At the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, Kavinsky performed “Nightcall” with Phoenix and Angèle. Apple later reported that the song set a Shazam record for the most identifications in a single minute. The recording had first come out fourteen years earlier. Apple's Shazam figures · Pitchfork's coverage of the performance
By then, synthwave had found audiences through music blogs, a crime film, an indie game and years of online curation. Each gave listeners a different reason to seek out the music. The film made it feel cinematic. The game made it part of the action. Online channels gave people somewhere to go once they knew a song's name.
Music blogs gave the scene a place to meet
In the late 2000s, French producer David Grellier was making electronic music as College. In a 2009 interview, he described starting the Valerie blog in 2007 as a way to share the musical and visual influences behind his work. The collective brought together projects including Maethelvin and The Outrunners. A listener could discover several artists through a shared set of references. David Grellier's 2009 interview
Those references reached beyond old records. The sound drew on the tension of synthesiser film scores, the pulse of dance music and the atmosphere of games and arcade graphics. A repeating bass line, a programmed drum beat and a wide synth chord could suggest the opening of a film that had never been made.
That helps explain the particular kind of nostalgia involved. Someone born well after the 1980s can still recognise the decade as a setting through films, games and record covers. Music scholar Mattia Merlini explores how synthwave soundtracks build on those associations and give them new meanings. Merlini's study in Sound Stage Screen
Drive gave the sound a scene people could remember
When Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive arrived in 2011, its soundtrack included Kavinsky's “Nightcall” and “A Real Hero” by College featuring Electric Youth. Both recordings predated the film. “Nightcall” had been released by Record Makers in March 2010, and the A Real Hero EP was already available in 2010. Drive production notes and music credits · Record Makers release page · A Real Hero EP listing
Think about what the opening credits do with “Nightcall”. A distorted voice, a steady beat and shots of Los Angeles after dark give the record a world to inhabit. “A Real Hero” brings out a different side of the same musical language, with a soft vocal and a melody that feels almost tender.
For somebody who first heard those tracks in the film, looking them up meant more than finding the soundtrack. It opened a route to artists who were already making music in that style. In a later interview, producer Highway Superstar described hearing Drive and College as the moment he understood how to turn his own 1980s influences into music. Vehlinggo's interviews with College and Highway Superstar
Hotline Miami put the music inside the action
The following year, Hotline Miami put related sounds in a different setting. Its developers told Pitchfork that Drive was a major inspiration. They assembled a soundtrack that crossed several styles, from hypnotic electronic tracks to the harder sounds associated with artists such as Perturbator. Hotline Miami release page · Pitchfork's interview with the developers
In a game, a track can stay with you through repeated attempts at the same room. The tight rhythm of M.O.O.N.'s “Hydrogen” fits that experience. It gives the action momentum while you hesitate, make a mistake and try again. The same sounds that could suggest a solitary drive in a film could also make a room full of danger feel frantic.
YouTube and Bandcamp made it possible to keep digging
A soundtrack can introduce someone to one recording. A channel that publishes music from many artists can help that person follow an entire scene. NewRetroWave began in 2011 and grew from an online outlet into a label. Its compilations and artist features gave listeners a way to move beyond the records they already knew. Bandcamp Daily's interview with the founder of NewRetroWave
As the catalogue grew, it became easier to hear how much range the genre had. The Midnight's Endless Summer, released in 2016, leans into melody, vocals and longing. Play it after the Hotline Miami soundtrack and the contrast is striking. Similar tools can create the warmth of a summer memory or the dread of turning the next corner. The Midnight's Endless Summer release
Television and pop carried the sound further
In 2016, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein brought a closely related synthesiser palette to the score of Stranger Things. The title theme uses a repeating pattern to turn a few notes into a feeling of suspense. A viewer could hear that sound week after week without ever having searched for synthwave. Synth History's interview with the composers
Then a related sound reached pop on a much larger scale. The Weeknd released “Blinding Lights” in 2019. Its fast synth hook and sense of motion would be familiar to a synthwave listener, carried here by a pop song that spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and 57 weeks in its top ten. Billboard's chart history
A person who heard “Nightcall” at the Olympics could follow it back to Drive, then to College, Electric Youth and the records that circulated around Valerie. Someone arriving through Hotline Miami would find a different set of artists and a darker corner of the scene. The genre grew because people could enter through a story they already cared about and find more music once they got there.