Synthwave; also called outrun,^{[1][contradiction]} is a musical style that emerged in the mid-2000s, influenced by 1980s soundtrack music.^[1][2][3][4]

Style[edit]

Musically, synthwave is heavily inspired by new wave and the soundtracks of many 1980s films, videogames, cartoons and television shows.^[3][5][6] Composers such as John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream are frequently cited as influences.^[1][7] The style is mainly instrumental, and often contain 80s cliché elements in the sound such as electronic drums, gated reverb, analog synthesizer bass lines and leads, all to resemble tracks from that time period. However, synthwave incorporates modern production techniques such as sidechained compression and placing the bassline and kick drum prominentliy in the mix as heard in modern electronic music genres such as electro house.^[7]

Aesthetically, synthwave gives a retrofuturistic perspective, emulating 1980s science fiction, action, and horror media.^[5][8] In this sense, it can be considered the inverse of vaporwave; while the latter expresses disdain for 80s culture, synthwave expresses nostalgia for it^[7] and attempts to capture the era's atmosphere.^[9] Examples of this aesthetic may be viewed in films and video games such as Drive,^[6] Hotline Miami,^[10][11] the upcoming game Power Drive 2000,^[10][12] and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.^[13][14]

History[edit]

Background[edit]

In 2005 French Electronic Musician David Grellier began making music under the name College. In 2008 he released the EP "Teenage Color" which, because of its structure, chord progression and sound character is very characteristic for synthwave as a genre, can be looked upon as a starting point of the style as we know it today.^{[citation needed]} In an interview Grellier says his music is influenced from "80's soaps and an aesthetic which I particularly like: color, images, silvery films and the sun – images of Los Angeles, Chicago and all of the other cities that [...] continue to fascinate me".^[15] In 2011 he released the album "Northern Council"^{[16][unreliable source?]} and the same year the track "Real Hero" with Electric Youth, that was featured in the movie Drive which drew more attention to the music as a genre.^{[17][18][unreliable source?]}

During the same time period, French artists Lifelike^[19] and Anoraak contributed to the synthwave sound with similar musical references: Anoraak states in a 2014 interview: "American pop culture is definitely my background as a kid. I was born in 1980, so I grew up in a world taken by American music and movies".^[20]

Growth[edit]

Following the movie Drive, several artists emerged influenced by the sound and the imagery of the movie.^{[21][unreliable source?][22]} Swedish artist Mitch Murder ^[23][24] was one of the other early artists starting in 2009, and paved the way in introducing the video game music as a part of the Synthwave sound.^[25][26][27]

During the same time period, several independent record labels emerged where the main focus was releasing artists in the retroesque synthwave genre, such as Telefuture Records, Rosso Corsa Records, Aphasia Records, Future City Records, Future 80s Records, and 30th Floor Records.^{[28][29][30][31][third-party source needed]}

Present[edit]

Apart from the early artists College and Kavinsky, a significant number of artists have emerged.^[32] The darker sound from Kavinsky has been carried on by artists such as Power Glove,^[33] Lazerhawk, Perturbator,^[7] Lost Years, and Waveshaper,^[34] and the more easy-listening heritage of the genre^{[not in citation given]} brought by College, Lifelike and Anoraak is continued by artists like Miami Nights 1984,^[35] Futurecop!,^[36] Timecop1983,^[37] Le Cassette, Betamaxx,^[38] Robert Parker ,^[39] Highway Superstar and Phaserland.^[6][40]

Com Truise also describes his music as synthwave.^[41] Other synthwave artists include Magic Sword^[42] and Cold Cave.^[43]

Following a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2014,^[44] the Youtube short Kung Fury further lifted Synthwave into a mainstream audience^{[not in citation given]}, with both its visual language from 1980s cop and sci-fi movies, combined with a soundtrack containing several artists from the synthwave scene such as Lost Years, Mitch Murder, Betamaxx, and Highway Superstar.^{[not in citation given][45][46]}

Alex Westaway and Dan Haigh of the post-hardcore band Fightstar started a synthwave side project, "Gunship", with a debut album released on 24th July 2015. ^[47]

Artists commonly associated with Synthwave[edit]

See also[edit]

• Vaporwave
• Chillwave
• Cyberspace
• Retrofuturism

References[edit]