Making Synthwave

How an Online Music Community Invented a Genre

Jess Blaise Ward

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English

Focal Press
13 November 2025

Theory of music & musicology; Music recording & reproduction; Audio processing

Making Synthwave: How an Online Music Community Invented a Genre documents the journey of an online community in their formation of the synthwave genre.

Taking an emic perspective that delivers a behind-the-scenes, access-all-areas telling of synthwave’s story from the very beginning to the mid 2020s, this ethnographic account offers a full history and development of the online synthwave community. Through an insightful longitudinal virtual ethnography by a composer, producer and performer, the book observes how artists, audiences, musicians, producers and performers have come together to negotiate the musical and cultural boundaries of 1980s ‘throwback’ style synthwave. The book makes visible tacit knowledge of the synthwave creative process, as well as providing rich and experiential subcultural detail that situates synthwave as an active community of practice which formulated its roots as a music genre exclusively online in the mid to late 2000s.

This book is essential reading for music makers in a variety of genres and scholars of popular music, cultural theory and music production, as well as those interested in the nuances of music-making on the internet, creative processes with synthesizers and the mechanics of genre theory and community music in the digital age.

By: Jess Blaise Ward
Imprint: Focal Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 540g
ISBN: 9781032732039
ISBN 10: 1032732032
Pages: 276
Publication Date: 13 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Jess Blaise Ward (Leeds Beckett University, UK) is a synth artist and researcher of genre formation, online music communities, subcultural theory and feminist scholarship. Past publications include Who remembers post-punk women? (2019) and her paper on metalheads in the online synthwave community at the Internet Musicking conference (2022).

Reviews for Making Synthwave: How an Online Music Community Invented a Genre

‘Making Synthwave captures the complexities, passion, politics, and sounds that make this genre so meaningful. Tracing a compelling narrative of the key players in the synthwave community of practice, the book reveals a sophisticated investigation with rigour, richness, and depth that pays wonderful attention to the subtleties of genre studies.’ Dr Laura Glitsos, Senior Lecturer, Coordinator of Media and Cultural Studies at the School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University, Australia ‘Making Synthwave is an in-depth account of a musical genre that is little studied, but has a distinctive presence in popular culture through its close connection with film, TV and videogames. Through close musical analysis and interviews with musicians, podcasters, label heads and more, Jess Blaise Ward astutely navigates the interplay of online and offline creative and community-building activity that has contributed to the formation of synthwave, from YouTube tutorials and Reddit groups to gigs and festivals.’ Dr Frances Morgan, author of Delian Modes: Listening for Delia Derbyshire in Histories of Electronic Dance Music