1980s Synth-Pop
Link to Spotify playlist: Mus115 - 17. 80s Synth Pop
The 1980s were a decade of advancement in musical technology - not only the synthesizers for which this style is named, but also samplers, drum machines, sequencers, gated reverb (especially on snare drums) and the like.[1]
All of this lead to a very different type of sound scape, although the song styles in general sound very related to punk and new wave. The vocal stylings of the era also changed to fit this new aesthetic, with the males singing in a more low end, back of the throat type of style, compared with the very nasal and forward (and high pitch) of some of the glam rock and 70s hard rock.
Depeche Mode
Dead or Alive
Duran Duran
a-ha
- Take on Me - this one had one of the most iconic videos of the 80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914
Eurythmics
The Human League
Tears for Fears
Rick Astley
- Never Gonna Give You Up - yep, the infamous Rick Roll. I'm sure you've seen the video before. The video was shot almost as an afterthought. Here's a video about how the Rick Roll started (spoiler, it started as a "duckroll"): The Birth of Rick Rolling.
Phil Collins
- ↑ Gated reverb - a technique where the reverb is added to a sound, but as the reverb starts to trail down, a gate shuts it off and cuts the tail. The gate can close based either upon the reverb level (once it falls below a certain threshold), or, more commonly on percussion, by a time delay. So it's a very unnatural sound. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gated_reverb