Synthwave

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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]

Contents

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 .

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 artifacts, 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 analog 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

Kavinsky performing in 2007 Kavinsky.jpg
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

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 the mid-2010s, "fashwave" (a portmanteau of "fascist" and "synthwave") [27] 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 . [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, [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

Related Research Articles

<i>Out Run</i> 1986 video game

Out Run is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, and the hydraulic motion simulator deluxe arcade cabinet. The goal is to avoid traffic and reach one of five destinations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kavinsky</span> French musician

Vincent Belorgey, known professionally as Kavinsky, is a French musician, producer, DJ, and actor. His production style is reminiscent of the electropop film soundtracks of the 1980s. Kavinsky claims that his music is inspired by thousands of movies he watched as a young boy and that he has cherry-picked the best parts from them, consolidating them into one concept. Kavinsky has been compared to many similar French house artists, including Danger and French duo Daft Punk. He achieved greater mainstream recognition after his song "Nightcall" was featured in the 2011 film Drive. His debut studio album, OutRun, was released in 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nightcall (song)</span> 2010 single by Kavinsky

"Nightcall" is a song by French electro house artist Kavinsky, released as a single in 2010. It was produced with Daft Punk's Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and mixed by electronic artist Sebastian. It features Lovefoxxx, lead singer of Brazilian band CSS, on vocals and includes remixes by Xavier de Rosnay, Jackson and his Computer Band and Breakbot. The track was used in the title sequence for the film Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. "Nightcall" was included on Kavinsky's debut studio album, OutRun (2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oneohtrix Point Never</span> American musician

Daniel Lopatin, best known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an American experimental electronic music producer, composer, singer, and songwriter. His music has utilized tropes from various musical genres and eras, sample-based composition, and complex MIDI production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Grellier</span> French electronica musician

David Grellier is a French electronica musician and founder of the musical projects College (2005) and Valerie (2007). Under the stage name Mitch Silver, he is also a member of the electroclash band Sexy Sushi, active since 2004.

<i>OutRun</i> (album) 2013 studio album by Kavinsky

OutRun is the debut studio album by French electronic musician Kavinsky, released on 22 February 2013 by Record Makers, Vertigo Records and Mercury Records. Production for the album was handled primarily by Kavinsky, along with close friend and fellow French electro house artist Sebastian. The album is named after Sega's 1986 arcade game of the same name, which featured the Ferrari Testarossa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Odd Look</span> 2013 single by Kavinsky

"Odd Look" is a song recorded by French electronic musician Kavinsky featuring fellow French disk jockey SebastiAn from his album OutRun (2013). The song was co-written by the two artists and produced by the latter. It was released as a single on 6 June 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Power Glove (band)</span> Australian electronic music duo

Power Glove is an Australian electronic music and synthwave duo from Melbourne, Victoria, named after the Power Glove made by Mattel for the Nintendo Entertainment System. They provided the soundtrack to the 1980s-influenced retro-futuristic video game Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. The soundtrack was met with critical acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaporwave</span> Online musical genre and visual aesthetic

Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music and a subgenre of hauntology, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s, and became well-known in 2015. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, 1970s elevator music, R&B, and lounge music from the 1980s and 1990s. The surrounding subculture is sometimes associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and pop culture, and tends to be characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades. Visually, it incorporates early Internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, anime, stylized Greek sculptures, 3D-rendered objects, and cyberpunk tropes in its cover artwork and music videos.

Robert Parker is a Swedish electronic musician from Stockholm, known for his synthwave works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perturbator</span> Musical artist

James Kent, known by his stage name Perturbator, is a French synthwave musician from Paris. His parents are British music critic Nick Kent, and French music journalist, Laurence Romance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carpenter Brut</span> French electronic music artist

Franck Hueso, better known by his stage name Carpenter Brut, is a French darksynth artist from Poitiers, France. He has released three EPs, EP I (2012), EP II (2013) and EP III (2015), which were collected and released together as the album Trilogy (2015). He later released three additional studio albums, Leather Teeth (2018), Blood Machines OST (2020) and Leather Terror (2022), along with one live album, CarpenterBrutLive (2017). He has also contributed original music to a variety of soundtracks, both for film and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sovietwave</span> Subgenre of synthwave

Sovietwave is a subgenre of synthwave music and accompanying Internet aesthetic which originates from the former Soviet Union, primarily Russia. It is characterized by an emphasis on the technology and culture of the Soviet Union, such as the Soviet space program and retrofuturistic Soviet era architecture and art, and is an expression of nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Linguist Maria Engström described Sovietwave as the post-Soviet counterpart to vaporwave, evoking a similar nostalgic critique of the "contemporary collapse of futurity" and longing for the lost optimism of a bygone era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina (musician)</span> German musician (born 1983)

Nina Boldt known mononymously and professionally as NINA is a German singer-songwriter based in London and Berlin. Her music is a fusion of Pop, New Wave, and Electronic music. She released her debut album Sleepwalking in 2018 and her follow-up album Synthian in 2020. Her third major release Control was released as an EP via Lakeshore Records and features samples from Cliff Martinez' Drive film score which ultimately began a modern revival of the cliche 1980s music, art and graphics scene.

<i>The Rise of the Synths</i> 2019 documentary film by Iván Castell

The Rise of the Synths is a 2019 documentary film written and directed by Iván Castell and narrated by filmmaker and composer John Carpenter. The film explores the origins and growth of the electronic music genre known as synthwave, charting its rise in popularity from the underground online music scene to its recent mainstream exposure, following use in retro-themed soundtracks, notably the 2011 film Drive and more recently, the television series Stranger Things.

Irving Force is a synthwave producer from Stockholm, Sweden. He previously was a member of the black metal bands Vanhävd and Vapenlicens, before becoming interested in 80's-influenced film scores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Fares</span> Musical artist

Laura Fares, known as LAU or Lau Fares is an Argentine singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer from Argentina, and currently based in Barcelona (Spain), after 21 years in the United Kingdom. She is also the founder of Aztec Records with Ariel Amejeiras.

Mallsoft is a vaporwave subgenre centered around shopping malls.

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Jornt Elzinga, commonly known as Cat System Corp., is a Dutch musician regarded as a vaporwave figure that originated the mallsoft subgenre. He also previously recorded as Mesektet for his dark ambient releases.

References

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  32. ↑ "Bonetones: The Boneworks OST, by Michael Wyckoff". Michael Wyckoff. Retrieved 2023-02-06.
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Bibliography

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