Synthwave

Outdrive, Outrun, Outlast; welcome to the future that never was.

Other names

Futuresynth

Decade of origin

1980s-2000s

Creator/s

David "College" Grellier, Kavinsky, Justice

Key motifs

Neon, wireframe landscapes, sunsets and dusk, chrome, '80s sports cars

Key colours

Magenta, pink, blue, purple, cyan, black, red, orange

Related media

Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon, Drive, Kung Fury, Hotline Miami, TRON, The Purples

Synthwave is an electronic music genre that emerged in the mid-late 2000s and draws inspiration from nostalgic 1980s soundtracks, video games, and pop culture. The visuals commonly associated with Synthwave are derived from Neon Noir. The genre was pioneered by acts such as College, Kavinsky, and FM Attack.

The music strongly shares some key traits within the French House/Italo Disco musical genres. The true proto-Synthwave acts came from musical scores of films in the 1980s created by the likes of John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing, They Live, etc.), Vangelis (Blade Runner), and Tangerine Dream (Firestarter). While the genre has started to dip in popularity slightly, there is still a very devoted following and a lot of musicians still sell decently.

Synthwave overlaps with and is often confused for Vaporwave, a related aesthetic/music genre which often features lighter beats than Synthwave and draws more broadly on the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (whereas Synthwave usually has a more exclusive '80s focus).

Visuals[]

The visuals associated with Synthwave draw a lot of inspiration from graphics often seen during the '80s, such as sunset graphics, neon grids, neon lights, '80s sports cars, wireframe vector graphics, pixel art that is designed to look like an old school 8-bit video game, video cassettes, arcades, malls, etc. This visual style is often called Outrun.

Some people will confuse the visuals of Synthwave with the ones from the Vaporwave genre, but there are key differences in not only what is used in the art of the respective aesthetics, but also the tone of it: while Vaporwave can tend to have a more tongue-in-cheek and sarcastic tone to it, Synthwave is incredibly earnest with its love of everything 80s and is made in tribute to the era rather than critiquing it. Despite this, however, it's not uncommon for artists from the two scenes to collaborate to make art or music (one noteworthy example includes Synthwave artist Bart Graft collaborating with Vaporwave/Future Funk artist Bubble Keiki to produce the album, Emerald.

Music[]

Synthwave music sounds like the natural progression of the 1980s film score sounds although some artists will take inspiration from the Synthpop music that was popular then. Some Synthwave music seems to be moving away from the 1980s and moving more into the 1990s, thanks to tracks like "America Online" by The Midnight. Some Synthwave artists include:

Subgenres[]

Chillsynth[]

Chillsynth is a form of Synthwave music that utilizes elements from Chillwave, namely lush and dreamy synthesizers with reverb and resonance, resulting in a dreamy and relaxed sound. Chillsynth is characterized by slow, mild tempos and percussion, foregoing the dark and nocturnal sound of other synthwave styles like Darksynth for dreamy, hypnagogic, soothing and sometimes lo-fi atmospheres, for which it is sometimes referred to as "lo-fi synthwave." In contrast to most other synthwave, which usually pays homage to the 1980s, chillsynth is less direct with its nostalgic elements and often references the 1990s instead, like many chillwave styles. Chillsynth is similarly distinct from chillwave in its synth-heavy and futuristic sound, in contrast with chillwave styles that feature more organic instrumentation and/or dominant Pop elements. Chillsynth occasionally incorporates influences from Vaporwave and other related Vapor styles, both musically and visually.

Chipwave[]

Chipwave is a term for music that combines Synthwave with 8-bit Chiptune synthesizers. They often use a video game focus for the artwork, videos, and track inspirations. Some are musical covers from 80's video games and are collected in several key compilations. Chipwave artists sometimes combines Synthwave and Chiptune with other genres and styles to create even more diverse hybrids.

Darksynth[]

As its name suggests, the Darksynth concerns the darker and heavier side of Synthwave. Darksynth emerged in the early 2010s as Synthwave artists incorporated atmospheric Horror Synth and fast tempos into a much heavier and darker style. Music videos and album artwork moved away from synthwave's 1980s aesthetics and embraced ultra-violent horror, action, and satanic imagery. The genre received significant attention from the critically acclaimed soundtracks for the video games Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. Both soundtracks featured many darksynth pioneers such as Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Mega Drive, and Gost.

Freshwave[]

Freshwave (or Retro R&B) is small style of Synthwave that focuses on the larger urban style of 80's Pop and R&B radio stations. That music included Hip-Hop, Old School Electro, Synthfunk, Boogie, and Freestyle blasted from boomboxes in major cities. Only a handful of artists have made albums that have taken this diverse direction and they represent a key part of the past that has been otherwise ignored in the modern Synthwave scene.

Horror Synth Revival[]

The Horror Synth Revival of the late 2000's was mostly influenced by classic horror musicians of the 70's, with the Italian Horror style of progressive rock bands like Goblin and Fabio Frizzi, but also John Carpenter 80's synth soundtracks. This style, often incorporating progressive electronic, predated the full impact of 80's inspired Synthwave music that was to come and take part. This was a faithful revival of the Italian and American Horror sound of the 70's and early 80's and looking to reproduce faithful new work from these old influences.

Outrun[]

Outrun combines synthwave with the feeling of driving. The name originated from the game "OutRun" by Sega, which was based around simply driving without a care while listening to music. Thus, the aesthetic is heavily based around cars from the 80s such as the Ferrari Testarossa Spider.^[1] Outrun was also combined with Neon Noir movies such as Drive, where the synthwave was used to enhance the loneliness.

Retrowave[]

Retrowave refers to a specific type of synthwave where artists recreate the 80s when synthwave was most popular. It heavily utilizes Retro-Futurism by adopting the optimistic and neon-filled vision of the future prevalent at the time.^[2]

Sexwave[]

Sexwave is a very niche style of Synthwave that goes beyond just romantic sounding synthwave and focuses more on the erotic. Many of the thumbnails for videos select pics from 80's photos and adult magazines for clickbait. Some of the fan-made videos incorporate R-rated movie footage from the 80's as well. Many of these synthwave producers fit their music to match; incorporating Italo Disco, Darksynth, Synthfunk, and Dreamwave among others. Certain YouTube channels and artists embrace this style more than others and many producers still only create a handful of such described tracks.

Spacewave[]

Spacewave is a very small part of the synthwave community (and rarely officially referred to as such). It focuses on futuristic, science fiction-based themes of planetary exploration in both the visual aesthetic and also in the spacey sounding music and track titles. There's several musicians on the Aphasia Records label and elsewhere that are the innovators of this particular style.

Sweatwave[]

Sweatwave is a relatively small style of Synthwave. Its aesthetic often features musclebound hunks, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger's early body building videos, and sleek ladies from aerobic workout videos. Ideally the music is upbeat, features heavy use of guitars, often a few vocal samples, and is perfect vintage 80's styled workout music. The release of 3 key Sweatwave compilations in 2015 really helped solidify the concept during the synthwave boom and a plethora of VHS based seedy films, aerobic videos, and vintage found footage has helped make videos accompanying many of these tracks.