Welcome to #discovermusic, a weekly blog written with the intent of sharing new and upcoming music styles.
This week: Synthwave, a genre of electronic music that climbed up in popularity around 2010, also known as outrun and futurewave, is still going hard thanks to a renaissance of cyberpunk and 80s culture.
You've probably seen this movement rise with the release of movies and tv series such as: Blade Runner 2049, Ghost in the Shell and Stranger Things. Videogames are also a big contributor with titles such as Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Hotline Miami 1&2, the Shadowrun series, and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077.
It's no doubt now that this theme is in demand and as such, inspired from movie soundtracks, purple and light blue neon lights, Synthwave was born.
The music is, as the name implies, driven by synthesizers; for beautiful arpeggios and rhythm, all though a distorted guitar might find itself there for the same reason. Drums packed with reverb and the occasional guitar solo. Vocals are pretty rare but lately some artists have found creative ways of implementing those as well.
Synthwave feels like an action packed scene, running away, driving fast with a hovering car, or confronting the final boss of a futuristic cyberpunk dystopian city.
The feeling can also variate from the subgenre of Synthwave, for example: Dark Synthwave is supposed to be more brutal whilst RetroWave is a bit more chill, like the "lie under an umbrella on a beach and sip a martini with its own little umbrella" kind of chill.
But enough talking! Let me link you some albums and singles that well define the genre.
We'll start with Perturbator, mostly known for Cyberpunk style, he's songs also made it in the soundtrack for Hotline Miami 1 & 2
Dance with the Dead: Great implementation of guitars, flawless mix and deep drums.
MegaDrive
Scandroid
Zombie Hyperdrive, again, great guitars
And lastly, LAERPUNK. He's got some really interesting tones on the last album, not really popular from what I've seen on Spotify but i think with this last one he'll rise up in the scene.
If i didn't lose you to the great music and you're still reading, follow me @chillyviking for more posts such as this.
Next week's #discovermusic will be about a genre that started in Japan and popularized itself in the west too, stay tuned for that.
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See ya'll next week, Thanks!