| Synthwave | |
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 An interpretative illustration featuring the commonvisual motifs of synthwave as anInternet aesthetic | |
| Other names |
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| Stylistic origins | |
| Cultural origins | Mid-to late 2000s;[4][5] France, Western Europe |
| Subgenres | |
| Other topics | |
Synthwave (also calledretrowave, orfuturesynth[5]) is anelectronic musicmicrogenre that is based predominantly on the music associated with thesoundtracks ofaction,science fiction, andhorror films of the 1970s and 1980s.[2] Other influences are drawn from the decade's art andvideo games.[3] Synthwave musicians often espousenostalgia for 1980s culture and attempt to capture the era's atmosphere and celebrate it.[9]
The genre developed in the mid-to late 2000s throughFrench house producers, as well as younger artists who were inspired by the 2002 video gameGrand Theft Auto: Vice City. Other reference points included composersJohn Carpenter,Jean-Michel Jarre,Vangelis (especially his score for the 1982 filmBlade Runner),[10] andTangerine Dream. Synthwave reached wider popularity after being featured in the soundtracks of the 2011 filmDrive (which included some of the genre's best-known songs), the 2012 video gameHotline Miami as well as its2015 sequel, the 2017 filmThor: Ragnarok, and theNetflix seriesStranger Things.
Synthwave is amicrogenre[11][12] ofelectronic music[1] that draws predominantly from 1980s films, video games, and cartoons,[13] as well as composers such asJohn Carpenter,Jean-Michel Jarre,Vangelis, andTangerine Dream.[14][15] Other reference points includeelectronic dance music genres including house, synth, and nu-disco.[16] It is primarily an instrumental genre, although there are occasional exceptions to the rule.[17] Common tempos are between 80 and 118 BPM, while more upbeat tracks may be between 128 and 140 BPM.[18]
"Outrun" is a subgenre of synthwave that was later used to refer more generally to retro 1980s aesthetics such as VHS tracking artefacts, magenta neon, andgridlines.[17] The term comes from the 1986arcade racing gameOut Run, which is known for its soundtrack that could be selected in-game and its 1980s aesthetic.[15][19] According to musicianPerturbator (James Kent), outrun is also its own subgenre, mainly instrumental, and often contains 1980s clichéd elements in the sound such aselectronic drums,gated reverb, andanalogue synthesizer bass lines and leads—all to resemble tracks from that time period.[20] There is also a visual component on synthwave album covers and music videos. According toPC 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."[21]
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 anumbrella term that encompasses 1980s revivalism genres such as synthwave andvaporwave.[17] Darksynth is influenced by horror cinema.[22]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 andGoblin" also infused with sounds frompost-punk,industrial andEBM.[23]
Synthwave originates from the mid to late 2000s.[24][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 gameGrand 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.[17] The influence ofVice City was also noted byMusicRadar.[11] Molly Lambert ofMTV noted the song "Love on a Real Train" byTangerine Dream in the filmRisky Business (1983) was a major influence, with "ornately repetitive synth patterns, hypnotic chimes, and percussive choogling drum machines".[15]
The mid-2000sFrench house actsDavid Grellier (College), andKavinsky, 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 filmBlade Runner (boththe 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 toNME andMusicRadar, the 2011 filmDrive was a major influence on synthwave, and included a track by Kavinsky, "Nightcall" in the film's soundtrack,[25][11] as well as David Grellier,Johnny Jewel, and several tracks byCliff Martinez.[11]EDM.com described Kavinsky as a "synthwave pioneer",[26] while the horror blogBloody Disgusting describesCarpenter Brut as a "synthwave icon".[27]
In the early 2010s, the synthwave soundtracks of films such asDrive andTron: Legacy attracted new fans and artists to the genre.[7]Drive featured Kavinsky's "Nightcall" and "A Real Hero" by College andElectric 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 likeFar Cry 3: Blood Dragon andHotline Miami, as well as theNetflix seriesStranger Things, which featured synthwave pieces that complemented the show's 1980s setting.[4][28]Nerdglow's Christopher Higgins cited Electric Youth and Kavinsky as the two most popular artists in synthwave in 2014.[13]
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, includingHotline Miami andFar Cry 3: Blood Dragon.[21] 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 [are] widely known outside the genre's followers."[4]
The 2019virtual reality gameBoneworks heavily features the synthwave genre in its soundtrack,[29] which was composed byMichael Wyckoff.
In 2020, "Blinding Lights", a synthwave-influenced song byR&B artistthe Weeknd[30][31] topped US record charts, the first song to do so during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[32] Matt Mills ofLouder wrote in 2021 that the genre "had exploded into the mainstream, cramming dancefloors and soundtracking blockbusters."[33]
Bibliography
Media related toSynthwave at Wikimedia Commons