Retrowave-Synthwave originates from the mid 2000s.He credited the success of the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City with shifting "attitudes toward the '80s.Among the first synthwave artists were the French acts David Grellier (College), Kavinsky, and Justice. These early artists began creating music inspired by famous 1980s score composers; music which was, at the time, largely associate
d with French house. In the early 2010s, the synthwave soundtracks of films such as Drive and Tron: Legacy attracted new fans and artists to the genre.Drive featured Kavinsky's "Nightcall" and, with College, "A Real Hero", which catapulted synthwave into mainstream recognition and solidified its stature as a music genre.The genre's popularity further increased thanks to its presence in the soundtracks of video games like Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Hotline Miami as well as the Netflix series Stranger Things, which featured synthwave pieces that accommodated the show's 1980s setting.Nerdglow's Christopher Higgins cited Electric Youth and Kavinsky as the two most popular artists in synthwave in 2014.Also in 2019-2020 artists have added elements from Cyberpunk!
