I love synth pop. For as long as I can remember. The first album I ever bought at a record store was Yellow Magic Orchestra's debut, which, being a Japanese import, cost almost three times the normal price of a record. My mom asked if I was sure I really wanted it. I still have it and still listen to it regularly. One of my all time favorite albums is Dare, by The Human League. It's one of the few albums I've owned in the three formats of my life (cassette, LP, and CD). However, I always felt I was born too late to make synth pop myself. By the time I started to make music in 1989, that ship had sailed, and I had only begun to learn my craft.
Flash forward 23 years, and I'm still a novice (but getting better, I hope). And my desire to create synth pop is as strong as ever, but with a twist. Thanks to Mr. Simon Holland's Bedroom Tapes project, I was thrust into the production of a synth pop tune. I was almost reluctant at first, because he'd precluded the use of guitar, and since I'd always thought I was too late for synth pop, I'd always included guitar in my pop songs (with rare exceptions). It's funny to say now, because I'm so on board with the "no guitar" aesthetic, but at first I was apprehensive.
Of course, the fact that it's 2012 means I would have a hard time convincing myself to create a whole album devoted to a genre that pretty much fizzled out almost 30 years ago. I kind of view it as a waste of time, we should live in the moment, the present, experience zeitgeist. But therein lies the true genius of Mr. Holland's project, at least as far as I was concerned.
What Simon really wanted was tape recordings made in the 1980s, not 2012 facsimiles. It was only out of kindness that he let such deceptions into his compilation, but he made a caveat, which was, he wanted it to really seem like the contemporary tracks had been made in the past. Not just sound like they were old, but also have a faux history and (if possible) old cassette box art for the submitted song. In short, he was requesting that even 2012 facsimiles of 1980s songs appear to be the real thing, in sound, pictures and provenance.
For some people, this might be an inconvenience. If all you want to do is make an 80s tune, it might be off putting to have to make some 80s style art to go with it. But I loved that part of the project too. In the end, it's was gave me the justification for producing a whole album of songs created in this manner.
Because, while it's a waste of time, to me, to make a group of 80s songs in the synth pop style in 2012, it's actually an interesting challenge to create an album that pretends to be from the actual 80s. For most people this would be some semantic difference, a trivial thing making no difference. Obviously, to me, it makes all the difference in the world. From "waste of time" to "worthy pursuit".
Because, for the months it will take me to complete this record, I will imagine it is the time of the early 80s again, immersing myself in only that music. It will be hard to ignore all the music that has come since, and it's influences, so I will not expend too much effort doing so. Instead I will just think about the music of the day and the days that proceeded (50s, 60s, 70s . . . ). And I will try to imagine, if I had been an adult then, what interests I would have had lyrically, and how to realize them in song form.
When you consider this approach, you can see it's very different than trying to make synth pop from a 2012 perspective. If I was making synth pop for 2012, it would have elements of Trance and Dub Step. And lyrically, I would have to reference the web and smart phones and all kinds of cultural things that didn't exist in the early 80s. And then, in being more of a handshake between past and present, it becomes a bit quaint or nostalgic. In making a "fake" artifact from the 80s, a collection of songs pretending to be from that time, it becomes less about being nostalgic and weepy for a past that is gone and more about trying to travel to the past in my present body, to be in the moment, when that moment is long ago.
If I was to make a sports analogy: It's not sitting around on the sidelines, drinking a beer with your high school teammates, remembering the good old days. It's more like suiting up with them and convincing the members of your old rival to do the same, playing the game, and keeping score. Not to pretend it's high school all over again, but to enjoy the game, fresh. (This is a thought experiment only, I am not responsible for the injuries of people actually attempting this and don't recommend you do so. Music is not a contact sport, so I am safe.) Like many analogies, this one is imperfect. Apologies.
But the real beauty of it all. I get to make synth pop. Ignore the mental hoops I'm making myself jump through, I finally get to make an album of synth pop without being self conscious of doing something "dated", because it's completely, intentionally "dated" and I'm not pretending otherwise, lol.
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