What is synthwave?

Back in 2010 when the Ryan Glossling (sorry Gosling - I call him Glossling cos his lips are creepily shiny) movie Drive came out, hipsters' minds imploded everywhere with the awesome 80s inspired soundtrack that accompanied it.

Artists like Kavinsky, College and Electric Youth were thrown into the spotlight and suddenly the 80s was cool (as if it wasn't already).

Meanwhile, across the other side of the world, a blogger by the slightly cray-cray nick-name of Rick Shithouse was toiling away on something called Synthetix.fm - a site dedicated to new electronic synth based music with an 80s sound. A name for this genre was quickly established, and Synthwave was born.

Since then, other bloggers like New Retro Wave (NRW) blew up the genre, with a YouTube channel boasting 70,000+ Subscribers, a line of apparel, website, and plans to evolve into a label.

Many of my tracks were pushed out to the masses by YouTubers like NRW, and my new track Knockout feat. Phaserland was included on the latest NRW compilation The 80s Dream Volume 3.

Here's a rather fetching snap of me wearing my NRW t-shirt.

What is Synthwave?

Disagreement about the exact definition of Synthwave is an ongoing debate among musicians and fans, but the classic synthwave style usually follows a dance structure, with 4/4 drums, arpeggiating basslines, big 80s pads, bells, vintage drums and rolls around 90-120 bpm.

The genre is so ridiculously wide and varied that you should check out these YouTube Channels to get the latest and greatest in the genre: New Retro Wave Maniac Synth and Luigi Donatello

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