Synthwave Fandom Wiki

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This is a collaborative community website about the electronic music style known as Synthwave that anyone, including you, can edit. Click the edit button at the top of any page to get started! There are many many things that need to be done on this wiki:

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If you want to help out that be much appreciated, contact me on here or on the /r/outrun discord (@vaag)

Synthwave is, at its core, a revival of music from the 80's with the rose-tinted glasses view. It's a genre that's instantly recognizable due to the use of cliché instruments such as synthesizers and electronic drums.

Synthwave's roots grew upon what the 80's had used and what was left behind. The genre originated in the mid to late 2010's from artists who's work started favoring the use of synthesizers and the thematic of the 80's culture. It grew in France, with the first artists of the genre being Kavinsky, David Grellier, Justice and M83.

Influences are drawn from the entertainment industry from the 80's, being movies like Blade Runner, Akira, American Psycho, video games such as Outrun (1986), as well as specific composers such as Vangelis, John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream or Jean-Michel Jarre. Both musical and visual aesthetics for videoclips follow these influences. The genre has developed immensely and has already reached worldwide recognition through the record smashing hit of The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" single.

Characteristics

Stylistic origins are predominantly 80's films, french house and game soundtracks, while also influenced by electro, eurodisco and italo disco.

Common tempos are between 80 and 118 BPM, while more upbeat tracks may be between 128 and 140 BPM. The musics contains cliché elements from 80's music, with heavy emphasis on analog synthesizers, gated reverb and electronic drums.

Synthwave spans several sub genres with their own very distinct sounding theme. From dreamy sunset views to a car chase while rolling past palm trees, from dystopian monster ridden horror movies to dystopian futuristic cities with authoritarian regimes, Synthwave allows for each major point of the 80's entertainment fields to be reborn and appreciated.

Sub Genres

Cyberpunk
While closely related to the Outrun sub genre, Cyberpunk distinguishes itself from it by having a "dystopian future" of crime, danger and despair setting instead of the "present" setting of Outrun. It's roots have grown from influences like the movies Blade Runner and Akira, and while Cyberpunk doesn't offer as much variety as other sub genres, there's some artists that have mastered it and made it their domain. Good examples are Power Glove, Perturbator and Noir Deco.

Darksynth
Darksynth favors heavier beats and stresses horror elements. Instead of palms, neons, supercars and good vibes, you have demons, zombies, vampires and anything that transpires fear and your typical dystopian future as per the 80's standards. It's felt as more brutal and aggressive compared to cyberpunk. Some notable artists of this genre are Perturbator, We are Magonia, Carpenter Brut and Mega Drive.

Retrowave
Retrowave categorizes itself as a literal radio-station, crowd-pleaser music. While similar to Dreamwave, Retrowave takes a step further into the mainstream by featuring vocals and completing the good old 80's package to make it a instant success within the Synthwave genre. Great success has been achieved by artists like FM-84, The Midnight, and, on a welcome surprise to the world, The Weeknd's "Blinding Lights".

Synthwave
Synthwave as a sub genre is no longer a thing. There are albums and artists to whom are applied the "Early synthwave" or "Vocal synthwave" titles as a definition of their musical style. While valid, the growth and diversification of the genre on multiple fronts and sub genres have given us better tools to better distinguish the different styles and themes of these early tracks. As such, synthwave went from a very specific music defining name to a more broad genre that comprises many other sub genres.

Micro genres

Chillwave
Mistakenly attributed to Synthwave. It's core is also a nostalgic, retro-styled genre that features faded or dreamy retro pop sounds, escapist lyrics (usually about the summer and beach time), psychedelic or lo-fi aesthetics, mellow vocals, slow-to-moderate tempos, reverb and the use of synthesizers. However, it's origins and musical theme and feel is mostly alien to the Synthwave genre

ChillSynth
Similar to Chillwave, Chillsynth, or Lofi Synthwave is a synthwave like genre, with more dreamy and chill synths. Very Faded pads, with some lo-fi attributes. It's generally more downtempo and as the name suggests, Chill. Most people say that HOME created this genre, or at least brought it to the mainstream with his song "Resonance"

Chipwave
Synthwave + 8 bits, enough said. No umbrella sub genre.

Horror Synth Revival
An attempt to faithfully revive the Italian and American Horror sounds of the 70's and early 80's. Umbrella sub genre is Darksynth, though this genre is noticeably more light.

Retro R&B
As the name implies, it favors R&B, but also includes themes like Boogie, Old School Electro, Freestyle, Hip-Hop and all related genres of urban style radio stations one could hear in the speakers of boomboxes back in the 80's. No umbrella sub genre.

Sexwave
A micro genre that entices an erotic mood rather than the typical romantic or dreams mood of it's umbrella genres Retrowave and Dreamwave.

Shreadwave
A micro genre within the cyberpunk and Darksynth sub genres, where the focus is on guitar solos. For the most part, it's lighter than Darksynth, but it's still very broad, spanning from Rock to Metal.

Spacewave
Another micro genre, as the name implies, it gives out the wonders and exploration feel of deep space. Spacesynth is somewhat similar. The umbrella genre for this micro genre is Dreamwave.

Sweatwave
This micro genre focuses on your typical workout motivation music, the kinds of what you would hear in that 80's movie gym scene with muscular man and woman doing an intense workout and lots of sweat in the mix. This style is too unique to have an umbrella sub genre, but too small to be considered a fully fledged sub genre of Synthwave.

Yuppiewave
Sometimes called Officewave or Businesswave (But honestly, Yuppiewave just sounds cooler), this micro genre follows influences from movies like American Psycho or any other major Wall Street related movie where power, greed and excess is plentiful.