A brief history of Synthwave
This post was originally published as the 10th issue of the “Midweek Crisis”, my biweekly music newsletter, to which you can subscribe here: https://midweekcrisis.substack.com/welcome ✌️
Hey peeps,
This Wednesday is special. We celebrate the 10th issue of the “Midweek Crisis” music newsletter 🎉. I decided to dedicate it in full to Synthwave, the microgenre of electronic music.
Disclaimer: This issue is so long, that your email is for sure clipped. To read the whole text of “Midweek Crisis vol 10” in one place, click → a link to the Substack post.
For those of you, who want to get straight to the listening, here’s a complete playlist from this issue on Spotify or YouTube 🎧. I’m planning to update them both regularly.
And if you have few minutes to spare, grab your cup of hot beverage, and prepare for a ride with me ☕️🚀🌐.
Let’s start with answering the question:
What is Synthwave?
Synthwave is a microgenre of electronic music built on the fascination and love for the 1980s and early 1990s. It’s called by many different names and has its different shades. People are often using names: Synthwave, Outrun, Retrowave, and Futuresynth synonymously. It’s not that simple, but we’ll come to this later.
For many years this kind of music hasn’t got any official name. It was completely underground, niche, and homemade by the enthusiasts. Everything started online in the mid-’00s to honor the iconic style of the ’80s and early ’90s and love for its pop culture.
Synthwave combines classic synthesizer melodies and improvisations of the end of the ’70s and early ’80s with new wave sounds (that originated from punk rock). It uses specific sounds of drums, and filters to resemble the ’80s style. It’s also inspired by nu-disco, house, electro, and other music genres. It’s a kind of a melting pot of different music styles. What it’s meant to do is only to resemble, not copy the style of that time. It’s a whole new music style that is made of old and new sounds, using old and new techniques.
The legendary music of Jean-Michel Jarre, Wendy Carlos, Vangelis, Giorgio Moroder, Goblin, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream deeply influenced Synthwave. But the most important to it all was a filmmaker & musician John Carpenter, who is also considered to be the “Grandfather of Synthwave” with soundtracks that he made for iconic movies, like “Escape From New York” (1981) and “Halloween”.
Iconic arcade driving video games of the ’80s, like “OutRun”, movies, like “Blade Runner” (1982), “Tron” (1982), “Back to the Future” (1985), “Robocop” (1987), and series, like “Miami Vice” (1984) and their soundtracks inspired every single Synthwave artist.
Synthwave gives the feeling of familiarity and calmness to the listener 🎧 . For sure, it resonates best with Millenials. It’s tailor-made for people born in the late ’80s or early ’90s, like me. Childhood dreams are encapsulated here in electronic, retro, yet futuristic sounds. Its ability to invoke nostalgia for a decade that the listeners often did not live in is fascinating.
What’s also interesting is the fact that a lot of things associated with the Synthwave style come from the ’90s, like 16-bit colors, fonts, and jingles from commercials of that time. Many Synthwave artists were inspired not only by the icons of the ’80s but also the ’90s, like Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor with their drum machines and specific sequences. 1990s punk rock and metal with its rebellious character had a huge impact on Synthwave.
It all started with the small group of artists connecting in the ’00s on Myspace and sharing their music and ideas. The first early Synthwave producer was MPM Soundtracks 1982, also called Multipac. He was a precursor of Synthwave and released about 40 tracks on Myspace. As an enigma wrapped in a mystery, his identity remained a secret and he never released any official album or EP. Another Synthwave precursor worth mentionings is 80s Stallone from the UK. Check out a music video of his “Paradise Alley” song with a tribute to “Rambo” (1982).
The important factor of sparking interest in Synthwave was for sure the iconic game “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” from 2002 and its epic soundtrack. It invoked the Miami vibe and style of that time 🌴🏙. The neons, clothes, fast cars, music, and the atmosphere of the 1980s became cool again.
Outrun & Kavinsky
Many people are using this name synonymously to Synthwave. But at the same time, Outrun is also its own subgenre. According to Perturbator, one of the most famous synthwave musicians, it’s “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”. Many of the outrun tracks are orbiting around the subject of fast cars. When you hear them, you can imagine yourself speeding through the highway by night 🏎. One of the most symbolic songs illustrating it is “Testarossa Autodrive” from 2006, by Kavinsky.
Kavinsky’s called by the fans the “Messiah of Synthwave”. His real name is Vincent Belorgey, and he’s a French musician, producer, DJ & actor. He dedicated one of his many albums to Outrun and called it the same.
The French
French artists in the 00s made synthesizers cool again. Back in the ’90s, musicians globally were bored with synthesizers, which were the symbols of the ’80s. They were in every song, movie, and commercial. Artists wanted to cut themselves off from them and from that era. In the ’00s, the French musicians electrified those hated synths. Inspired by euro disco, nu-disco, house, electro, and other genres they created their music in a fresh sounding, new way.
One of the biggest names in the Synthwave world is David Grellier, the French musician whose musical projects grew big. By the name of College, he released a great album “Teenage Color”.
Later, he started the famous “Valerie Collective”. The goal of the group was to “celebrate American ’80s culture with an assumed “kitsch” side. With his very distinctive noise footprint”. The Outrunners, Anoraak, Electric Youth are the most known bands that belong to this French collective. They hypnotized the world with their unique touch of electronic music. It was a combo of retro and futuristic sounds. Back then it was fresh and different from anything created everywhere else.
Worth mentioning is also the other composer from the Synthwave scene — Lifelike, a musician from Paris. I think he stands out from the crowd with the “So Electric” song from 2007. I especially like the ending of this song with clapping sounds and the lyrics that are saying: “That’s the way we spell success!” 👏👏👏.
“Drive”
Synthwave aesthetics was greatly popularized in 2011 by the famous movie “Drive”. It’s mostly known for the act of Ryan Gosling, epic soundtrack, and the use of high contrast colors, like red, blue, orange, pink. It’s colored that way because the director Nicolas Winding Refn is color-blind, and he can’t see the mid-colors. If his films were in different tones, he couldn’t have seen them.
By the way, this year’s the 10 years anniversary of “Drive” 🥳. If you haven’t seen it, try to catch up. It’s a cult film with epic visuals, but dialogues are short, and its pace is quite slow for an action drama. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.
Here you have 3 famous songs from the soundtrack to “Drive”, that defined a future type of Synthwave sound:
This movie and its style inspired creators all around the world 🗺. From the small group of creators, it transformed into a big trend. The most popular games influenced by the “Drive” movie were “Hotline Miami”, “Power Drive 2000” and “Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon”. They’re like a blast from the past for the players 👾.
“Kung Fury”
“Kung Fury” is a short film made in 2015 by Swedish filmmaker, David F. Sandberg. It was a huge hit that turned the eyes of the world to the Synthwave afresh. It’s about 30 minutes of a retro masterpiece full of 80’s references, and pure VHS memories. The epic soundtrack is best known for the song: “True Survivor” with iconic David Hasselhoff and famous Synthwave producer Mitch Murder.
Mitch Murder is a Swedish composer, considered one of the most significant artists who popularized the Synthwave genre. He started recording in the “Myspace” era. And for over a dozen years, he made many albums, EP’s, and soundtracks.
“Stranger Things”
Another burst of Synthwaves’ popularity happened in 2016, because of the “Stranger Thing” series on Netflix. Rotten Tomatoes described it as “A love letter to the ’80s classics that captivated a generation, Stranger Things is set in 1983 Indiana, where a young boy vanishes into thin air. As friends, family and local police search for answers, they are drawn into an extraordinary mystery involving top-secret government experiments, terrifying supernatural forces and one very strange little girl”. It was inspired by many 1980’s hits like “The Goonies” (1985), “E.T” (1982), or “Ghostbusters” (1984).
Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein is a duo responsible for the amazing soundtrack to this series. It’s mysterious, spooky and it sounds like a love letter to the ‘80s.
With two other members, they make the electronic band S U R V I V E.
After the premiere of “Stranger Things” many people introduced to Synthwave decided to make music like this. Often copying the style of the genre’s representatives and doing nothing fresh sounding. As you can imagine the old crew wasn’t too happy about it. Many of the artists claim that it hurts the music and its quality.
Synthwave never received the label of popular music. The songs that had been released didn’t become global hits. The first serious success was when the first synthwave song topped the US record charts. It was “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd. It became a huge hit in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic 🦠. Now it has 4.2 million views on YouTube and 2 billion views on Spotify.
Is Synthwave dead?
It’s a good question. Some say that it ended in 2014 with Taylor Swift, and her “1989” album that gave a pop-flavored nod to ’80s synth. Fans of the early Synthwave style often criticize such far-reaching interpretations. They express their disapproval to produce something with so little connection to creations from the 1980s. But I think that it’s ok and natural. Because Synthwave has this huge potential of moving the masses, it was inevitable that it grew outside its root style. It’s unfair to condemn some artists for their modern concepts of what feels like the ’80s. I get that it may sound bleak in contrast with Multipac’s or Kavinsky’s music. But the music is like a river. It’s constantly flowing and can’t become stagnant. Everything that’s musically interesting or innovative comes from movement and breaking the boundaries. And we should all respect that. In my opinion, artistic freedom is everything ✨.
Synthwave is a style that attracts new people over and over, year by year. There are generations of artists who make their interpretations of it. Some are closer to the original 2000’s style, and some are far away. But they’re all connected by this simple fascination with synths and retro-futurism. Listen to these 3 songs from the last few years (2018–2020). They’re fresh, different, and somehow familiar as the Synthwave sounds made earlier.
Documentary
The most famous documentary movie about the underground subculture of Synthwave is the “Rise of the Synths” from 2019. It was written and directed by a Spanish filmmaker & editor Iván Castell., and narrated by a legendary filmmaker & composer John Carpenter (that I’ve mentioned earlier). I had the true pleasure of watching it, and I was enchanted by the music, visuals, and story. The interviews with the Synthwave scene’s biggest names filled my blank spots and satisfied my hunger for knowing more about this retro-futuristic music genre.
Different shades of Synthwave
Because Synthwave became an enormously wide term, the Internet is full of music purists fussing about if something can be or can’t be classified as one specific genre or another. I’m not one of them, but I like to be well informed and know what’s what. Because of that, I’ve decided to put here a shortlist of Synthwave’s subgenres, based mainly on retro-synthwave.com specification:
- Darkwave, as the name suggests, is a dark-sounding Synthwave. Other names are Dreadwave, Terrorwave, or Horrorsynth. It’s heavy instrumental music, often inspired by ’80s horror movies that used synth, but also by hard rock, and metal. Most known representatives: Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Power Glove, Dance with the Dead, Kn1ght
- Chillwave is a joyful, energetic, instrumental kind of Synthwave. It’s a must-have for every summer playlist. I personally love it, but for some people, it’s an infamous, fake music genre. Most known representatives: Miami Nights 1984, Washed Out, Neon Indian, Toto y Moi
- Dreamwave is dreamy, and mellow instrumentals with its romantic, new wave sounds and synths, often accompanied by vocals. Most known representatives: Timecop1983, Futurecop!
- Synthpop is an electronic combo of synth melody and vocals with new wave rhythm and vocals processed like back in the 80’s. Most known representatives: Le Cassette, GUNSHIP, Electric Youth, The Midnight, Arcade High
- Futuresynth is futuristic, instrumental-only with electronic, new wave’y rhythm and synth. Most known representative: Power Glove.
- Mid-fi Synthwave / Slow-motion funk is different than the others with its hip-hop’y, drum’n’bass’y rhythms made by Com Truise.
- Sovietwave is powered by Russian artists’ nostalgia for the Soviet Union Open in Spotify Open in YouTube
Synthwave vs. Vaporwave
Synthwave often gets mistaken with the Vaporwave. Let’s compare them together.
Synthwave music:
- developed in the mid-to-late 2000s
- inspired by the late ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s synths, new age, music from games, movies (“Robocop”, “Blade Runner”) and series (“Miami Vice”)
- sounds like this
Vaporwave music:
- emerged in the early 2010s
- inspired by the ’80s and early ’90s smooth jazz, elevator music, R&B and lounge music
- slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples
- sounds like this
Retrowave
Synthwave is often called by the name of Retrowave. But the latter is a wider term, which applies also to all kinds of artwork, fashion, and media orbiting around the romanticizing of the ’80s and early ‘90s.
My personal favorite
Not that long ago Spotify suggested to my husband Tomek a Hungarian artist — Quixotic. When we heard his “Palms” and its Miami Vice vibe we went nuts and had it stuck on repeat for days 🔁.
I love his name, which means: “having intentions or ideas that are admirable but not practical” (after “Cambridge Dictionary”). I adore his style filled with wicked beats, guitar solos, and hard synths. His music videos are truly hypnotic. The best of all is the “Highway Violence”, a short film/ music video packed with iconic pop-culture motifs from movies and series, like “Back To The Future”, “Terminator”, “Miami Vice”, “The Wraith”, “Knight Rider” and more. Each watch reveals a new one. See it by yourself and check out if there are more references 👀.
What surprised me the most when I was going through Quixotic’s discography was a song called “Schwarzenegger”. You can hear how Arnold Schwarzenegger tells his compelling, real-life story accompanied by a progressively growing tempo of a synth-electronic banger.
You’ve reached the end of this issue. Thank you for taking this retro-futuristic journey with me 👾🎶🎧.
Here’s today’s playlist with some bonus tracks, ready for listening:
Have a wonderfully stimulating day,
Stygi
Check out my Spotify profile for other playlists.
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