Retrowave
Synthwave is the peak of 80s nostalgia. We dive deeper into the genre's origins and its cultural impact in this special edition.
Nostalgia is essential to Western pop culture. Connected to a sentimental longing and yearning for the return of an idealized and "mythical past," as Svetlana Boym describes in The Future of Nostalgia, nostalgia trickles through every cultural media—from movies, tv-series, fashion, and music.
And the 1980s have been the principal source of reference in the past decades—primarily kicked off by the Miami Vice-inspired video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, published in 2002. A wave of 80s-driven media followed with reboots like Tron: Legacy or Blade Runner 2049 and new outputs such as the movie Drive or the popular Netflix series Stranger Things.
Alongside the cinematic resurrection of the era, a whole stylized universe began to form; a world in blue and pink. And naturally, the world needed a soundtrack. Introducing: Synthwave.
