New Genre Alert: New Retro Wave. Gawd, the Over-Produced Music of the 80s is Back.
In the endless parade of “everything old is new again” sounds, there’s an emerging genre that resurrections the production sounds and styles of the 80s. Although we’ve seen similar genres pop up–synthwave, retrowave, etc.–adherents call this flavour New Wave Retro. If you’re of a certain age, the sound of these new bands will evoke memories of that old cassette Walkman and watching Miami Vice.
Take, for example, The Midnight. Everything about this song–the guitar sound, the production, the DX-7 keyboards, the sax solo straight out of Glenn Frey’s “You Belong to the City,” the “In the Air Tonight” style drum break–screams 1984.
If this was your jam when you were driving around in your Chrysler K-Car or if you were born too late, fill your boots. This is precisely the kind of music that drove me deeper into the alternative world.
