Synthwave

Synthwave draws predominantly from 1980s films, video games, and cartoons,[9] as well as composers such as John Carpenter, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream.[10][11][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 artifacts, magenta neon, and gridlines.[15] The term comes from the 1986 driving arcade game Out Run, which was known for its soundtrack that could be selected in-game.[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 analog synthesizer bass lines and leads - all to resemble tracks from that time period.[18]

Other subgenres include dreamwave, darksynth, and scifiwave.[5] Journalist Julia Neuman cited "outrun", "futuresynth", and "retrowave" as alternative terms for synthwave[4] while author Nicholas Diak wrote that "retrowave" was an umbrella term that encompasses 1980s revivalism genres such as synthwave and vaporwave.[15]

Synthwave originates from the mid 2000s.[19] 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] Among the first synthwave artists were the French acts David Grellier (College), Kavinsky, and Justice. These early artists began creating music inspired by famous 1980s score composers; music which was, at the time, largely associated with French house.[4]

In the early 2010s, the synthwave soundtracks of films such as Drive and Tron: Legacy attracted new fans and artists to the genre.[5][20][21] Nerdglow's Christopher Higgins cited Electric Youth and Kavinsky as the two most popular artists in synthwave in 2014.[22] Since 2013, synthwave has reached a broader audience from outside artists' fan bases and through popular media, thanks to games like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon[23] and Hotline Miami. Also, the third season of the Netflix series, Stranger Things, featured synthwave pieces that accomodated the show's 1980s setting.[24][25]

In 2019, the origins and growth of synthwave were explored in the documentary film The Rise of the Synths, itself narrated by John Carpenter and featuring numerous synthwave artists including Gunship, The Midnight, Perturbator and Electric Youth.[26] "Blinding Lights", a synthwave song by Canadian singer The Weeknd, reached number 1 in twenty-nine countries in 2020, including in the US, UK, and Australia.[27]

• Computer animation
• Cyberspace
• Sovietwave
• 1980s in music

Bibliography

• Wetmore, Jr., Kevin J., ed. (2018). Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series. McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-7186-4.

• Shah, Neil (2019-01-28). "Synthwave, the Sound of an '80s Childhood, Goes Mainstream". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-11-29.