The United States is the biggest scene in the Frekvenci archive, and it is mostly vaporwave. 5,552 listed releases by 1,233 artists have the US on file, about 39% of the releases that carry any country, and 3,221 of them are in the vaporwave family against 1,493 in the synthwave family. Search the archive by country alone and you mostly get vaporwave; to find American synthwave, you have to go looking.
Why the American catalogue is mostly vaporwave
Vaporwave has an American-linked history, and the archive's American share follows it. Macintosh Plus's Floral Shoppe first appeared on cassette in December 2011 on Beer On The Rug, and when Olde English Spelling Bee announced the 2017 vinyl pressing, Tiny Mix Tapes noted that the original tape now sells for sums as extravagant as eccojams.[2] The genre then branched. Bandcamp Daily's 2016 map breaks the vaporwave family into ten branches, from eccojams to hardvapour, including mallsoft and future funk.[1] The archive's tags show how much of the American catalogue sits in those branches: 695 releases carry signalwave, 630 barber beats and 471 future funk, against 1,349 for synthwave itself and 955 for vaporwave.
The second reason is the tape label. DMT Tapes FL alone accounts for 701 American releases, and a sister imprint, FL Tapes DMT, for 105 more. Bandcamp Daily's tape-label report notes that DMT Tapes reached its 1,000th release in September 2021.[4] A label that releases at that pace shifts a national total, and our DMT Tapes FL: label profile and where to start profile has the detail.
The American names in synthwave
The synthwave side is less concentrated and more varied, which is why it is easy to miss in a big table. Four names show how.
- S U R V I V E is a four-piece from Austin, Texas, whose members have been friends since about age 13. After the Duffer brothers used its music in a mock trailer to pitch Stranger Things, the band sent 50 unreleased tracks the next day.[5] Its score album came out on the Philadelphia label Relapse.[5] Our If you like Survive: artists to try next page maps similar records.
- Chromatics and the label Italians Do It Better, which Johnny Jewel and Mike Simonetti founded in 2006.[6] The archive lists the band's 2018 EP Black Walls on it.
- Katana ZERO is a game score by Bill Kiley and LudoWic that Bandcamp Daily reviewed in 2019. Kiley cited Gary Numan, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Vangelis, and the score draws on Chicago house, early electro and synthpop.[3] The archive files it under the US.
- The Midnight, Scandroid and Mega Drive are three of the better-known American acts in the archive, with 26, 26 and 29 listed releases. Scandroid packed 11 of its 26 into 2018. See If you like The Midnight: 10 artists to try next and If you like Scandroid: artists to try next.
For the game-music connection, read Synthwave and video games: from Out Run to Hotline Miami; for what separates these records from the vaporwave majority, Synthwave vs vaporwave: same neon, different music is the plain-English comparison.
Numbers, with the usual limit
Only releases with a country attached are counted, so the US share is a share of the known part, not of the whole archive. Of the 5,552 releases, 1,347 are self-released and 605 labels appear.
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Year | Releases |
|---|---|
| 2010 | 16 |
| 2011 | 23 |
| 2012 | 50 |
| 2013 | 82 |
| 2014 | 155 |
| 2015 | 370 |
| 2016 | 364 |
| 2017 | 384 |
| 2018 | 561 |
| 2019 | 530 |
| 2020 | 621 |
| 2021 | 495 |
| 2022 | 367 |
| 2023 | 462 |
| 2024 | 410 |
| 2025 | 496 |
- The first jump is 2014 to 2015: 155 to 370 listed releases.
- A plateau around 364 to 384 for 2015 to 2017, before 2018 jumps to 561.
- The peak is 2020, with 621. Three busy artists account for 84 of that: Titan (34), Lick King (26) and Makeup and Vanity Set (24).
- It dips to 367 in 2022 and has not collapsed since: 462 in 2023, 410 in 2024 and 496 in 2025. Compare Synthwave in the UK: vocal synthwave and vaporwave, where the decline is steady.
- 2026 shows 149 and is a part year.
Los Angeles has 68 artists on file, New York 44, Austin 29, Seattle 29, Chicago 24, Philadelphia 23 and Portland 18. Florida appears as a place in its own right with 62 artists, as does California with 32, and 214 give only "United States", so city counts are lower bounds.
The split, in two lists
SHOW THE NUMBERS
| Family | Releases |
|---|---|
| Vaporwave | 10,473 |
| Synthwave | 8,105 |
| Popwave | 2,678 |
| Darksynth | 1,803 |
| Dreamwave | 833 |
| Cyberpunk | 6 |
The families are vaporwave 3,221, synthwave 1,493, popwave 408, darksynth 269 and dreamwave 161. The artists show why. Makeup and Vanity Set leads with 133 listed releases, many of them soundtracks for games, films and podcasts judging by the titles. haircuts for men has 109, with 21 of them in 2021 and 16 in 2024. PZA has 61, 41 of them self-released, then SelloRekT / LA Dreams (51), $lick King (48, with 26 in 2020), DARK DESIRE (43) and FOR THE CVLTVRE (43, all released in 2023). In a catalogue count, a few prolific acts weigh heavily.
Labels
After DMT Tapes FL (701) and FL Tapes DMT (105), business casual has 60 of its 167 listed releases by American artists, RetroSynth Records 50 of 200, B O G U S // COLLECTIVE 50 of 222, Halcyon Tapes 46 of 75, Genom Records 46 of 47 and FiXT Neon 43 of 113. The counts are by artist country, so a label can appear with releases from other countries. Why so much of this music arrives without a conventional label is the subject of Do it yourself: how much synthwave is self-released?.
Records to start with
Ten records from 2011 to 2026, picked to run across both halves of the American catalogue, one per act.
- Betamaxx · 2013 · Telefuture · LPA 2013 album on Telefuture, tagged synth-pop.
- The Midnight · 2016 · Studio C4 · LPSaxophone, vocals and summer nostalgia; one of the best-known records in the vocal style.
- Bill Kiley · 2019 · Wic Recordings · LPThe 2019 game score that Bandcamp Daily reviewed.
- Makeup and Vanity Set · 2016 · Telefuture · LPFrom the act with the most American listings; this is one of its game scores.
- haircuts for men · 2015 · Commercial Dreams Ltd. · EPA 2015 EP from the barber-beats act with 109 listings.
- Luxury Simulator · 2016 · Verbatim Consciousness Recordings · EPA 2016 vaporwave EP.
- 3D BLAST · 2021 · business casual · LPA 2021 future funk album on Business Casual.
- Makeup and Vanity Set · 2026 · Twelve Trees Soundworks · LPA 2026 synthwave album, among the newest in the American list.
For the other half of the picture, Canadian synthwave: Le Matos, Miami Nights 1984 and more covers the neighbouring scene. To dig into the vaporwave majority, start with What is vaporwave? A guide to the internet's slowed-down mall music and If you like Macintosh Plus: artists to try next; to hear the American synthwave side, try the Night Drive station (92.0 FM).
Sources
- Genre As Method: The Vaporwave Family Tree, From Eccojams to Hardvapour · Bandcamp Daily, 21 Nov 2016
- Macintosh Plus's 'Floral Shoppe' is coming to vinyl · Tiny Mix Tapes, 7 Aug 2017
- On the "Katana ZERO" Score, Synthwave Goes Neo-Noir · Bandcamp Daily, 13 May 2019
- The Tape Label Report, October 2021 · Bandcamp Daily, 21 Oct 2021
- S U R V I V E, Synths, and the Music of "Stranger Things" · Bandcamp Daily, 5 Aug 2016
- Italians Do It Better: night music from Johnny Jewel's label · The Electricity Club, 24 Aug 2021