Synthwave, also called Retrowave or Outrun, is a musical style that emerged in the mid-2000s, influenced by 1980s soundtrack music.
Musically, synthwave is heavily inspired by new wave and the soundtracks of many 1980s films, videogames, cartoons and television shows. Composers such as John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream are frequently cited as influences. The style is mainly instrumental, and often contain 80s cliché elements in the sound such as electronic drums, gated reverb, analog synthesizer bass lines and leads, all to resemble tracks from that time period. However, synthwave incorporates modern production techniques such as sidechained compression and placing the bassline and kick drum prominentliy in the mix as heard in modern electronic music genres such as electro house.
