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Synth-Pop

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Primary Stylistic Influences:
Secondary Stylistic Influences:

Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Synth Pop is what occurs when you take synthesizers and make pop music with them.

An important stylistic mark of Synth Pop is that the synthesizers deliberately sound like synthesizers, or in Purple Prose they exploit artificiality. Synth Pop does not use synthesizers to replicate acoustic sounds but rather as instruments in their own right.

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Synth Pop can use acoustic instruments, however the majority of the work must be Electronic Music in order for a pop song to be classified as Synth Pop.

This genre was very influential during The '80s (although it's Older Than They Think; the very first synth albumnote , The In Sound From Way Out! by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Gershon Kingsley, was an example of Synth Pop in 1966, nearly 20 years before the genre became popularnote ). The Tornados' 1962 hit "Telstar" is also pointed to as an Ur-Examplenote . Whilst many eighties pop bands were not predominantly electronic, they were usually significantly electronic and made generous use of of their synthesizers and drum machines.

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The distinction between this genre (at least during The '80s) and New Wave is not easy to establish. One potential distinction is that Synth Pop must be predominantly electronic, and significantly electronic pop music can be classified as New Wave. However, some people do tend to use "New Wave" and "Synth Pop" more or less interchangeably, and use either term to refer to any eighties pop song with a significant electronic component.

There's also been a significant influence of synth pop in the indie arena, taking its cues from early 80's new wave. (You know, keyboards and depression, together in perfect harmony. Leads to artists with names like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone.)

The Darker and Edgier, more aggressive and punk-like approach to this style of music results in Electronic Body Music or EBM, which is a subgenre of Industrial.

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The darker, angstier, Wangst-ier and Goth-oriented version of this style of music is called Dark Wave.

An even more stripped-down take on the style (coupled with a strong DIY aesthetic) is known as Minimal Synth or Minimal Wave

The genre's arguable Spiritual Successor and direct Spin-Off is Alternative Dance, which originated when bands like New Order, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys took Synth-Pop and combined it with the songwriting approach (and sometimes musical elements) of Alternative Rock.

Although strongly associated with The '80s, since the 2000s or so it has had a revival in the form of modern acts that use a deliberately Retraux sound to emulate the style of classic synth pop as a Genre Throwback to this era. A term used for similar-sounding modern artists is electropop; the difference between the two is subtle but electropop is entirely electronic music (synths, drum machines etc.) with a poppy bent while synth pop is pop which happens to use electronics, and may have guitar and acoustic drums (which electropop as a rule doesn't). A term used during The '90s was electroclash for a subgenre that combined synth pop with Techno. "Tumblr pop" is another colloquialism used to refer to a specific 2010s variant of it that mixes in heavy dream pop, trap, witch house, and (sometimes) vaporwave elements, with the name coming from its association with Tumblr; Charli XCX, Lorde, Halsey, Grimes, and Purity Ring all helped establish and popularize the style.

Significant artists include:

And arguably a good portion of The '80s pop acts in general (who are either this or New Wave).

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