Anyone who has watched the Netflix series Stranger Things can tell you that it is an absolutely amazing show. It plays on a lot of nostalgic themes from cult classics of the 80’s like The Goonies, Little Monsters, and Stand By Me just to name a few. The story line is incredibly well put-together and the actors in the series absolutely nailed it. But the thing that has us in awe is the music that accompanied the show. True to it’s nostalgic appeal, the series showcases melodic themes reminiscent of the era it’s portraying. This has had a lot of us at DMNW seeking out similar music, and has led many others to artists under the Synth-Pop genre that has been relatively underground for the past decade or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpHNlx0pPIU
Synth-Pop is exactly how it sounds. It’s pop music with the synthesizer as the main melodic focus. It’s a genre that first became popular in the late 1970’s, but eventually fell into obscurity by the end of the 1980’s. As with everything, history tends to repeat itself. Thanks to Stranger Things, we may be seeing the dawn of a new age of Synth-Pop music in the mainstream. The thing that really kicked off Synth-Pop acceptance in the mainstream was a cultural embrace of technology. Even The Doors frontman Jim Morrison was quoted as saying that music would eventually be made by machines. In our time, we have a lot more tech than they could have ever imagined in that era, which is possibly why this generation has so wholly accepted EDM. Now if you couple that with a longing nostalgia, that could be a recipe for success in this constantly shifting market.
People are getting on board with the idea in small ways. You can see plenty of shares on social media of Synth-Pop music artists, and discussions at the water cooler about the shows music. With the break out success of Stranger Things, Netflix and Lakeshore Records plan to release a soundtrack featuring original music by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of S U R V I V E. The soundtrack will be released as a two volume series. The first volume was release August 12, 2016 digitally, and on CD September 16th. The second volume will be released digitally on August 19, and on CD September 23rd.
Now we have to be clear that we are in no way suggesting that Synth-Pop will be dominating the airwaves in the near future (although, we are not entirely against that), but what we are predicting is that there will be a burst of interest and success for Synth-Pop artists, and it would be fair to say it was all triggered by the growing popularity of Stranger Things. We will let you decide what to think of the music. Go and check out a few artists that fall under that genre. You may find your new favorite genre.
Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!
