Synth pop

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Synth pop
Stylistic origins:	Electronic art music, Post punk, New Wave
Cultural origins:	Early 1980s, United Kingdom
Typical instruments:	Synthesizer - Drum machine - Tape loops - Drums - Guitar (in latter incarnations were added Sequencer - Keyboard - Sampler)
Mainstream popularity:	Large, worldwide, especially in 1980s
Derivative forms:	Electroclash
Subgenres
Electropop - Electroclash - Futurepop - Synthpunk
Other topics

Synth pop is a style of popular music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. While it might be argued that most current popular and commercial music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, synth pop has its own sylistic tendencies which differentiate it from other music produced by the same means. These include: the exploitation of artificiality (the synthesizers are not used to imitate acoustic instruments), the use of mechanical rhythms and "feel", the use of vocal arrangements as a counterpoint to the artificiality of the instruments, and the use of ostinato patterns as an effect. Synth pop song forms are generally the same as in "regular" pop music. Lyrically, synth pop has an affection for science-fiction themes.

Synth pop is sometimes referred to as electropop although electropop is generally regarded to be a particular style of synth pop that flourished during the early 1980s most closely associated with the post-punk New Wave music scene.

Synth pop

Representative artists and ensembles

See also