Hello everyone! Welcome to Synthwave 101. My name is PRFSR TSTR, and I'm here to help show you around the wonderful world of Synthwave! If you like your music drenched in synths and drum machines with an often retro bent, then you've come to the right place.
I intend for this to be a living, breathing article of sorts that attempts to cover the gamut of varying subgenres or styles that have arisen out of this wave of music—all while serving as a primer and a jumping-off point for further exploration. We'll start at the beginning, diving into where this music came from and some of its earliest artists, and then come back from time to time and focus on a certain style, with examples, videos, links and all kinds of other fun stuff to check out.
So if you're ready, strap on in to the Testarossa, rewind your tapes, and let's get busy!
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SYNTHWAVE RESOURCE ROADMAP
Below is a list of compiled resources related to synthwave. Some of these entities can be found in numerous places across the internet and social media, but I've put them where I think they fit best. This is not an exhaustive list, and I'll be adding to this as time goes on. If anyone has anything to add, let me know!
MUSIC SOURCES (Try searching genre tags at these places. Keywords for finding good stuff include synthwave, outrun, retrowave, dreamwave, chillwave, darksynth, etc.)
Bandcamp - https://bandcamp.com/ - The treasure trove. Buy or acquire (almost) directly from the source.
SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/ - Kinda started going downhill since they've killed Groups and started pushing promoted crap/SoundCloud Go all over the place, but still has a huge presence.
Groupees - https://groupees.com/ - Yep, along with endless bundles of shitty games, they run really good music bundles from time to time. Have done multiple-artist and single-artist bundles in the past.
Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music/iTunes, Google Play, YouTube, Beatport, etc. - Not linking this stuff, but you can find synthwave on there too.
BLOGS/WEBSITES
Synthetix.FM - http://www.synthetix.fm/ - Premier synthwave blog. Many have come and gone, Synthetix remains strong. Output slows from time to time, but no signs of stopping.
NewRetroWave - https://www.newretrowave.com/ - Monolithic web entity. Mostly known for their YouTube channel, this site is a constantly updated feed of synthwave and related retro culture.
Vehlinggo - https://vehlinggo.com/ - Continually updated one man machine, with some nice exclusive content.
TNUC - https://uncletnuc.com/ - More of an overall retro 80's/90's culture blog, but Uncle TNUC's been at it for a long time and keeps on truckin' with his own unique style.
Kicking around the idea of writing up a sort of primer for folks looking to get into synthwave music and all its subgenre spawn. I've seen/spoken to a good handful of people on here that seem intrigued by this stuff. It's a style that I've had the pleasure and fortune to witness develop almost from the beginning, so I think I could do an okay job with it. Would have copious examples and links and such.
Just using this thread as an interest check for now.
