合成器流行Synthpop

Synth Pop中的" Synth"，即Synthesizer(合成器)，顾名思义，Synth Pop就是“由Sythesizrs炮制出来的流行乐”，当然除Synthesizers外还会用上其他电子乐器如电脑及鼓机等等。Synth Pop于八十年代初期开始流行，至八十年代中开始沉寂，当年在香港也曾掀起过一阵热潮。Synth Pop的特点是科技感强，有时会颇冰冷，歌曲多是“三分钟流行曲” (3-minutes Pop)，很多时Synth Pop乐手会作入时打扮。

合成流行音乐(也称为电子流行音乐，或技术流行音乐)是一种流行音乐流派，在20世纪80年代首次变得突出，其中合成器是占主导地位的乐器。20世纪60年代和70年代初，在进步摇滚、电子艺术摇滚、迪斯科，特别是克拉夫特沃克(Kraftwerk)等乐队的“德国摇滚”中使用合成器，预示着它的出现。它作为70年代末至80年代中期新浪潮运动的一部分，在后朋克时代作为一种独特的流派出现在日本和英国。早期的合成流行先驱包括日本组合黄色魔术管弦乐团和英国乐队Ultravox和Human League；后者主要使用单声道合成器来制作简单而朴素的音乐。

在Tubeway Army和Gary Numan在英国单曲榜取得突破后，大量艺术家在20世纪80年代初开始享受基于合成器的声音的成功，包括Soft Cell、管弦乐机动in the Dark、日本和英国的Depeche Mode，而在日本，黄色魔术乐团的成功为P-Model、Plastic和Hikashu等合成流行乐队开辟了道路。廉价的复调合成器的发展，MIDI的定义和舞蹈节拍的使用，为合成流行音乐带来了更商业化和更容易获得的声音。这一点，它被新浪漫主义运动中有时尚意识的行为所采用，加上MTV的崛起，导致了大量英国合成流行表演的成功，包括杜兰·杜兰(Duran Duran)和斯潘道芭蕾舞团(Spandau Ballet)。

在20世纪80年代末，Erasure和Pet Shop Boys等二人组采用了一种在美国舞蹈排行榜上非常成功的声音，但到了本世纪末，合成流行音乐基本上已经被抛弃。20世纪90年代末，人们对独立的电子和电撞运动重新产生了兴趣，在21世纪的头十年，随着La Roux和Owl City等乐队的商业成功，它获得了广泛的复兴。Synthop因其有限的人工声音以及与另类性行为的联系而受到批评。它帮助确立了合成器作为流行音乐和摇滚乐的主要元素的地位，直接影响了后来的流派，包括家庭音乐和底特律电子音乐，并间接影响了许多其他流派和个人录音。

Synthpop (also known as electropop, or technopop) is a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic art rock, disco and particularly the "Kraut rock" of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the New Wave movement of the late-1970s to the mid-1980s.Early synthpop pioneers included Japanese group Yellow Magic Orchestra and British bands Ultravox and the Human League; the latter largely used monophonic synthesizers to produce music with a simple and austere sound.

After the breakthrough of Tubeway Army and Gary Numan in the British Singles Chart, large numbers of artists began to enjoy success with a synthesizer-based sound in the early 1980s, including Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Japan and Depeche Mode in the United Kingdom, while in Japan, Yellow Magic Orchestra's success opened the way for synthpop bands such as P-Model, Plastics, and Hikashu. The development of inexpensive polyphonic synthesizers, the definition of MIDI and the use of dance beats, led to a more commercial and accessible sound for synthpop. This, its adoption by the style-conscious acts from the New Romantic movement, together with the rise of MTV, led to success for large numbers of British synthpop acts, including Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, in the United States.

In the late 1980s, duos such as Erasure and Pet Shop Boys adopted a sound that was highly successful on the US dance charts, but by the end of the decade synthpop had largely been abandoned. Interest began to be revived in the indie electronic and electroclash movements in the late 1990s and, in the first decade of the 21st century, it enjoyed a widespread revival with commercial success for acts including La Roux and Owl City.Synthpop received criticism for its limited and artificial sound and for its associations with alternative sexualities.

It helped to establish the place of the synthesiser as a major element of pop and rock music, directly influenced subsequent genres including house music and Detroit techno, and has indirectly influenced many other genres and individual recordings.