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  13. ^ a b c Lambert, Molly (4 August 2016). "Stranger Things and how Tangerine Dream soundtracked the 80s". MTV.com. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  14. ^ Cram, Preston (24 June 2021). "What is Synthwave? • Electrozombies". Electrozombies. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  15. ^ a b c d Wetmore 2018, p. 31.
  16. ^ "Synthwave: 5 Production Essentials | ModeAudio Magazine". ModeAudio. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  17. ^ Prisco, Jacopo (18 September 2021). "How Out Run changed video games forever". Wired UK. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  18. ^ McCasker, Toby (22 June 2014). "Riding the Cyber Doom Synthwave With Perturbator | NOISEY". Noisey.vice.com. Archived from the original on 4 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  19. ^ a b Iwaniuk, Phil (4 October 2017). "How synthwave music inspired games to explore a past that never existed". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  20. ^ Hickman, Langdon (22 June 2020). "Master Boot Record's Dark Synthwave Injects Cyberpunk Into New Adventure Game "VirtuaVerse"". Invisible Oranges. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  21. ^ Aprill, Joseph (29 February 2020). "GosT-ly Horror: Darksynth Master James Lollar Talks Metal, Movies, and More". Invisible Oranges. Archived from the original on 4 January 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  22. ^ Neuman, Julia (30 July 2015). "The Nostalgic Allure of 'Synthwave'". New York Observer. Archived from the original on 25 September 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  23. ^ "Kavinsky on his return and a new collaboration with The Weeknd: "It's happening soon"". NME. 11 February 2022. Archived from the original on 12 February 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  24. ^ 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 12 February 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  25. ^ Miska, Brad (27 January 2022). "Carpenter Brut Returns With Horror-Themed Album 'Leather Terror' and Nightmarish Video for Single 'Imaginary Fire'". Bloody Disgusting!. Archived from the original on 4 February 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  26. ^ "A Guide to Synthwave Part II – Drive, Blood Dragon & Hotline Miami". Hey Nineteen. 22 June 2017. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  27. ^ "Bonetones: The Boneworks OST, by Michael Wyckoff". Michael Wyckoff. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
  28. ^ "[LISTEN] The Weeknd's 'Blinding Lights' Is Yearning Synthwave". uproxx.com. 29 November 2019. Archived from the original on 3 December 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  29. ^ "How Dua Lipa and The Weeknd are bringing the 80s back… again". BBC News. 31 March 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  30. ^ 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 4 January 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
  31. ^ Matt Mills (2 June 2021). "Perturbator's Lustful Sacraments: synthwave guru takes a walk on the dark side". loudersound. Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  32. ^ On Demand Journalism (4 January 2024). "The History of Synthwave by Herkimer Throckmorton". loudersound. Retrieved 13 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ "Doc'n Roll Film Festival - The Rise of The Synths". www.docnrollfestival.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.

Bibliography

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