#music genres
Just looking at the picture and hearing the sound: try to guess the year this came out.
Now try this
what about this?
Mr. Flagio sounds 70s (maybe early 80s), based on the instruments and vocals. Space Art also sounds 70s, same reasons and that I can’t envision an instrumental space-trippy track as being 80s. It’s got the vibe of a record where the starts and ends of the songs blend into each other. More like a very long single track, rather than individual tracks like on a cd. If anything, it reminds me of“Sirius” by Alan Parsons Project, though the trumpet-esque bloopy sounds contrast with the “timeless” vibe I get from “Sirius”. (Might be the strings section that creates that vibe?)
Lots more music chatter under the cut:
I knew Undo’s “Computer Friends remix” was modern just from the title; I recognize Cabaret Nocturne‘s name and their vibe in the song. (I particularly loved their song “Green Karma”.) While I can’t say this is “down-tempo”, I don’t feel the same hopeful tension in that song as I do in the others. Y’know that retro-futurism, where we see the shiny 50s spaceship aesthetic, made with the hope that we’ve left the world’s worries behind? That’s what the 2 older examples sorta have. The contrast of those with “Computer Friend remix” reminds me of modern “synthwave” music versus the music from the 80s that inspired the style-genre.
A lot of synthwave has the associated vibes and imagery of 80s dystopic sci-fi. Carpenter Brut’s “Chew Bubblegum and Kick Ass” takes its title from “They Live” (music video with movie clips, but tiddy warning), and Gunship’s “Tech Noir” takes its title from the club in “Terminator”. I know both of those are related to John Carpenter, but I’ve also seen “Blade Runner” and “[Judge] Dredd” imagery pop up in fan-made music videos. The teaser trailer for the “Rise of the Synths” documentary mentions the influence of “80s pop culture”, but I think the sci-fi/dystopia element sticks out to me more than other stuff. I mean, I got into this genre after watching the first season of “Stranger Things”, which was inspired by those same influences. (Oh hey, that all lines up, around 2015-2016.)
Thanks for bearing with my tangent. I just really like synthwave.
Basically,Mr. Flagio’s “Take a Chance”andSpace Art’s “Onyx” have a retro-futurist optimism. Cabaret Nocturne’s remix of “Computer Friends” by Undo is a retro-futurist pessimism. The future that caught up to us is not the ideal we imagined. This gets reflected into sci-fi dystopias, showing us “hey it could be worse” and “let’s not let it get this bad”, so we vaguely feel better about the shit we’re already in. (Wow that sound cynical. Oops?)
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In contrast, the sound effects of the original mix of “Computer Friends” feels like a bit of synthwave but based more in early 2000s techno. Like, I could fit it into the retro-inspired synthwave easily until I heard the “wub wub wub” sound effect. Then I’m like… wait, what year is this? It came out in 2015 (2016?), but it plays sounds that make me think of the 90s and 00s. So like, synthwave but a different decade? Synthwave influenced by old-school dubstep? Idk.
Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.
