How did Synthwave end-up associated with Cyberpunk ?
If you look on "cyberpunk" play-list on youtube, it's mostly some synthwave electronic music.
if I think about Cyberpunk, I obviously think about 2020's rockerboys with a guitar-axe, or skater like snow crash's YT. Also, as it's name stands it's a deeply punk anti-capitalist. I feel like RATM or noFX would be way more suited in that genre than some DJ playing with synth.
So how did we switched from guitar to synth, and from anti-capitalism to neon aesthetic ?
I suspect Vangelis's work on BladeRunner had a big part to play in this
Of course, and things like John Carpenter's soundtracks. Basically... 80s
This is the answer imo
Woah, I didn't realize Vangelis created the soundtrack for Blade Runner! I loved his music in the 80's and early 90's, but haven't heard anything about him in 30 years.
Personally when I think of Cyberpunk I think of Jet Set Radio/Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, or I think of something along the lines of Akira or the music video for Ken Ishii - Extra. That said, the pop-culture aesthetic is mostly based on Bladerunner, which was based on what people thought a dystopian future would look like in the 80's. What would future-80's music sound like? Well, that was when synths really started taking off, so future music is obviously all synth-based because why would you need another instrument if your keyboard can do it all?
It was the 80's man, don't ask questions. most people were still hung over from the 70's.
More seriously, synthwave used and relied on synthesizers to produce the music... adding a cyber-esque flair to the music. Mostly any form of electronic fits the bill. but in the 80's... it was synthwave that was hot and it kinda stuck.
They weren't hungover from the 70s, they were too coked up in the 80s to get round to hangovers till the 90s
That's where all the depression came from in the grunge scene, coming down from 30 years of partying.
80s is 80s.
Synthwave is actually a fairly new music genre that is inspired/nostalgic from the 80's horror films and synth tunes of the time. Go pay a visite de the small community we have here on de fediverse !synthwave@waveform.social !
Because Sigue-Sigue Sputnik were never cool? I love SSS! Bit meta though.
Going back and looking at things like the Max Headroom movie for example. That one was scored by Chris Cross and Midge Ure of Ultravox.
We were all listening to New Wave, synthpop, EBM (Front242). So a lot of electronic music.
We were even, non-ironically, listening to 8-bit chip tune stuff by people like Rob Hubbard, Jochen Hippel and others. You know, pre-demo scene 8-bit games like Jet Set Willy, and latet 16-bit demos and disks passed round
I was just listening to SSS yesterday! Front Line Assembly feels like they should be mentioned here too.
Indeed. And probably Nitzer Ebb.
What about guitar music and anti-capitalism is inherently cyberpunk?
It seems like you played CP77 and went "yeah this is what cyberpunk is about" even though it's just one entry into a genre that's existed since the 80's.
Blade runner had a lot of synth, so most likely that I guess.
Electronic music, electronic world. I don't think it's really deeper than that, TBH. It sounds cool and, when the cyberpunk genre was conceived, techno and synthwave were also pretty new and gaining popularity with the tech crowd IRL. It seems natural that the techno focused punks in a cyberpunk world would gravitate toward techno and synth music, though I would also imagine an evolution of styles mixing techno, punk, grunge and metal into something new, unique to a world where these genres have mingled and co-existed for a long time as part of the mainstream/counter-culture that you are immersed into while reading/watching/playing something cyberpunk.