This was so damn good, I really don't even know where to begin. From the book-ending about your personal experiences with your time in Москва - the visual aesthetics you pulled off here - all the bits of beloved Synthwave tracks, which makes me realize just how savvy I actually am in this genre without ever looking too much into to - the John Carpenter part.... and the whole interpretation of the ever-so-relevant juxtaposition of idealism and pessimism. Plus, I think that was yet the best verbalization of how shockingly great it felt to play Hotline Miami when it came out. Nobody who saw mere pictures or maybe even a trailer of this game expected it to 'click' so loudly, but it turned out to be almost ludicrously engaging and addicting. Marvellous job, man!
Hi Ragnar! It's so great that sometimes I ran into a video on YT, find it interesting, and in a commenst section I find a post by some content creator I really like and subscribe. Don't know if it's YT playing it's algorythm-games with me, or I'm just watching the same videos as You do ;)
It’s kinda ironic how Synthwave is made to reflect the electronic sounds of the 80s, yet those sounds were initially made to represent the future. That’s why many 80s movies with electronic soundtracks are often futurist or set in the future. And they were right. Here we are in the future making the same music that they predicted would define the future, even though we take inspiration from the past.
So agree. Tron Legacy, Drive, Oblivion, and video games Hot Miami Nights/Far Cry3 Blood Dragon Helped bring the scene to light. It Follows, The Neon Demon, Stranger Things, and Mr.Robot has enforced the scene. The sources...or at least some main ones are Blade Runner, Escape From New York, Terminator, Vangelis, Goblin, Tangerine Dream. Love Synth/Retrowave
Go look up Paco de Lucia and the Flamenco style. Look up Classical guitaring and 12 strings. Look up the Gu Zheng. Check out Puscifer. Bluegrass gothic. EXPLORE
Why so many of us experience that? It's quite interesting that so many metal fans are attracted to synthwave. Carpenter brut and Dance with the dead definitely mix both things perfectly
WhereTheWavesAreBorn Maybe because, Heavy Metal and Synthwave have some stuff in common, for example the 80's and 90's nostalgic atmosphere.. thats acctualy why i love Synthwave, when i listen this in the subway, going to home after work, i forget about the world and simply back in time... it's an amazing feeling..
Fellow metalhead that is also heavily into synthwave. I could write a book about why, but to put it in caveman terms: Metalheads like music that doesn't suck ass.
Which is so weird because the harsher metal genres are so much harder on the ears. I started with powermetal ala sabaton and dug in through there, but I've never like anything harder than amon amarth
God I love synthwave. I hope it eventually takes over a decade, and we get synthwave radio stations, and everyone just reverts back to that perfect 80’s aesthetic. What I wouldn’t give to drive an ‘84 Corvette down the interstate with Power Core blasting in my ears.
I think an '80s revival was inevitable: in the 80s there was a president who made his name in the entertainment industry, the laid back hippie ideal had just fallen apart (not unlike the slacker/Indie culture of the 90s/00s), and technology was taking centre stage in most people's lives. We've come full circle.
Synthwave is exactly the genre of music, which made me reconsider my musical existence and made me do a decision: to make a music like that. To make the synthwave.
You are so right about Moscow at night being the synthwave fans dream (or nightmare). The Moscow City skyscrapers are really cyberpunk-feeling and the decay that surrounds them adds to the feeling. All you have to do is cross a street and you find yourself in some a slum of sorts.
This, for me started with Kavinsky and also Tesla Boy. Then Drive came out featuring one of Kavinsky songs and also Hotline Miami came out to introduce me to a whole bunch of other artists.
I started getting into electronic music in my early childhood, when my dad introduced me to Krafwerk. Then from there, I think I was in 6th/7th grade when I found my first synthwave song, whick was I Am The Program (Mega Drive). From there, my live of Syntheave started to blossom. However, there was 1 song I came across that really changed things for me: Mitch Murder's song Killer Angels. Then, there was another youtuber I remember that made a music video for Killer Angels, named Neros77. That was what got me into older, 3rd and 4th gen aircraft.
What I think alot of People forget is that in 1979 Synthesizers became popular because of New Wave artists, specifically Gary Numan. The Neon Triangle and Pyramid imagery came from him and it was he who popularised Synthesizers. I think Numan's song Cars was one of the big blueprints for Synthwave. He doesn't get the recognition he deserves, he is uncredited for a lot of things.
I think it's interesting that no one mentions industrial music when talking about synthwave. Take a listen to what Skinny Puppy was doing in the 80s. I don't know if any synthwave artists are actually influenced by Skinny Puppy or other industrial music, but I hear similarities. particularly in Perturbator and Carpenter Brut's music.
@@meinerHeld Trent Reznor sites Numan as a huge influence on NIN, so it's rather funny that Numan took a lot from NIN later in his career. also you might enjoy this vid with Numan talking about his own influences: vimeo.com/42521735
Amen dude. Numan has so many amazing songs and most people only know of Cars. Great song, but it's definitely one of his worst in comparison to the rest of his material in my opinion. There would be NO Nine Inch Nails without him either.
Damn... Since I played Hotline Miami, I'm totally changed. Now my bedroom is full of 80's poster and stuff, my phone is filled with Synthwave playlists, 90% of my clothing are merchandise from Synthwave composer, my computer look retro af, the majority of the movies I watch were made in the 80's, I learned music theory to compose Synthwave, and if I had more money to spend, my room will be filled with vintage synthesizer (But for now I only have a keytar :p ). Also I've completed HM1 & HM2 100% S rank (even in hardmode) and I plan to do the same on "Midnight Animal", a fan-made sequel of the game. At this point I might be obsessed XD
I guess you could say that everyone is different? And that everyone likes something else? Just because you don't like the genre doesn't mean that the people who like it have poor taste.
I'm not saying that you can't call people that they are retarded, but you're calling them retarded just because they like a music genre you don't like, that's pretty harsh I would say.
You story pretty much mirrors mine when I went to the university, first time away from home. I found out about Hotline Miami, Drive, Blood Dragon and fell in love with the genre and it's performers from Perturbator to Dynatron. Everytime I came back to the house I was living at at night, being from working or from a party, I always played Electric Dreams by Perturbator or Dust of the Saturn by Dynatron as I walked through the deserted streets. It is certainly a genre that is very special to me.
Tbh the 80s would always be the influences behind synthwave. However, it's people like Kavinsky who really started to expose the genre. And even before that artists were already reviving the sounds of analogue synths. This was all before 2010. The games and movies you mentioned only served to popularise the music, but it was coming back years before that.
I have nothing constructive nor intelligent nor impressive to say. I'll say only these three things: 1. I like it. 2. It accurately represents our current situation. and 3. Damn.
From the first minutes of the video, i felt all the stuff you talk about. Its been round 14 year since i moved to Moscow from Samara, smaller city in Russia. At this winter i was going to graduate from university, and i was really, i mean really stressed, which is quite unusual for me. At that time i found out Hotline Miami, the game which soundtrack just consumed me. So much time have passed, and still i love synthwave, really hyped for Dance with the Dead coming to Moscow at the end of august. Love that vid, explains a lot about this growing culture. Luvs from Moscow, keep dreaming in neon.
What you did in this video is art! A pure one. Really enjoyed it, you are a great artist who can even analyse his art in the best way. The way you explained the necessity of existance of synthwave in the 80s was amazing. Ty again
Hotline Miami just really sent me in a deep trance and I love the damn game. I never have been sucked into a game like that and so invested before in every little detail. Everything about it is so perfect to me, I just hope the devs are doing well now. I know when they were making Hotline Miami 1 and Wrong Number, they both were going through it. But I hope they know that they really did leave a significant footprint to the rise of retro and synthwave. Both are such inspirational people and I’m grateful for what they created as well as the artists that contributed to the soundtrack. I love everything about this genre.
Being an 80's baby/90's kid, I have always had a soft spot for the particular synth sound of the 80's. Because of this I have always admired music from the 80's, even the more mainstream pop songs. This says a lot of my love for the 80's vibe being that my main musical interests lies within the vast genres of the underground metal scene. Anyway, I have more recently become aware of the synthwave and vaporwave scenes and have really been in love with the fact that these deeply rooted 80's sounds have been thriving again amongst these small music scenes. I am a huge gamer and have heard of this Hotline Miami game but never played it myself, so I never even knew the game sported a full synthwave OST. I now have a whole new album of synthwave to explore! P.S I am a bit confused, is this Power Glove group that did the Blood Dragon OST the same Power Glove that does the metal covers of video game tracks? If so, I would be quite impressed that they could go from doing metal styled cover tracks to recording full original synthwave music.
This is a masterpiece!!! I learned so much about a genre I didn't even realize had become such an integral part of my music. To be honest, before this video I didn't even know synthwave was a genre, and yet I've listened to so many of the artists mentioned in this video. I wish you'd turn this into a full-blown documentary or mini-series. The juxtaposition between music and wider social issues was a stroke of genius.
Little disappointed you didn't mention Vangelis, who is perhaps the one of the biggest influences on synthwave aside from John Carpenter and Goblin, but otherwise a great video!
I discovered Kavinsky a few years ago and I quickly grew to love synthwave. It's the perfect music to listen to late at night when you're driving home from work and the streets are nearly empty.
As a russian person I confirm, that Hotline Miami’s ost is indeed the soundtrack for life in Russia. We live in a crumbling world that looks back into it’s former glory of the past, which has imagined the future as bright and futuristic.
I discovered sythwave when I watched the movie Drive. I didn't actually dive into it until a few years ago when I ran into Trevor Something, The Midnight, Le Cassette, etc. Love the sound and aesthetics of the 80s.
This video is almost 2 years old now and I rarely comment on RUclips videos, but OMG is this video good. Your story in the beginning, the music you showcase and your analysis of synthwave was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for putting into words my love for this genre of music. I too got into this genre from Hotline Miami, so this video really hits close to home for me.
I've had this video sitting in my watch later for years now since I'm a huge Hotline Miami and synthwave fan. Only now have I decided to watch it, and I have to say you perfectly described synthwave as a genre and that's not easy to pull off. Excellent video.
Loved it! I think you could have talked about Kraftwerk's influence a little. I mean, they were very pessimistic about technology ans industry but at the same time search for a futuristic synthetical approach to their sound; back in the 70's! [also, when the Internationale played at the beggining I was so emotional]
No, grim is more like "мрачный - [mrachnuy]", "тоска - [toska]" is more like yearning. It's very haunting, intrusive feeling of inexplicable sadness and you just feel that someting is not right. It's like feeling that someone from your siblings or friends just died, and you don't know it yet, but you have this feel. Or it's like when you feel desperate need in somethig, but you don't even know what it is. That is тоска.
This is excellent, like, flawless, congrats. I got into synthwave with Hotline MIami too, it brings togheter nostalgia and a sense for the future. Thank you.
Found CB few years back, after I'd stumbled onto the genre through Lazerhawk, and CB has been my favorite since. With this genre my new favorite genre.
Great video, and only now as I scrolled down to the comments did I realize it's two years old almost to the day. I've really gotten into synthwave in the past few years, so this was really interesting to me. Thanks for a great video essay.
What's your view on the heavier sound of Carpenter Brut? I think it's like Synthwave but crossed with the late 90's dark bass sound of rave with The Prodigy. I would say that overnight through Hotline Miami's 2 soundtrack Carpenter Brut became the lead sound for modern synthwave.
2 years later... But I loved it , the way you told the story and actual feel of the game was awesome too bad it was over so fast! Excellent video and a subscriber +1
My problem with synthwave is that the genre's rules make it so that most songs sound the same. There's the same chord progression that's used in A LOT of songs and it's just a env filtered saw bass on an arpeggiator, gated snare and a minor key for most.
This is the first video of yours ive ever watched so i can't say about the rest, but you are one of the few youtubers that actually have an extremely well written and coherent script, well done.
"I leaved russia, and never looked back.. 'Cause after HM I hate those mobsters :D" Kinda funny that you find a game about killing russians in russia don't?
wow this video is criminally underrated. I can't believe it only has 65k views. Well written, well edited, high quality video. Reminds me what is so great about youtube as platform. That anyway has a platform where they can share their creative endeavors. So, good job Michael and keep up the great work.
This was f*** glorious, thaough what I feel it lacked was a quiet bacground music that would get louder or quieter as you spoke or took breaks for the music to speak for itself. But all in all- great job :)
I loved this so much! So much information about an era I have such a fascination for yet was never born or lived in and how much a genre and it's themes reflect our own world even today. Simply amazing, man!
Nice doc. Just relax with the pedestrian economics. Doing more with less manhours does actually make us richer. It works for individuals, it works for factories, it works for nations, and it works for the global economy. Provided we let the prices adjust. And the government actively fighting that, trough moneyprinting, in the hopes of destroying the value of it's debt, is the real culprit in promoting poverty. That in turn enabling it to take more debt.
This was so damn good, I really don't even know where to begin.
From the book-ending about your personal experiences with your time in Москва - the visual aesthetics you pulled off here - all the bits of beloved Synthwave tracks, which makes me realize just how savvy I actually am in this genre without ever looking too much into to - the John Carpenter part.... and the whole interpretation of the ever-so-relevant juxtaposition of idealism and pessimism.
Plus, I think that was yet the best verbalization of how shockingly great it felt to play Hotline Miami when it came out. Nobody who saw mere pictures or maybe even a trailer of this game expected it to 'click' so loudly, but it turned out to be almost ludicrously engaging and addicting.
Marvellous job, man!
youtube is cutting off comments. yours seems to end in an "and"
Hi Ragnar! It's so great that sometimes I ran into a video on YT, find it interesting, and in a commenst section I find a post by some content creator I really like and subscribe. Don't know if it's YT playing it's algorythm-games with me, or I'm just watching the same videos as You do ;)
RagnarRox It's cool to see you here!
Love your content. Nice to see great creators praise each other.
@@pjishomo agreed
The late 2010s and early 2020s are gonna be more 80s than the 80s themselves
Luke C I can’t wait
Daily C4t same
Well, we are already starting to look like cyberpunk society (except we lack all the cool stuff).
fml I think the coke boom is here already, everyone is on it
I hope so
It’s kinda ironic how Synthwave is made to reflect the electronic sounds of the 80s, yet those sounds were initially made to represent the future. That’s why many 80s movies with electronic soundtracks are often futurist or set in the future. And they were right. Here we are in the future making the same music that they predicted would define the future, even though we take inspiration from the past.
Self-fulfilling prophecy.
The future affecting the past
infinite loop
Retrofuturism is the movement you're looking for.
Yooooooooooooo
You played hotline miami in russia.THE IRONY.
*Goes in the street and start killing everyone
@@Cavadoro333 cheeki breeki!!!!! *gets shot in the head*
buddy there's levels like this (steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1506531319&searchtext=) on hotline Miami 2's workshop.
I played it in China, pretty close
Gotta get a grip
"The 80's gave tribute to the 50's, and now everyone's giving tribute to the 80's."
-James Rolfe
J C plenty of movies in the 80s had that Rock n roll diner feel. Leather jackets, greasers, heroes, guns, etc.
Beneath Remains And now that same thing is happening again. An idealization of the 80s idealization of the 50s.
DRajtify people always think the past is better without even noticing it
In what video does he say that?
@@Neonagi you can already see western fashion slowly turning more and more wacky as the 80s fashion fads were
"A future with no future" is an amazing description of the whole neo-noir and cyberpunk genres.
Yora that’s exactly what I get from synth wave and Vaporwave only it’s a bit less sinister. Like industrial compared to techno.💯😈😈😈👑®️
Blade Runner and Robocop !
How about "high-tech, low-life"
I think Drive (2011) played a big part on the rise of the synthwave movement.
The whole neon reborn is after Drive
truuuuue
So agree. Tron Legacy, Drive, Oblivion, and video games Hot Miami Nights/Far Cry3 Blood Dragon Helped bring the scene to light. It Follows, The Neon Demon, Stranger Things, and Mr.Robot has enforced the scene. The sources...or at least some main ones are Blade Runner, Escape From New York, Terminator, Vangelis, Goblin, Tangerine Dream. Love Synth/Retrowave
Nicholas winding refn in general
Scott McClure I'm glad I'm not the only one that got that vibe from "it follows"
I was looking for something like synthwave for years till i found it.
3rd World Gamer same
true, was never a fan of the clean synths and focus on beats on EDM, and postpunk didn't have enough synths in it :)
Until Hotline Miami I only was into heavy metal. So glad I stumbled across this genre!
Synthwave is metal but electro instead. Some of the stuff really sound like undercover death metal.
Sh0cklyz Wow same here bro, my mind exploded so do my musical taste.
Sh0cklyz Same here.
Dude same here!!! I can image many metalheads would dig Synthwave if shown to them
Go look up Paco de Lucia and the Flamenco style. Look up Classical guitaring and 12 strings. Look up the Gu Zheng. Check out Puscifer. Bluegrass gothic. EXPLORE
It is funny, because synthwave artists make the music to sound like 80's, but this is actualy how our era sounds like.
e6e2e3e1 It is actually a little funny.
e6e2e3e1 so true
Huh...
Our era is a ripoff off the 80s..
Eh, if you listen to movie sound tracks from the early to mid 1980s, you see a lot of inspiration, flashes of things to come.
Yep, Hotline Miami was the turning point for me. From extreme metal to synthwave :D
Why so many of us experience that? It's quite interesting that so many metal fans are attracted to synthwave. Carpenter brut and Dance with the dead definitely mix both things perfectly
Dimi Kaye look at daft punks - aerodynamic to feel a perfect mix of metal and 80’s synth
WhereTheWavesAreBorn Maybe because, Heavy Metal and Synthwave have some stuff in common, for example the 80's and 90's nostalgic atmosphere.. thats acctualy why i love Synthwave, when i listen this in the subway, going to home after work, i forget about the world and simply back in time... it's an amazing feeling..
Fellow metalhead that is also heavily into synthwave. I could write a book about why, but to put it in caveman terms: Metalheads like music that doesn't suck ass.
Which is so weird because the harsher metal genres are so much harder on the ears.
I started with powermetal ala sabaton and dug in through there, but I've never like anything harder than amon amarth
God I love synthwave. I hope it eventually takes over a decade, and we get synthwave radio stations, and everyone just reverts back to that perfect 80’s aesthetic. What I wouldn’t give to drive an ‘84 Corvette down the interstate with Power Core blasting in my ears.
somebody needs to make a perfect 80's cars list.
I sure would add the delorean, bmw e24 and e38
I think an '80s revival was inevitable: in the 80s there was a president who made his name in the entertainment industry, the laid back hippie ideal had just fallen apart (not unlike the slacker/Indie culture of the 90s/00s), and technology was taking centre stage in most people's lives. We've come full circle.
It fell apart for most........but not all.
“An 80s revival”. There has been 80s revivals since the 90s.
This guy gets it. Fuck yeah man.
Synthwave is exactly the genre of music, which made me reconsider my musical existence and made me do a decision: to make a music like that. To make the synthwave.
You are so right about Moscow at night being the synthwave fans dream (or nightmare). The Moscow City skyscrapers are really cyberpunk-feeling and the decay that surrounds them adds to the feeling. All you have to do is cross a street and you find yourself in some a slum of sorts.
xino miu
Sounds cool! But if u want ultimate synthwave/cyberpunk feels, visit Shanghai or Hong Kong! ;)
ruclips.net/video/XnhXQ6YfEDQ/видео.html
Cut to the parts of where they go to the club and put some synthwave music. Sorta fits
In 2007, Kavinsky's Wayfarer was free on iTunes for a day. I was 14, and I never looked back.
This, for me started with Kavinsky and also Tesla Boy. Then Drive came out featuring one of Kavinsky songs and also Hotline Miami came out to introduce me to a whole bunch of other artists.
@@WolfgangPereira oh man love Tesla Boy, got to see them live several years ago and they were amazing.
I started getting into electronic music in my early childhood, when my dad introduced me to Krafwerk. Then from there, I think I was in 6th/7th grade when I found my first synthwave song, whick was I Am The Program (Mega Drive). From there, my live of Syntheave started to blossom. However, there was 1 song I came across that really changed things for me: Mitch Murder's song Killer Angels. Then, there was another youtuber I remember that made a music video for Killer Angels, named Neros77. That was what got me into older, 3rd and 4th gen aircraft.
What I think alot of People forget is that in 1979 Synthesizers became popular because of New Wave artists, specifically Gary Numan. The Neon Triangle and Pyramid imagery came from him and it was he who popularised Synthesizers. I think Numan's song Cars was one of the big blueprints for Synthwave. He doesn't get the recognition he deserves, he is uncredited for a lot of things.
Ryan Hunter you're very right, but aLso Assault on Precinct 13, released in 76, had a serious protosynthwave sound too
And yet later on he would throw that away for a NIN aesthetic. Put-ons...
I think it's interesting that no one mentions industrial music when talking about synthwave. Take a listen to what Skinny Puppy was doing in the 80s. I don't know if any synthwave artists are actually influenced by Skinny Puppy or other industrial music, but I hear similarities. particularly in Perturbator and Carpenter Brut's music.
@@meinerHeld Trent Reznor sites Numan as a huge influence on NIN, so it's rather funny that Numan took a lot from NIN later in his career. also you might enjoy this vid with Numan talking about his own influences: vimeo.com/42521735
Amen dude. Numan has so many amazing songs and most people only know of Cars. Great song, but it's definitely one of his worst in comparison to the rest of his material in my opinion. There would be NO Nine Inch Nails without him either.
"The 1980's of pop culture we all remember but never actually existed"
Then lets make dam sure it exists now.
Hope youtube's algorithm starts recommending this video to more people.
10 months later it worked for me!
Worked for me right After i played through hotline miami
Very good description of the genre's origins. No one else whose written about synthwave has touched on all the major notes as you have.
Hey man I make synth music I work so hard please take a look
With every sleepless night I spend listening to synthwave, my power only grows stronger
In my country during the 80's this style was turned to dance music style called Italo disco.
which later became euro dance/EDM
TheCivildecay and French touch
riccardo freddolini Italo is one of my favorite genres.
italo disco is my kryptonite.
Italo disco is just Spacesynth to me ^^
Damn... Since I played Hotline Miami, I'm totally changed. Now my bedroom is full of 80's poster and stuff, my phone is filled with Synthwave playlists, 90% of my clothing are merchandise from Synthwave composer, my computer look retro af, the majority of the movies I watch were made in the 80's, I learned music theory to compose Synthwave, and if I had more money to spend, my room will be filled with vintage synthesizer (But for now I only have a keytar :p ). Also I've completed HM1 & HM2 100% S rank (even in hardmode) and I plan to do the same on "Midnight Animal", a fan-made sequel of the game.
At this point I might be obsessed XD
poor taste?
Why are you watching a video about synthwave if you don't like it?
I guess you could say that everyone is different? And that everyone likes something else? Just because you don't like the genre doesn't mean that the people who like it have poor taste.
I'm not saying that you can't call people that they are retarded, but you're calling them retarded just because they like a music genre you don't like, that's pretty harsh I would say.
Is one of these your computer?
ruclips.net/video/I37U52gMFGA/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/R_h63IsmvSQ/видео.html
You story pretty much mirrors mine when I went to the university, first time away from home. I found out about Hotline Miami, Drive, Blood Dragon and fell in love with the genre and it's performers from Perturbator to Dynatron. Everytime I came back to the house I was living at at night, being from working or from a party, I always played Electric Dreams by Perturbator or Dust of the Saturn by Dynatron as I walked through the deserted streets. It is certainly a genre that is very special to me.
Same for me, mate.
I was raised on 80s music so when I came across synthwave it was a perfect fit....
Same here!
Tbh the 80s would always be the influences behind synthwave. However, it's people like Kavinsky who really started to expose the genre. And even before that artists were already reviving the sounds of analogue synths. This was all before 2010. The games and movies you mentioned only served to popularise the music, but it was coming back years before that.
CONTENT WARNING
VIOLENCE
BLOOD/GORE
*russia*
lol
I cant let my family see Russia!
He aint lying
I have nothing constructive nor intelligent nor impressive to say. I'll say only these three things:
1. I like it.
2. It accurately represents our current situation.
and 3. Damn.
Where is Michael? I miss his content, this place became like my “safe hub”. Long live to the Synth
From the first minutes of the video, i felt all the stuff you talk about. Its been round 14 year since i moved to Moscow from Samara, smaller city in Russia. At this winter i was going to graduate from university, and i was really, i mean really stressed, which is quite unusual for me. At that time i found out Hotline Miami, the game which soundtrack just consumed me. So much time have passed, and still i love synthwave, really hyped for Dance with the Dead coming to Moscow at the end of august. Love that vid, explains a lot about this growing culture. Luvs from Moscow, keep dreaming in neon.
What you did in this video is art! A pure one. Really enjoyed it, you are a great artist who can even analyse his art in the best way. The way you explained the necessity of existance of synthwave in the 80s was amazing. Ty again
Living in an actual Cyberpunk Dystopia, you give points why synth wave should be the revolutionary soundtrack of our future.
Hotline Miami just really sent me in a deep trance and I love the damn game. I never have been sucked into a game like that and so invested before in every little detail. Everything about it is so perfect to me, I just hope the devs are doing well now. I know when they were making Hotline Miami 1 and Wrong Number, they both were going through it. But I hope they know that they really did leave a significant footprint to the rise of retro and synthwave. Both are such inspirational people and I’m grateful for what they created as well as the artists that contributed to the soundtrack. I love everything about this genre.
Being an 80's baby/90's kid, I have always had a soft spot for the particular synth sound of the 80's. Because of this I have always admired music from the 80's, even the more mainstream pop songs. This says a lot of my love for the 80's vibe being that my main musical interests lies within the vast genres of the underground metal scene.
Anyway, I have more recently become aware of the synthwave and vaporwave scenes and have really been in love with the fact that these deeply rooted 80's sounds have been thriving again amongst these small music scenes. I am a huge gamer and have heard of this Hotline Miami game but never played it myself, so I never even knew the game sported a full synthwave OST. I now have a whole new album of synthwave to explore!
P.S I am a bit confused, is this Power Glove group that did the Blood Dragon OST the same Power Glove that does the metal covers of video game tracks? If so, I would be quite impressed that they could go from doing metal styled cover tracks to recording full original synthwave music.
God this video has aged like fine wine. I keep coming back to it every once and awhile after I first found it recently. It's so perfect.
Dude. This was probably the loudest like I've ever hitted on RUclips. Congratulations.
This is a masterpiece!!! I learned so much about a genre I didn't even realize had become such an integral part of my music. To be honest, before this video I didn't even know synthwave was a genre, and yet I've listened to so many of the artists mentioned in this video. I wish you'd turn this into a full-blown documentary or mini-series. The juxtaposition between music and wider social issues was a stroke of genius.
Little disappointed you didn't mention Vangelis, who is perhaps the one of the biggest influences on synthwave aside from John Carpenter and Goblin, but otherwise a great video!
WastedMeerkat You don’t need to reference Vangelis. He is everywhere. He is like a god to synthwave. All others are merely influences to it.
Early Progressive Electronic Music & Berliner Schule (Elektronische Musik)
I discovered Kavinsky a few years ago and I quickly grew to love synthwave. It's the perfect music to listen to late at night when you're driving home from work and the streets are nearly empty.
Ever since I played Hotline Miami, sythwave has become my favourite genre. I listen to NewRetroWave's music now
Exceptional video essay Mr.
As a russian person I confirm, that Hotline Miami’s ost is indeed the soundtrack for life in Russia. We live in a crumbling world that looks back into it’s former glory of the past, which has imagined the future as bright and futuristic.
I discovered sythwave when I watched the movie Drive. I didn't actually dive into it until a few years ago when I ran into Trevor Something, The Midnight, Le Cassette, etc. Love the sound and aesthetics of the 80s.
Brilliant video and criminally underviewed
This video is almost 2 years old now and I rarely comment on RUclips videos, but OMG is this video good. Your story in the beginning, the music you showcase and your analysis of synthwave was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for putting into words my love for this genre of music. I too got into this genre from Hotline Miami, so this video really hits close to home for me.
Stranger Things on Netflix also features one of the best synthwave OSTs I have ever heard. Quite incredible.
Tron Legacy and Oblivion also have amazing synthwave type soundtracks.
Funnily enough, I hate the show, but the soundtrack is so good
I only started watching the show because I heard of the soundtrack XD
Brilliant insight into synthwave not only a music genre, but a lifestyle. Major kudos to you 💙
Your description of today's electronic music and how synthwave is different is totally spot on and why I love the genre so much.
This was wonderful. Your narrative skills are rivaled only by your editing. Thank you for this fun ride!
guys check out Gunship and Com Truise, two synthwave groups that im sure you'll love
GUNSHIP!!!!!!!!
Com Truise!!!!!!!!!!!
There great!!!
Com Truise is a little too happy for my taste. I prefer Pertubator, Scandroid or Carpenter Brut.
Ones I recommend include:
Fury Weekend
Magic Sword
Pylot
Vogel
and Shredder 1984
I've had this video sitting in my watch later for years now since I'm a huge Hotline Miami and synthwave fan. Only now have I decided to watch it, and I have to say you perfectly described synthwave as a genre and that's not easy to pull off. Excellent video.
Loved it!
I think you could have talked about Kraftwerk's influence a little. I mean, they were very pessimistic about technology ans industry but at the same time search for a futuristic synthetical approach to their sound; back in the 70's!
[also, when the Internationale played at the beggining I was so emotional]
Kraftwerk, jean-michel jarre, yellow magic orchestra; all require shout-outs.
This game introduced me to synthwave, one of the best things that happened to me. Now I wish to make a game with synthwave.
We have as special word in Russian to describe what you feel: "toska".
Does that have a direct english translation?
I guess in portuguese it would translate to Saudade, in french in Spleen and in turkish in Huzün.
@@venandisicarius gloomy or grim would do
@@ComradeSigmus Cool! Thanks
No, grim is more like "мрачный - [mrachnuy]", "тоска - [toska]" is more like yearning. It's very haunting, intrusive feeling of inexplicable sadness and you just feel that someting is not right. It's like feeling that someone from your siblings or friends just died, and you don't know it yet, but you have this feel. Or it's like when you feel desperate need in somethig, but you don't even know what it is. That is тоска.
This is an EXCELLENT documentary!
I'd like to see a longer version possibly interviewing some of the artists and devs, too. Brilliant work!
You had me at Ocean Drive.
FANTASTIC video essay, man. Seriously. Bravo.
*A E S T H E T I C*
@Micheal Saba thanks for this essay. This is a great summarization of the sociological aspects of our musical development.
This is so good, Mike!! - The woman you love
This is excellent, like, flawless, congrats. I got into synthwave with Hotline MIami too, it brings togheter nostalgia and a sense for the future. Thank you.
You guys should listen to Carpenter Brut, Dance with the Dead, and Lazerhawk. Those are my personal favs especially Carpenter Brut.
Awesome recommendation.
Turbo Killer is honestly one of my favorite songs by Carpenter Brut
Listening to Lazerhawk when I read your comment ("Interstellar", if you're curious)
Found CB few years back, after I'd stumbled onto the genre through Lazerhawk, and CB has been my favorite since. With this genre my new favorite genre.
Trevor Something is extra spicy try him too 👌👌👌
This is one of the best videos I have ever watched.
Get back to us when you play through all of GTA Vice City.and fall in love with Vaporwave for a good while.
Great video, and only now as I scrolled down to the comments did I realize it's two years old almost to the day. I've really gotten into synthwave in the past few years, so this was really interesting to me. Thanks for a great video essay.
RoboCop didn't have a synthesizer soundtrack, though. It's an orchestral score by Basil Poledouris, by turns bombastic and mournful.
yeah, I actualy recommend The Terminator music for a more synth-based ost, even if the soundtrack is remembered only because of the theme song.
The Robocop was supposed to symbolize the dystopian future that is often portraid by Synthwave Soundtracks and the corresponding Pieces of Art.
One of Gambino's sickest song. This shit has that nostalgic feel to it.
Is him saying "Cocaine Cowboys" a reference or a coincidence, the Russian on the title screen of Hotline Miami literally reads "Cocaine Cowboys
You did a really good job with this video essay and thats just coming from what i like and to sound of synthwave that allures me
Thanks for making such a great video. Maybe in the next one you could talk more about Dark Synthwave.
This is such an awesome mini-doc... showing it to ALL my friends. Thanks!
Coff cof home renosance cof coff coff
MajorDeckHead ____ cough cough spelling cough cough
Okay this is my second watch and ive gotta say it gives me chills how I could name every song you played before I even knew the context
Okay I lied I found my comment from the drive soundtrack
What's your view on the heavier sound of Carpenter Brut? I think it's like Synthwave but crossed with the late 90's dark bass sound of rave with The Prodigy. I would say that overnight through Hotline Miami's 2 soundtrack Carpenter Brut became the lead sound for modern synthwave.
He describes it as "Dark Synth"
it's amazing btw
2 years later... But I loved it , the way you told the story and actual feel of the game was awesome too bad it was over so fast! Excellent video and a subscriber +1
My problem with synthwave is that the genre's rules make it so that most songs sound the same. There's the same chord progression that's used in A LOT of songs and it's just a env filtered saw bass on an arpeggiator, gated snare and a minor key for most.
That's racist!
This is the first video of yours ive ever watched so i can't say about the rest, but you are one of the few youtubers that actually have an extremely well written and coherent script, well done.
было интересно послушать про Москву от иностранца
заезжай как нибудь в Новосибирск, он куда более индустриальный
Synthwave is the soundtrack to the dystopian reality we spent our childhoods reading about.
Synthwave is like porn, I can't define it but I know what it is when I hear it.
It's bascically films of people having sex. Not that difficult to define ...
This video is great and deserve an award. It was really interesting, thank you for your work 2 years later! Have a nice day.
You sound like thirty year old Terry McGuiness from batman beyond
Amazing video. Words cannot be typed the way I want them to be type to describe how much I felt this video. Thank you so much.
"I leaved russia, and never looked back..
'Cause after HM I hate those mobsters :D"
Kinda funny that you find a game about killing russians in russia don't?
wow this video is criminally underrated. I can't believe it only has 65k views. Well written, well edited, high quality video. Reminds me what is so great about youtube as platform. That anyway has a platform where they can share their creative endeavors. So, good job Michael and keep up the great work.
Amazing documentary!
I believe that also Stranger Things aesthetic and soundtrack, helped Synthwave to enter the pop culture.
An amazing video about an amazing game. This was honestly really good man I don't even know how to put it into words.
What s the pixelated animtion with the purple car?Or is it a game?
Haiducul Apusean It's from Perturbator's music videos, a ton of them use that style. Check his videos out! Great stuff.
Haiducul Apusean the song in car was used in Peet’s music video “She’s young, she’s beautiful, she’s next”
Holy shit man. This was pretty fucking fantastic and please keep on making these!
This game is aesthetic porn
Man, I'm so glad that I got to this video. U described it so perfectly about synthwave and the connection with videogames. Salute.
What is the song at 9:10? Also, great video!
I'd love to know as well - I know I heard it before, but could not figure it out yet
"Motorcycle Cop" by Power Glove
This was f*** glorious, thaough what I feel it lacked was a quiet bacground music that would get louder or quieter as you spoke or took breaks for the music to speak for itself. But all in all- great job :)
Daddy Lenin and comrade Stalin 😤😣
I loved this so much! So much information about an era I have such a fascination for yet was never born or lived in and how much a genre and it's themes reflect our own world even today. Simply amazing, man!
That's a very skewed view of Moscow you have.
Nopopo Lasturber That's what's happening in Isolation, far away from Home.
It's not skewed. It's actually pretty accurate.
It's actually quite nice in the summer.
Russia's only seen like that because of american propaganda
just another account true
this is the video that started my love for synthwave in late 2020, i never looked back
Nice doc. Just relax with the pedestrian economics. Doing more with less manhours does actually make us richer. It works for individuals, it works for factories, it works for nations, and it works for the global economy. Provided we let the prices adjust. And the government actively fighting that, trough moneyprinting, in the hopes of destroying the value of it's debt, is the real culprit in promoting poverty. That in turn enabling it to take more debt.
An amazing video that came to me just as I was becoming more and more addicted to the soundtracks listed in this very video. Excellent work man!