Synth-Pop

Synth-pop is a pop format built around analog and digital synthesizers as the primary harmonic and melodic instruments, with drum machines (Roland TR-808 and TR-707, Linn LM-1) supplying the rhythm. Tempos run 110 to 140 BPM. The Yamaha DX7 (released 1983) defined the genre's mid-decade sound with its bell-like FM-synthesis tones; the Roland Juno-60 and Korg PolySix provided the warmer pad sounds underneath. Bass is almost always synthesized rather than performed on electric bass. Vocals are mixed clean and forward, often double-tracked, and the songwriting borrows pop's verse-chorus economy. Arrangements tend toward sparse, with three or four synth parts rather than dense layering.

Synth-pop emerged from the late-1970s post-punk and electronic underground in Britain (the Human League, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics) and Germany (Kraftwerk, whose 1974 Autobahn predates the British wave). Yellow Magic Orchestra in Japan ran in parallel from 1978. The genre dominated UK and US chart pop from 1981 to 1986 through acts like Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Pet Shop Boys, A-ha and New Order. The Roland TR-808 and Yamaha DX7 are the two pieces of hardware most associated with the period, and the genre's production conventions fed directly into 1990s house, 2000s electroclash and the current synthwave revival.

Listen for the DX7 electric piano sound (Take On Me, Africa, every late-1980s ballad), the TR-808 cowbell and the Juno-60 chorus pad. Drum machines in synth-pop are unhurried, with the kick on every beat and the snare on 2 and 4, leaving room for the synth lines. Bass lines are simple and often play the chord-root on the downbeat plus a syncopated note.

Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough (1981) is the British-wave canonical single. New Order's Blue Monday (1983) is the late-period extended track. Yellow Magic Orchestra's Behind the Mask (1979) is the Japanese reference.

The Yamaha DX7 sold over 200,000 units in its first three years on the market — an unprecedented figure for a professional synthesizer — and shaped the late-1980s pop sound so heavily that producers like Quincy Jones reportedly stocked multiple units in their studios specifically to access different patch banks.