| Synthpop | |
| Stylistic origins | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins | |
| Typical instruments |
Synthesizer - Drum machine - Tape loops - Drums - Guitar (in latter incarnations were added Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler)
|
| Mainstream popularity | Large, worldwide mostly during early to mid 1980s |
| Derivative forms | Electroclash, Bubblegum pop, Ambient pop |
| Subgenres | |
| Electropop - Electroclash | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Futurepop - Synthpunk | |
Synthpop is a subgenre of New Wave and pop music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It is most closely associated with the era between the late 1970s and early to middle 1980s, although it has continued to exist and develop ever since. Kraftwerk (from Germany) and Human League are often hailed as the pioneers of the style.
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While most current popular music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, synthpop has its own stylistic tendencies which differentiate it from other music produced by the same means. These include the exploitation of artificiality (the synthesizers are not used to imitate acoustic instruments), the use of mechanical sounding rhythms, vocal arrangements as a counterpoint to the artificiality of the instruments, and ostinato patterns as an effect. Synthpop song structures are generally the same as in other popular music.
Mid 20th Century avant-garde composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen were pioneers in the development of electronic music. The use of synthesizers in rock music began in the 1960s, notably by The Beatles, however, the instruments were highly complex, temperamental, and expensive. In the late 1960s there was a surge of Moog synthesizer-affected albums by artists like Perrey and Kingsley, Dick Hyman and, most notably, Wendy Carlos. Synthesizers became more widely used by progressive rock and jazz fusion groups such as Pink Floyd, Yes, ELO, Genesis, Return to Forever, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Weather Report. Many Krautrock groups like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk heavily incoporated synthesizers into their music as well. The late 1970s Kraftwerk albums, such as Trans-Europe Express and The Man Machine, were particularly influential in the creation of the Synthpop sound.
The mid-1970s, saw the rise of electronic art music musicians such as Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Brian Eno, and Tomita, who were a significant influence of the development of New Age Music. In the late seventies, Suicide, a duo from New York, combined vocals and keyboard in a harsh, avant-garde and often very controversial form. Italian producer Giorgio Moroder was also a significant influence on the further development of electronic music, producing synth driven hits for many artists, most notably Donna Summer.
1977 could be considered the first year for synthpop, as it was the year Giorgio Moroder paired up with Donna Summer to release I Feel Love. While a disco song first and foremost, the programmed, arpeggiated beats had a profound impact on the bands which would soon be known as synthpop. It was also the year that Ultravox member Warren Cann purchased a Roland TR-77 drum machine, which was first featured in their October 1977 single release Hiroshima Mon Amour. The ballad arrangement, metronome-like percussion and heavy use of the ARP Odyssey synthesizer was effectively a prototype for nearly all synthpop bands that were to follow.
In 1978, Ultravox's third album, Systems of Romance, their last with John Foxx as the lead singer, featured extensive synthesizer use on nearly every track but was not commercially successful, yet became hugely influential. The same year, other pioneering British Synthpop acts began to surface, including Gary Numan and The Human League. The original synthpop groups had a sound that was generally dark, moody and robotic. Fad Gadget aka Frank Tovey, who was signed to Daniel Miller's Mute Records, was particularly dark and menacing and his stage shows had a Performance art quality to them. Daniel Miller himself had a role in the beginning of synthpop as a performer under the name The Normal which released a one-off single Warm Leatherette, a cult favorite.
In 1979, Giorgio Moroder collaborated with former glam rock group Sparks on their album, No. 1 In Heaven, perhaps one of the first bands to 'crossover' to synthpop. The same year, The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan became the first international hit record to be considered 'synthpop', and one of the first examples of the genre to make its way onto American radio.
The sounds of synthesizers dominated the pop music of the early 80s as well as replacing 70s Disco in dance clubs in Europe. Albums such as Gary Numan's Telekon (1980), Ultravox's Vienna (1980), The Human League's Dare (1981), Depeche Mode's Speak and Spell (1981), Soft Cell's Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret (1981), Duran Duran's Rio (album) (1982), Kajagoogoo's White Feathers (1983), Landscape's From the Tearooms of Mars...to the Hellholes of Uranus (1981), The The's Soul Mining (1983), Visage's Visage (1980), and former Ultravox singer John Foxx's Metamatic (1980) typified the early synthpop sound.
The 1983 album Burning Bridges (released as Naked Eyes in the U.S.and Canada), by the group Naked Eyes, was the first pop LP to extensively feature the Fairlight CMI. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush had used the sampling synthesiser before, although much less consistently than on Naked Eyes' debut. The CMI (and similar workstation-type machines such as the Synclavier and PPG Wave) would become commonplace in the movement, eventually dying out as inexpensive digital samplers and eventually personal computers duplicated the capabilities of these machines.
Other key synthpop or synthpop-influenced groups and artists from the early-mid 1980s include Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, Erasure, a-ha, A Flock of Seagulls, Tears for Fears, Pet Shop Boys, Devo, Berlin, OMD, New Order, Thomas Dolby, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Alphaville, Thompson Twins, Bronski Beat, Heaven 17, Howard Jones, Blancmange, Yello, Paul Haig, Animotion, Propaganda, Modern Talking, Psyche, Kajagoogoo, Ultravox, Missing Persons, Real Life, The System, and even early Ministry.
In Europe, South America, Australia, and Asia, Synthpop remained more widely accepted, and artists from these regions, as well as American artists temporarily expatriated there, performing music with 1980s synthpop roots have remained popular, and acts such as Ace of Base and Savage Garden have even spurred minor resurgences of the genre in the U.S. Eventually, the global synthpop scene re-emerged in the United States with the growing success of American record labels such as A Different Drum. Synth-pop pioneers in Latin America during the 80s were Virus.
Some bands embraced by modern synthpop fans like Red Flag and Anything Box were dropped by their labels and began self-releasing new albums. Some Christian bands, such as Joy Electric, were influenced by formerly 1980s acts like Depeche Mode and Erasure. Low-fidelity synthpop artists Stephin Merritt, Microfilm, and Ariel Pink have found success on independent labels.
While Modern Synthpop is heavily centered on the United States, some of the popular bands to emerge in the genre, such as De/Vision and Mesh, are European. European bands signed to the aforementioned U.S. labels and their ilk include Blue October, The Nine, Spray, and Empire State Human.
Synthpop is sometimes confused with electropop, which is generally regarded to be a particular style of synthpop that incorporates the more robotic elements and feel of electro music. The term "synthpop" has also become increasingly used in goth and industrial circles to describe various alternative electronic artists who have used influences from synthpop, particularly those in the electronic body music and futurepop genres such as Psyche, Covenant, Mesh, And One, Melotron, S.P.O.C.K, Beborn Beton, VNV Nation and Wolfsheim. It is otherwise generally used in its more classic sense, referring to early-to-middle 1980s synthesizer-driven pop acts (e.g., The Human League, Eurythmics), less precisely, to a variety of New Romantic pop acts from the same era (e.g., Duran Duran, Visage, Japan, and Spandau Ballet), and to current and emerging synthesizer-driven pop acts. Synthpop in a kind way helped the emergence and the influence Techno music where a flood of artist cite Synthpop acts such as Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Human League, Visage, Soft Cell, and Alphaville as influence to either getting them into dance/electronic music or just being into music in general. These artist music are constantly covered and remixed by a many techno and trance artist (e.g., Datura, Aurora, Alex G, Jason Nevins)
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