Research Essay

Synthpop also known as Electropop came around in the 1960s, early 70s in Japan, Germany then later on in England, Early synthpop was described as “eerie, sterile and vaguely menacing”, and later on dance beats were introduced to make the music more upbeat and warmer. Synthpop uses very few instruments, the main one being the synthesizer.

The synthesizer is also known as a keyboard and they are capable of making many different sounds. The first electric synthesizer was invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray. Then later on Robert Moog introduced the first commercially available modern synthesizer in 1964. Synthesizers removed the need for large groups of musicians; the singers were often part of a duo where the partner would play all the instrumentation. In the 1980s synthpop established the synthesizer as a primary instrument in mainstream pop music.

A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music. Genre can be defined and explained in the following ways, with the instruments, style of singing, context and theme. Genre can also be defined by the volume, tone, pitch and the tempo of the music. For example synthpop is upbeat and fast paced music. The iconography can define a genre, for example Punk iconography would be black hair, Mohawk and leather whereas Synthpop iconography would be futuristic themes and bold colours of the spectrum.

Early synthpop artists include Yellow Magic Orchestra that originated from Japan. They helped to pioneer synthpop with their “self-titled” album in 1978 and “solid state survivor” 1979, drawing a wider range of influences then Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk is the band that originated from Germany and follows the iconography of the genre synthpop closely. Other early pioneers of synthpop include British bands Ultravox and Depeche Mode. A large number of artists arose in the early 1980s including Soft Cell, who began to enjoy success with a synthesizer –based sound.

Kraftwerk which means power plant, the band originated from Dusseldorf. Kraftwerk's distinctive sound was revolutionary, and has had a lasting effect across many genres of modern music.

Depeche Mode was formed in the 1980s in Essex and has had an amazing forty-eight songs in the UK singles chart and has sold over 100 million albums and songs worldwide. They are world’s most popular electric band.

The come around of synthpop has been described as “perhaps the single most significant event in melodic music since Mersey-beat”. By the 1980s synthesizers have become much cheaper and easier to use. Synthpop reached its commercial peak in the United Kingdom during the winter of 1981-82 with bands including Soft Cell, Ultravox, Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk enjoying top ten hits. By the end of 1982 Tears for Fears and The Eurythmics had joined the charts.

More recent artists include La Roux, Calvin Harris and Owl City who have appeared in the synthpop genre. Owl City emerged with the single “fireflies” in 2009.

Calvin Harris born Adam Richard Wiles on 17 January 1984 is from Scotland and is a singer, songwriter, record producer and DJ. He was first attracted to electric music when he was in his teen and was recording bedroom demos by 1999. His debut album “I Created Disco” was released on 29 June 2007 and included the hits singles “Acceptable in the 80s” and “The Girls”. This album was influenced by the music from the 1980s. The song “Acceptable in the 80s” is the very typical of the classic iconography of the genre synthpop. His second album “Ready for the Weekend” was released on 17 August 2009 and reached number one in the UK album charts 6 day after its release.

Even though these artists are the same genre, they have very different styles, Kraftwerk is the more classic approach to synthpop with the iconography following the bold, colours and simple but bold approach, whereas Calvin Harris follows the iconography of the genre but with a more up to date approach suiting the audience more.

Music videos allow you to see the song being played whilst seeing the band, which is why people enjoy watching the videos. Music videos are also a form of escapism, allowing people to absorb themselves into the music. People also like to watch videos for the sexual attraction.

There are codes and conventions within genre, typical instruments for synthpop it would be the synthesizer, sounds, typical style of singing and band appearance things such as bold colours, futuristic appearance these are all the same within all music genres. Paradigmatic is what we select from the genre to put into the video and Syntagmatic which is how you combine them within the video, and how it’s edited and filmed.