Line #35 Music/Kavinsky


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1986_kavinsky_7476.png]]
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3	Kavinsky (a.k.a. Vincent Pierre Claude Belorgey, born July 31, 1975) is a French house/electronic artist who is known primarily for creating upbeat but also somewhat thematically dark SynthPop reminiscent of 1980s sci-fi and action film soundtracks.
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5	Belgory recorded his first single, "Testarossa Overdrive", after being inspired by a pair of fellow friends who worked in filmmaking. From there, Belgory was signed to the Record Makers music label and released three EP's from 2006 to 2010. He achieved major mainstream attention when "Nightcall", the lead single off his third LP, was used as the opening theme to the film ''Film/Drive2011'' starring Ryan Gosling.
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7	Belgory's next EP, ''[=ProtoVision=]'', was released in December 2012, followed by his first studio album, ''Outrun'', in February 2013. The latter is a ConceptAlbum about the character of Kavinsky, who is a high school student who crashes his CoolCar before mysteriously coming back to life and going to find his high school sweetheart. The subsequent release, ''Zenith'' (2022), is a sequel to ''Outrun''.
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9	As a result of his mainstream success, Belgory has raised public interest in other UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}} artists. His work is also meant as a GenreThrowback to the 1980s film soundtracks of Creator/JohnCarpenter and Tangerine Dream.
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11	----
12	!!Discography:
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14	* ''Teddy Boy (EP)'' (2006)
15	* ''1986 (EP)'' (2007)
16	* ''Blazer (EP)'' (2008)
17	* ''Nightcall (EP)'' (2010)
18	* ''[=ProtoVision=] / Odd Look (EP)'' (2013)
19	* ''Outrun'' (2013)
20	* ''Reborn'' (2022)
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22	!!The band and their music provide examples of the following:
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24	* AnachronismStew: While the story is explictly stated to take place in 1986, the song "Suburbia" has several contemporary pop culture references, including mentions of Creator/GwynethPaltrow, Facebook and Twitter.
25	** The story ''started'' in 1986 when Kavinsky died, but goes on to state Kavinsky returned to life in 2006 and is still active into the present day.
26	* AntiVillain: Although the character's motivations are largely altruistic or heroic in nature (saving the waitress, for example), he's also been shown (in the music video for ''[=ProtoVision=]'') to have run down an off-duty police officer just for the act of chasing him (via crushing the officer's body against a fence and watching as he dies).
27	** The lyrics to ''Renegade'' also touch on the trope, implying Kavinsky is well aware of it and struggles with not sliding into villainy.
28	* CoolCar: Kavinsky's Ferrari Testarossa. It's also Vincent's personal ride.
29	* CoolShades: One of Kavinsky's defining traits. Used to hide RedEyesTakeWarning. The shades only come down when ThingsGetReal.
30	* ConceptAlbum: Outrun is definitely this. It is implied this will develop into a full MythArc surrounding the character of Kavinsky.
31	* TheDrifter: The natural consequence of Kavinsky's role as a FlyingDutchman type character.
32	* FearlessUndead: Kavinsky is quite bold in the music videos, getting in numerous fights with thugs and saving numerous innocents. It's doubtful that this is what his character was like before he came back as a zombie.
33	* FlyingDutchman: Kavinsky is pretty much a variant of this.
34	* GenreThrowback: Largely to 80s film soundtracks.
35	* LovableJock: Kavinsky himself.
36	* MadeOfIron: Kavinsky; The "Odd Look" video sees him shrug off a number of physical blows, and the "Renegade" video cranks it up with Kavinsky taking a MegatonPunch from another undead. On both occasions, he treats the blows more as a ''frustration'' than actually harmful.
37	* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: "Nightcall" is about Kavinsky explaining to his old love how he has changed since his death and rebirth.
38	* OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Kavinsky starts out as one, and still dresses like one after his death and revival.
39	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Kavinsky is a ''heroic'' example, though the music video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5u6YYqWgEo "Renegade"]] reveals he's not the only revenant running around, but he's the only one who seems to be firmly on the side of right.
40	* PermaStubble: Kavinsky has a PermaStubble mustache. Possibly a ShoutOut to Detective Crockett from ''Series/MiamiVice''.
41	* PunchedAcrossTheRoom: The "Renegade" music video's entire first half is Kavinsky being blown through the better part of an office building after catching a surprise MegatonPunch from another undead.
42	* RedEyesTakeWarning: Happens in a few of the music videos. Crosses over with GlowingEyelightsOfUndeath.
43	* RedIsHeroic: Kavinsky's letterman jacket.
44	* {{Retraux}}: The font, color palette, and fashions in both the videos and promotional materials are all clearly meant to evoke this.
45	* SynthPop: Some of Kavinsky's work is this, particularly the song "Nightcall."
46	* SunglassesAtNight: Kavinsky.
47	* UnbuiltTrope: Outrun is widely considered one of, if not the first proper synthwave LP, and for as many tropes it codified, it can also appear very deconstructive in its approach to synthwave, simply because its hallmarks weren't quite as well established.
48	** Many standard pop music tropes (like AWildRapperAppears below) would be unheard of in most "mainstream" synthwave track.
49	** A vocoder is used on Nightcall, despite the instrument not being widespread in the genre.
50	** The character of Kavinsky is based on the artist himself, when most synthwave artists are anonymous.
51	** The whole plot of the album seems like a deconstruction of the synthwave ideal. Whereas most synthwave artists blatantly fetishize the 80s, its ideal of coolness and its sportscars, Outrun shows that Kavinsky is actually a terrifying zombie freak, and his cursed Testarossa is the source of all his troubles. Ironically enough, the "cars and babes" subset of synthwave is named Outrun, [[MisaimedFandom partially because of this album.]]
52	* AWildRapperAppears: The otherwise retro-electronic "Outrun" album has the rap song "Suburbia", featuring lyrics by Havoc with a [[ClusterFBomb jarring shift in profanity]].
53	* YourHeadAsplode: The music video for ''Renegade'' ends with Kavinsky psychically doing this (from what amounts to at least a city block away) to the group of revenants who jumped him at the start of the video. Given [[TearsOfBlood the side effects we see]], doing this apparently puts a lot of strain on Kavinsky, however.
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Context Music / Kavinsky