Synthwave and Retrowave Listening Guide

Synthwave is a genre built entirely on nostalgia for a version of the 1980s that never quite existed. Emerging from internet communities and French electronic music scenes in the late 2000s, synthwave takes the analog synthesizer tones of 1980s film scores, video game soundtracks, and new wave pop and reconstructs them into a modern electronic music form that is simultaneously backward-looking and forward-moving. The genre has grown from a niche online phenomenon into a substantial musical movement with its own festivals, labels, and internal subdivisions.

The terminology is slippery. “Synthwave,” “retrowave,” and “outrun” are often used interchangeably, though purists draw distinctions. Outrun tends to refer to the driving, high-energy side of the music (named after the 1986 Sega arcade game). Retrowave is sometimes used as an umbrella term. Darksynth describes the heavier, more aggressive end. For clarity, we will use synthwave as the general term.

Origins and Influences

Synthwave’s source material is specific. The film scores of John Carpenter — particularly Escape from New York (1981), The Thing (1982), and Christine (1983) — provide the template for the genre’s dark, atmospheric end. Carpenter scored his own films using analog synthesizers, primarily the Prophet-5 and various Moog instruments, creating simple but intensely evocative themes built on arpeggiated sequences and sustained pads.

Vangelis’s Blade Runner (1982) score is equally foundational, particularly its combination of synthetic textures with widescreen emotional grandeur. Harold Faltermeyer’s Beverly Hills Cop theme (“Axel F”) and Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice soundtrack represent the more pop-oriented side of the 1980s synth sound that synthwave draws on.

Giorgio Moroder’s 1970s and 1980s production work — “I Feel Love” for Donna Summer, the Scarface and Cat People soundtracks — provides another crucial reference point, particularly his use of sequenced synthesizer patterns as rhythmic drive. For deeper context on the electronic music traditions that synthwave draws from, see our [INTERNAL: homework-daft-punk-review] and the broader electronic lineage discussed in Kraftwerk’s pioneering work.

The genre’s emergence also owes a debt to the broader cultural nostalgia cycle. The 2011 film Drive, with its Cliff Martinez score and Kavinsky-featuring soundtrack, was a watershed moment that brought the synthwave aesthetic to mainstream audiences. The Stranger Things score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the band S U R V I V E further cemented the 1980s synth sound in popular culture.

Essential Artists and Albums

Kavinsky is often cited as the genre’s origin point. The French producer’s “Nightcall” (2010), used prominently in Drive, is the single most recognizable synthwave track. His album OutRun (2013) builds an entire narrative around an undead race car driver, with productions that layer vintage synthesizer tones over modern electronic beats. The album’s strength is its commitment to mood — it sounds like a film soundtrack for a movie that does not exist.

Com Truise (the project of Seth Haley) takes a different approach, building intricate, midtempo productions from analog synthesizer patches and deliberately degraded textures that evoke VHS tape warping and CRT monitor glow. Galactic Melt (2011) is his defining statement, a record that sounds like it was transmitted from 1983 through deteriorating magnetic tape. The production is meticulous despite sounding lo-fi — every frequency is carefully placed.

Perturbator (James Kent) represents the darksynth wing of the genre. Albums like Dangerous Days (2014) and The Uncanny Valley (2016) combine Carpenter-esque atmosphere with aggressive, industrial-influenced beats and heavy distorted bass. The music is explicitly horror-influenced, drawing on VHS slasher film aesthetics. Kent’s production is notable for its dynamic range — the tracks build from eerie ambient passages into crushing, bass-heavy climaxes.

Carpenter Brut occupies similar territory to Perturbator but with more rock influence. The Trilogy compilation (2015), collecting three EPs, is one of the genre’s most consistently thrilling releases. “Turbo Killer” exemplifies the approach — a relentless, driving piece that sounds like a car chase through a neon-lit hellscape. The live show incorporates actual guitars and drums, blurring the line between electronic music and metal.

GosT pushes darksynth further toward black metal territory, incorporating blast beats and screaming over synthesizer arrangements. Non Paradisi (2016) is the essential release, a genuinely unsettling record that treats the retro-futuristic palette as horror rather than nostalgia.

The Melodic Side

Not all synthwave is dark. The Midnight (Tim McEwan and Tyler Lyle) produce lush, romantic synthwave built around saxophone melodies, soaring vocals, and major-key harmonies. Endless Summer (2016) is pure atmosphere — it sounds like a sunset over a 1985 beach town. The production is warm and spacious, with reverb-drenched textures that feel genuinely emotional rather than merely nostalgic.

FM-84 (Col Bennett) works in similar territory. Atlas (2016) features vocalist Ollie Wride and trades in the same 1980s pop romanticism, with songs like “Running in the Night” that could genuinely have been radio hits in 1986. The craftsmanship is exceptional — these are genuine pop songs wrapped in vintage synthesizer tones.

Timecop1983 strips the sound down to its most melancholic essentials. Reflections (2017) is a masterclass in mood, built from shimmering arpeggios and slow-building pads that evoke driving alone at night.

Gunship add guitars, drums, and guest vocalists to the formula, resulting in something closer to new wave revival than pure synthwave. Their self-titled debut (2015) features collaborations with artists from Carpenter Brut to members of Slowdive.

Production and Sound Design

Synthwave’s sonic palette is defined by specific synthesizer sounds: the warm, slightly detuned saw wave leads of the Roland Juno-60 and Jupiter-8; the punchy bass of the Moog Minimoog and Sequential Circuits Pro-One; the glassy digital pads of the Yamaha DX7; and the gated reverb drum sounds associated with the LinnDrum and Oberheim DMX drum machines.

In practice, most modern synthwave producers use software emulations of these instruments rather than the original hardware, which is now prohibitively expensive. The genre’s aesthetic is therefore somewhat paradoxical — it celebrates analog technology but is largely created with digital tools simulating that technology. The best producers understand that the goal is not literal recreation but evocation, using the timbral vocabulary of 1980s synthesizers to create emotional responses associated with that era’s cultural products.

Side-chain compression is ubiquitous, creating the characteristic pumping effect where the bass and pads duck rhythmically against the kick drum. Reverb and delay are used extensively, particularly gated reverb on drums (the Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” sound). Arpeggiated sequences — automatically generated runs of notes triggered by holding a chord — provide much of the rhythmic momentum.

Where Synthwave Goes from Here

The genre’s fundamental challenge is that it is built on reference. Every synthwave track is, to some degree, pointing backward at its source material. The artists who have transcended the genre’s limitations — Perturbator’s move toward industrial and metal on Lustful Sacraments (2021), Com Truise’s increasingly abstract later work, Carpenter Brut’s incorporation of live instrumentation — have done so by treating the retro palette as a starting point rather than a destination.

For listeners coming from the broader electronic music world, synthwave connects to the histories discussed in our guides on [INTERNAL: selected-ambient-works-aphex-twin-review] and [INTERNAL: homework-daft-punk-review]. For the film score connection, the John Carpenter influence links directly to the horror and thriller soundtrack traditions that continue to shape electronic music production.