One artist called FOR THE CVLTVRE has 43 releases dated 2023 in the Frekvenci archive, which is also every release it has listed. That single name is 2.5% of a year that otherwise looks quiet: 1,746 listed releases, only 3.5% fewer than 2022's 1,809. After two double-digit falls, the decline nearly stopped. What changed underneath is the make-up of the scene.
Fewer labels, a mirror-image pair
The label count dropped to 407 from 528 in 2022. At the top sits a puzzle: FL Tapes DMT has 69 releases in 2023 (of 197 listed), and DMT Tapes FL has 61 (of 1,192). The names mirror each other. We have not confirmed whether they are one operation or two, so we list them separately; together they account for 130 releases, 7% of the year.
After them come No Problema Tapes with 25, Mom and Dad's Computer with 21, B O G U S // COLLECTIVE and NewRetroWave with 19 each, FOTOSHOPPE CO. with 18 and Doki Doki Beats with 17 of its 34. The DMT Tapes FL: label profile and where to start page traces the big tape label's catalogue.
One family grew
| Family | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Vaporwave | 796 | 933 |
| Synthwave | 581 | 472 |
| Popwave | 234 | 167 |
| Darksynth | 118 | 97 |
| Dreamwave | 79 | 74 |
Vaporwave, up 17%, is the only family that grew. Synthwave fell 19% and popwave 29%, and the vaporwave family (933) is now almost twice the synthwave family (472). The tags are more striking: synthwave 442, barber beats 381, signalwave 191, vaporwave 153 and synth-pop 111. Barber beats has gone from 57 releases in 2020 to 381, and signalwave from 64 to 191.
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Family | Releases |
|---|---|
| Vaporwave | 933 |
| Synthwave | 472 |
| Popwave | 167 |
| Darksynth | 97 |
| Dreamwave | 74 |
| Cyberpunk | 3 |
Signalwave takes its name from the "broken transmission" strand in Bandcamp Daily's vaporwave family tree,[2] and mallsoft, at 36 releases, is the mall-ambience branch that Bandcamp Daily's interview with Corp. describes as a blend of mall sound and eccojam muzak.[3] Both have guides: What is signalwave? Vaporwave made from old TV and radio broadcasts and What is mallsoft? The sound of an empty shopping mall.
The size in context
The 2023 total is a third below the 2020 peak of 2,597 and a third above 2015's 1,317, so the archive has settled between its early boom and its high point. There are fewer new artists too: 455 of the 1,000, 46% of the year, against 585 in 2022. 341 are self-released, roughly level with 2022. By format: 839 LPs, 387 singles and 336 EPs.
Country is known for 60% of the year. The United States has 462 releases, the United Kingdom 76, France 54, Germany 46 and Japan 38. Serbia and Poland share eleventh place with 18 each.
The artists, and why Serbia appears
After FOR THE CVLTVRE (43) come GORE from Japan and undersaken from Serbia with 17 each, then ESOTERICISM, Opal Vessel and DARKDREAMS with 16. Undersaken has 145 listed releases in total, and a prolific artist inside a high-volume tag can move a country's count alone, so Serbia's place in the top twelve should be read with that in mind. That artist is only the beginning of the story in later years.
A scholar on the 1980s on screen
We could not find a single dated outside event that explains these numbers, so the one outside source here is a paper. Mattia Merlini's "More 1980s than the 1980s" looks at the link between synthwave and cinema and at recent soundtracks that rework 1980s pop culture into an idealised version of the decade; Stranger Things is one of his examples.[1] It is about how the style is used on screen, not about the scene's size, but it is a sign that synthwave had become a subject for academic study. For the screen side, read Synthwave and 1980s film scores: Carpenter, Vangelis and the sound of the screen.
Ten albums to try
- S.H.I.Z.U.K.A. · 2023 · Chez.Kito.Kat Records · LPA synthwave LP on Chez.Kito.Kat Records, a new name in the archive.
- New Arcades · 2023 · TimeSlave Recordings · LPA synth-pop LP on TimeSlave Recordings.
- The Runaway Wild · 2023 · Maximum Noir · LPA darkwave-tagged LP on Maximum Noir, new to the archive.
- 486 Paradise · 2023 · B O G U S // COLLECTIVE · LPA mallsoft LP on B O G U S // COLLECTIVE.
To hear the synthwave side of the year, put on the Night Drive station (92.0 FM).
Sources
- More 1980s than the 1980s: Hauntological and Hyperreal Meanings of Synthwave Soundtracks · Mattia Merlini, Sound Stage Screen 3(1), 2023
- Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour · Bandcamp Daily, 21 Nov 2016
- The Mall, Nostalgia, and the Loss of Innocence: An Interview With Corp. · Bandcamp Daily, 8 Mar 2017