Synthwave brings back the good memories of the 80s, even for those who weren’t around.
Synthwave is now in the mainstream, which means the time for it being no longer cool is almost here. Preston Avery, the seminal synthwave blogger and FiXT Neon record label rep, pronounced it dead back in 2019. It picked up on the nostalgia train in the late oughts – the same one that carried the broader LoFi movement of which it can be considered a part – which permeated itself across genres and throughout pop culture, so much so that one of the most successful Netflix shows of all time is an ode to everything 80s, Stranger Things. Though that raises the question: Did synthwave bring in the 80s nostalgia, or the other way around?
What is Synthwave?
Synthwave is (yet another) genre based on nostalgia. It is, in its purist form, a callback to 80s synthpop. It aims to recall very specific aspects of the late 70s, 80s, and early 90s. Namely the work of soundtrack composers like John Carpenter, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream, along with other synthpop icons like New Order, Gary Numen, and the Eurythmics (synthpop itself was a genre kicked off by too much popcorn).
The visual highlights usually include neon lights, ferraris and DeLoreans, and all things Miami/California. Probably the biggest visual influences come from the Back to the Future films, along with the movies Blade Runner, They Live, Starman, Escape From New York, Halloween, and Tron. Not to mention Miami Vice and Nightrider. There are undoubtedly more, but these are the visuals that are at the top of my head. (And count them, no less than FOUR John Carpenter movies… the man, who composed and performed much of his own soundtracks, is so seminal to the period and to synthwave enthusiasts that he even narrated the most spot on documentary about the movement, The Rise of the Synths).
Theme from John Carpenter’s Escape From New York
“As a guy starting out decades ago on the periphery of the film industry making low budget movies, I learned to do everything myself, including making the music from my films. Luck would have it, that others who were working with computers and electronics, had come up with a computer you could play: The first music synthesizer. They gave someone like me an orchestra and sound effects at my fingertips. At the same time I was working with synthesizers other people were discovering them too.” – John Carpenter, The Rise of the Synths
Carpenter’s words can almost be paralleled here in the modern age. With modern technology and computers, bedroom producing became a possibility for thousands of eager, would-be composers. Much cheaper software synthesizers were unlocking almost literally the same musical world that older hardware synths had unlocked for Carpenter.
1999s “I’m A Woman” by French House legend Cassius, feat. Jocelyn Brown (a disco legend playing on a nu-disco track)
The beginning of synthwave
The first sign that synthwave and 80s nostalgia was officially big was the 2012 movie Drive starring Ryan Gosling. Electric Youth was behind the main hit of the soundtrack, “A Real Hero”. Though they said it’s not a synthwave song, it still captured everything that was the 80s. “I think it made people okay to love pink neon lights and cities at night,” said composer Carpenter Brut on the Rise of the Synths. “When media outlets discover something for them, it’s new. But people making music with synths, it’s not really new. But I think [Drive] was a trigger, because the song was a hit and then people were like: ‘Hey, why don’t we do the same?’”
“A Real Hero” by College and Electric Youth
As Brut points out, just because it suddenly became on the media map, doesn’t mean it wasn’t being done before. It absolutely was. It basically followed the same flow as the predecessors. Just as it went from disco and the Beegees to Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, and the rest of synthpop, so it went from nu-disco (French House) and Thomas Bangalter to synthwave and Lazerhawk. French artists like Daft Punk, Stardust, and Cassius, helped glamourize the 80s feel and imagery. They really kicked off the movement, inspiring the likes of future outrun (an early name for synthwave) genre-pioneers like Kavinsky. Outrun musicians tapped into these 80s pop culture symbols and ran with it.
Kavinsky’s “Autodrive Testarossa”, widely considered to be the first synthwave hit
From Kavinsky, others joined in. The original synthwave producers were those like Mitch Murder, The Midnight, Miami Nights 1984, and Lazerhawk. Many have stopped producing or moved on. “The reality is that synthwave from the late ‘00s to the mid ‘10s captured a very specific moment in time,” wrote Avery, “a moment when the childhood memories of its creators from the 1980s were vivid and still had a strong, tangible emotional pull.”
It was an era of Myspace and lonely Internet boards. Back when people were supportive of each other and before everyone turned into a Twitter critic trying to be famous for insults. It was a simpler time. I’m not even sure that Kavinsky’s “Autodrive Testarossa” can be considered “synthwave” as it’s not really that retro. It is synth heavy though and takes some 80s elements (the song’s main arp is definitely remiscent of Halloween).
A cycle of rejection
Synthwave started as a rejection of 90s styles like grunge, which were in itself a rejection of 80s styles. To say though that it was necessarily anything new is something of a fallacy. Bands like Nine Inch Nails were hard at work bridging the gap. They kept synths and drum machines and stuff cool and somewhat in the mainstream. It was that undying interest in synths – despite the impact of grunge – that gave a birth to synthwave. It certainly led into a retro nostalgic movement, but it didn’t start that way.
Now people like Avery might think that synthwave is dead and no longer with that pull that Kavinsky, Carpenter Brut, and Mitch Murder had. But the genre – or what it’s become – is stronger and more massive today than ever. “Underground culture always gets noticed at some point by the big corporations who try to sniff money from it,” Carpenter points out. It was only natural that it would explode into pop.
It’s a Midlife Crisis (Just Say)
I’ve noticed a pretty clear trend. When one generation gets to their thirties or forties, they start to look back to their childhood. It’s a natural process. People begin to question their life tracks. They ditch their job, buy a fancy car and/or musical instrument, and try to revive the whims and simpler times of their imagined childhood. They approach the memories like a pre-covid buffet cafeteria: They pick and choose what they want to remember and leave the rest, not worried about what happens to the leftovers.
“Now in my 40s, I have adult responsibilities,” Rob Dyson, co-host of foreversynth, wrote. “But synthwave takes me back to a time of hope, where the future wasn’t yet spelled out and I could fantasise about what being an adult ‘was’ whilst revelling in my safe world of Sega, The Real Ghostbusters, and watching American wrestling on my nan’s TV.”
Nostalgia is not a new thing and it’s not a dead thing. It’s only a popular thing though while the shakers and movers experiencing it are adults and have purchasing power (to either buy or make the products). It’s constantly changing because that notable population itself is constantly changing. People grow into it and they grow out of it, just like the styles they passed through when they were young. Nu-disco was the nostalgia movement of the late 90s and early 00s, and that phased into synthwave. I’ve written about the LoFi genre here already, which carries the same nostalgic phenomenon in parallel (and definitely with a lot of crossover) but with different groups.
From simple nostalgia to mass appeal
The magic is that the nostalgia permeates the surrounding culture. The direct recipients of the nostalgia are not the only ones who embrace the movement. It goes on to everything adjacent, until it morphs with popular genres from other movements. Now we have Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Dua Lipa, and other mainstream pop culture icons tapping into the popularity of the formerly underground genre. They’re creating new sounds that can no longer be considered true homages. “It’s a kind of melting pot of different musical styles,” says tour organizer Pauline Putrescine in The Rise of the Synths. “And that’s why it actually works, because it resonates with everyone.”
Dua Lipa’s take on synthwave
It’s been appropriated, melded, and spun around like a surprise tango at a dance club. Artists continue to spin out hits, Spotify and YouTube synthwave playlists continue to reign supreme, and pop artists tap into it like its something fresh. Synthwave is no longer an underground genre and seems here to stay. Even if the underground appeal has synth faded and a new nostalgia movement is on its way. What’s next, the return of grunge?
Check out these Smartsound albums for some great synthwave vibe
Wave & Vice
Smartsound’s true homage to the homage that is synthwave. 10 hot tracks that will get your audiences shaking and racing as the solid bass beats and synthesizer arpeggios launch them from their seats into outer space.
Electric Synthwave
Electric Synthwave also includes many songs that are adjacent to synthwave but aren’t true to form. Listen to interesting hybrid tracks like “As the Clock Ticks” to hear how other genres like Trap can have some influence on modern synthwave.
Electro Collective
Many of the songs on Electro Collective are synthwave inspired, if they aren’t included in the genre itself. Check out “Blurring”, “Reach The Clouds”, and “Across the Universe” to hear what I mean.
