Home > Synth pop
| Synth pop
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| Stylistic origins:
| Electronic art music, Post punk, New Wave
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| Cultural origins:
| Early 1980s, United Kingdom
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| Typical instruments:
| Synthesizer - Drum machine - Tape loops - Drums - Guitar (in latter incarnations were added Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler)
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| Mainstream popularity:
| Large, worldwide, especially in 1980s
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| Derivative forms:
| Electroclash
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| SubgenresContemporary electronic music includes many different styles or musical genres, such as: Ambient Ambient groove Illbient Organic ambient Isolationist Breakbeat Darkstep 2Step also known as Speed garage Breakbeat hardcore Breakcore Brokenbeat Drill and bas
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| ElectropopElectropop is a genre of synthesizer pop music which flourished during the early 1980s, although the first recordings were made in the late 1970s. Numerous bands have carried on the electropop tradition into the 1990s and 2000s. Electropop is often charac - Electroclash - FuturepopFuturepop is a recently-emerging musical genre, an outgrowth of EBM with synth pop influences. It is characterized by uplifting grandiose synthesizer melodies reminiscent of trance, but almost always has vocals. The term was invented by Ronan Harris (of V - SynthpunkDefining characteristics of synthpunk (also known as synth-punk) bands include being founded at the same time (late 1970s) and place (California) as many US punk bands, performing with those same punk bands, in those same punk clubs, with records released
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Synth pop is a style of popular music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. While it might be argued that most current popular and commercial music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, synth pop 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 rhythms and "feel", the use of vocal arrangements as a counterpoint to the artificiality of the instruments, and the use of ostinatoOstinato an Italian word meaning "stubborn" (compare English obstinate , is to classical music what riffs are to popular music. An ostinato is a bit of melody, a chord progression, or a bass figure that is repeated over and over as an accompaniment. Ostin patterns as an effect. Synth pop song forms are generally the same as in "regular" pop music. Lyrically, synth pop has an affection for science-fiction themes.
Synth pop is sometimes referred to as electropop although electropop is generally regarded to be a particular style of synth pop that flourished during the early 1980s most closely associated with the post-punk New Wave music scene.
Several of these bands in the 1980s were quite successful. None of the newer acts have had more than a modicum of commercial success in the United States, although some have done very well in Europe, South America, and/or Asia.
1 Representative artists and ensembles
