What really started the Synthwave/Outrun movement?

IlluminatiPirate

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I was wondering what really started the synthwave movement, or made it as moderately popular as it is, although the fanbase clearly isn't mainstream. Apparently part of the reason that "The Midnight" started their retro sounding project was due to the inspiration of the score from Drive. And producer from "the Midnight" also accredited the movie as part of the reason for the surge of popularity of the genre and for inspiration for creators of the music genre.

I remember some 5 years ago or so, I watched Drive for the first time. I remember watching and having those catchy retro sounding songs playing and having an attachment to that type of sound in a song. It was probably my first recognition of retrowave. The feelings that movie evoked with the music kind of always stayed in the back of my head until I finally did truly discover the genre and fell in love with it.

What do you guys think? Did "Drive" have a huge part in inspiring artists and surging the genre's popularity? Could we say it started this whole craze? Or did something else kick it off?
 
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joypistols974@aol.com

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Well, I don't know what has caused the genre to expand that way, but I'm sure that Far Cry: Blood Dragon (the 80's themed DLC for Far Cry 3) made a huge spotlight on synthwave from the average gamer's point of view, my favorite retrowave game staying Hotline Miami 2 though
 
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totaji

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IlluminatiPirate said:
I was wondering what really started the synthwave movement, or made it as moderately popular as it is, although the fanbase clearly isn't mainstream. Apparently part of the reason that "The Midnight" started their retro sounding project was due to the inspiration of the score from Drive. And producer from "the Midnight" also accredited the movie as part of the reason for the surge of popularity of the genre and for inspiration for creators of the music genre.

I remember some 5 years ago or so, I watched Drive for the first time. I remember watching and having those catchy retro sounding songs playing and having an attachment to that type of sound in a song. It was probably my first recognition of retrowave. The feelings that movie evoked with the music kind of always stayed in the back of my head until I finally did truly discover the genre and fell in love with it.

What do you guys think? Did "Drive" have a huge part in inspiring artists and surging the genre's popularity? Could we say it started this whole craze? Or did something else kick it off?

Drive didn't come out til 2011. Johnny Jewel did the original soundtrack which was not used in the film. Johnny Jewel and Kavinsky are really the originators of Synthwave. So you could say it comes from Italo disco and french house. But quickly Mitch Murder and Com Truise codified the sound. Some early Johnny instrumentals like his stuff as Symmetry can give you an idea what that Soundtrack sounded like. Same with some early Chromatics instrumentals. Johnny also formed the neon aesthetic. (Of course this is all done in a retro way, the originators are from the 80's.)
 

Isaac_Ascii

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In my opinion, a significant factor was the french eletro scene in the early 2000 around the labels Ed Banger and Kitsune. From this Nu Disco and Synthwave slowly emerged especially by the label Valerie Collective. Then Kavinsky got huge and Synthwave was finally established.

That's how I experienced it as an 34 years old german fart. ^^
 
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