New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The internet continues to be the birthplace of ideas. Some ideas generated on the internet have turned out to be important to humanity, many sufficiently less so. On top of memes and trolls, the internet has also gifted humanity with completely unrestricted and unlimited communication. What the internet has also given birth to though is a variety of different music genres. Of course, some of these have been more successful than others; vaporwave, chill wave and art pop are two of many but the one we will be discussing today is a genre of music known as Synthwave.
What is Synthwave and when was it first created?
Synthwave was created in the early 2000s by highly intelligent and creative internet communities who still yearned for 1980s culture. These communities were made up of a group of internet users who grew up in the 1980's and were heavily nostalgic for that period of time. This is why they created a genre of music that would celebrate the greatness of the 1980's as well as remind them of their childhood through the music. The community who made the music were most heavily influenced by 1980s films and video games, but it wasn't until the early 2010s when Synthwave started to reach wider popularity.
Synthwave is a genre of electronic music. Terminator, classic Sega and Nintendo video games, various cartoons and composers such as John Carpenter all influenced and made the way for the musical movement that we know today. Although Synthwave began life on internet chatrooms, it has since spread into a well-known genre of music that is now used incorporated in modern video games and films.
One of many different genres of electronic music, synthwave should not be confused with retrowave. If you recall the soundtrack to the popular video game Sonic the Hedgehog - this game is extremely retrowave. If you are looking for a popular example of Synthwave think of Streets of Rage 2 or Hotline Miami 1 and 2. Speaking of which…
Synthwave in the modern day
There are lots of modern video games that use Synthwave music in their game soundtracks. The Hotline Miami video games (of which the first one is the best) offer players one of the richest video game soundtracks in modern times. Featuring Syhthwave artists such as MOON, Magic Sword and El Tigre, Hotline Miami is a fast-paced game of extreme violence. A very popular game when it first hit video game screens, Hotline Miami was released a few months after the cult classic film Drive was released in cinemas.
Synthwave artists feature heavily within Drive too - this 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling won numerous awards and became a cult classic in part to its superbly original soundtrack. There is an obvious and purposeful lack of dialogue in Drive, this ensured the soundtrack to the film became more important as well as very recognisable. Without the soundtrack, the film would likely fade into irrelevance, stated one critic.
As aforementioned, Streets of Rage 2 - the hugely popular 90s video game published by Sega - used a mix of Synthwave and other electro music genres in the game's soundtrack. The games soundtrack, which was created by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima, has received much acclaim. The game series quickly became a video game classic, so much so that Streets of Rage 4 will be released later in 2020.
An increasingly growing number of indie game developers are using soundtrack in their video games that contain synthwave elements to them. The music has been shown to increase concentration levels of players and also ensure that players remain active and alert during gameplay. Casino games are known for their use of synthwave music. Players who are searching for casinos bonuses are often directed to casino slot games which make use of heavy 'synthy' soundtracks. Casinos heavily favour this music due to its aforementioned effects of keeping the player both alert and excited. Some of these casino games include Neonstaxx, which is thought to have been based on the film Drive which we spoke about earlier.
How many new music genres will the internet create?
The internet and the online world remains one of the most creative places to have ever existed. Unrestricted communication has given power to millions of people who are able to share ideas with one another like never before. The internet will continue to create new music genres for as long as free communication remains available and for as long as there are people out there who desire to create new music.
Internet meme culture recently created a rather avant-garde music genre called Gachi. Gachi music looks to bring into the open the heterosexual rules of modern-day music. Gachi really hit the big time when actor Billy Herrington, who was also known as Aniki became an internet meme. Internet users began to use soundbites from his films in Gachi music. Gachi music can now be found all across music and is especially popular within esports video gaming circles. Gachi music videos have millions of views on YouTube and the word surrounding this meme spawned music genre continues to grow.
The internet will continue to create, this is for sure. Synthwave is one of the internet's most successful musical creations, but no doubt there are hundreds of highly creative individuals working in numerous online spaces who are working in order to give themselves and audiences even more fantastic nostalgia inspired music.
