Buzzfeed (potentially) ruins synthwave

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

How Electronic Music Made By Neo-Nazis Soundtracks The Alt-Right - BuzzFeed News

I wasn't sure if this belongs in politics or arts and entertainment.




I'm in a few synth music producer groups on facebook and here's what I have to say about them. Synthwave is a very self-contained genre (although it's grown quite a bit in popularity recently) in the sense that many of the fans are also the creators of the content--a bunch of mostly apolitcal tech geeks with a sense of nostaligia for the 80s--that's the scene in a nutshell. They're just musicians who want to discuss tech, software, and share their music with other fans--I have yet to see discussions of Trump and white nationalism, and most of those groups discourage or ban political discussion and/or hateful imagery and messages--if you want to see imagery of neon swastikas and hitler driving deloreans, then you go to the daily stormer or any alt-right messageboard. Prior to that Daily Stormer article proclaiming synthwave the official soundtrack to the alt-right earlier this year, I would never have known any such association existed. Fine, no one can stop the alt-right from listening to the music of their choice. What upsets me is the lazy journalism on buzzfeed's part. Yes, it's just buzzfeed. No, that's no excuse for irresponsible coverage.

The article has already been discussed among synthwave producers and fans groups and most of them are understandably upset that the second their niche was covered by mainstream media, it was a piece of propaganda that may lead to further conflation (i.e. referring to synthwave and fashwave as interchangeable genres when any producer or fan in either scene will know the difference) and misunderstanding. (Hey, someone noticing an actual album release or soundtrack appearance might be nice). Many are indifferent and just want to focus on their music. I'm in the former camp... that's why I'm ranting......



Shame on buzzfeed and their lazy writers. In their defense, they do admit that many in the synthwave are uneasy with the association, but it seemed to be an afterthough (at best) to the general message they conveyed in the title and opening paragraphs. They also note that the lack of fashwave producers leads the alt-right to "adopt" synthwave music.

Because the pool of artists to draw from is still small, fashwave fans on the alt-right regularly listen to and share garden-variety synthwave, which — like Pepe the Frog and the word “cuckold” — they’ve taken to rebranding as their own. A recurring feature on the Daily Stormer, called “Fashwave Fridays,” typically includes several YouTube embeds from synthwave artists like Power Glove and Perturbator (who have no known associations with white nationalism) alongside a Tumblr-like feed of recontextualized photos and GIFs depicting ‘80s fashion and technology. Since July, the white nationalist online radio station Black Sun Radio has played a seamless mix of both normal synthwave and bona fide fashwave every Friday and Saturday night.

Unsurprisingly, not all in the synthwave community are happy with the association. New Retro Wave, a record label and YouTube channel with more than 300,000 followers, has no apparent ties to the alt-right or white nationalists and yet is one of the most regularly featured accounts on Fashwave Fridays, appearing often under the fashwave hashtag on Twitter. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, the founder of New Retro Wave, a 28-year-old who gave his name as Ten S., said he found it “very worrying” when he “noticed guys posting things on our videos about ‘fash’ this and ‘fash’ that.”

General consensus with the synthwavers is that fashwave is a fleeting trend, a subgenre of music meme-ified and packaged for millennial alt-right followers--it will fade away, but synthwave has been around for a while and will continue to grow as long as a devoted base of tech geeks and fans exists to support it. With that in mind, they don't want the lasting public impression of synthwave to be that it's a bunch of nazi music or that synthwave fans are nostalgic for 80s rightwing politics (most weren't born or were just old enough to care about thunder cats and wouldn't have given two shits about political talking heads their parents were watching on Ted Koppel and Phil Donahue).


I suppose this is how punks felt when the skinheads appropriated punk rock. the problem with these sort of fights over who appropriates pieces of counter culture and/or underground art and music is that a lot of it blurs together in the eyes of the general public (AKA people not intimately involved in said art culture, genre etc). I imagine a fan of Black Flag just loved having to defend themself everytime someone found out they listened to that terrible fascist music.

Despite buzzfeed's lazy efforts to make a distinction, I only fear more misunderstanding moving into 2017 and I'm oh so looking forward to having to explain "no it isn't neo-nazi music" everytime I talk about synthwave with someone who isn't familiar with the genre, which I am expecting to be the case by the end of 2017. I can already imagine the late night liberals like Samantha Bee and John The Current Year Oliver will casually dismiss the entire genre and fail to make any distinction for their braindead, take-it-as-they-heard-it audiences.

I could give a shit about "fashwave," but part of me hopes it grows so twats like Andrew Anglin will stop posting Droid Bishop and Power Glove tracks on Daily Stormer, as they'll have a deeper fashwave barrel to scrape from. Part of me wants it to die so the mainstream media will stop talking about synthwave and accidentally politicizing it.

Forgive the long rant. I particiapate in synthwave groups and communities to discover music and discuss a love for the genre and anything related--I also see it as one of the few escapes from politics and current events, but even that is no longer a guarantee, so yeah, I'm a little pissed off at buzzfeed and the alt-right for taking that away from me. I love watching the alt-right implode and consume their own, but I hope they don't take this genre (or any other awesome aspect of retro culture) down with them. Shame on Trump for ever wearing that rad pink cap.

 

[Galena]

I'm a fan, too bye, and I didn't know about any of this until you posted the thread. But the more I think about what about this music could have looked inviting, the more my best guess is that I just said it.

They're just musicians who want to discuss tech, software, and share their music with other fans--I have yet to see discussions of Trump and white nationalism, and most of those groups discourage or ban political discussion and/or hateful imagery and messages--if you want to see imagery of neon swastikas and hitler driving deloreans, then you go to the daily stormer or any alt-right messageboard. Prior to that Daily Stormer article proclaiming synthwave the official soundtrack to the alt-right earlier this year, I would never have known any such association existed. Fine, no one can stop the alt-right from listening to the music of their choice. What upsets me is the lazy journalism on buzzfeed's part. Yes, it's just buzzfeed. No, that's no excuse for irresponsible coverage.

...

Forgive the long rant. I particiapate in synthwave groups and communities to discover music and discuss a love for the genre and anything related--I also see it as one of the few escapes from politics and current events, but even that is no longer a guarantee, so yeah, I'm a little pissed off at buzzfeed and the alt-right for taking that away from me. I love watching the alt-right implode and consume their own, but I hope they don't take this genre (or any other awesome aspect of retro culture) down with them. Shame on Trump for ever wearing that rad pink cap.

Authoritarian sentiments have a history of thriving on that which is quiet about them - on people's desire to escape, to dissociate themselves from what's going on. So, when art is co-opted by politics it doesn't want, I think it will decidedly be that art that seemed free from the political, that once felt like an escape. The "apolitical" nature turns out to be less of a shelter than a door left unlocked. And synthwave does wear its escapist vibe on its sleeve, for all to see including those who would mould it to their advantage.

So, while my first impulse on reading this was to nope (nope nope nope) out and ignore this association until it went away, on further thought I don't believe that would actually work for this genre or any music or other aesthetic tidbit that finds itself picked up by those its community politically wishes not to associate with. Instead - if they don't want a connection to a group to persist, they can verbally, visibly make themselves unpalatable to that group. Artists who don't like it can leave a message where anybody who is attracted to their music can see. For example, answering an offer to interview and having their rejection printed on a popular website. Or maybe they're the popular website themselves - like, someone on the extreme right would get disappointed with Vehlinggo's Twitter pretty fast. This gives up a not insignificant degree of comfort, but if we don't like our attracted audience, it's a way to target others and leave less to chance.

I suppose this is how punks felt when the skinheads appropriated punk rock. the problem with these sort of fights over who appropriates pieces of counter culture and/or underground art and music is that a lot of it blurs together in the eyes of the general public (AKA people not intimately involved in said art culture, genre etc). I imagine a fan of Black Flag just loved having to defend themself everytime someone found out they listened to that terrible fascist music.

If you don't know how to respond to this kind of situation, punk's response to the arrival of skinheads in the scene could be a fascinating read, not that I'm well-versed in it at all.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Someone in the group suggested creating Marxwave as a satirical response, but I feel too many people would take it seriously and the joke would be lost on them.

I generally avoid a lot of sub genre names because they become meaningless after a point. Thiswave and thatwave and at the end of the day I don't care what genre I'm hearing as long as I enjoy the music.

 

[Evo]

wtf....

 

[SpankyMcFly]

I think the issue could be reframed to: Who actually cares what Buzzfeed and the SJW subset they cater to, thinks/says? or put another way, Why are shits even being given? My take is that you are playing into their shame game. Own that shit, you shitlord white cis-hetero patriarch Who cares that you listen to neo-nazi made music (JK!), maybe. When someone actually starts to get shamed in real life for listening to this music due to some imagined association THEN this might be a 'real' issue. Untl then, not so much.

P.S. do you think the people Buzzfeed is trying to associate with this music care what buzzfeed says?

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I think the issue could be reframed to: Who actually cares what Buzzfeed and the SJW subset they cater to, thinks/says? or put another way, Why are shits even being given? My take is that you are playing into their shame game. Own that shit, you shitlord white cis-hetero patriarch Who cares that you listen to neo-nazi made music (JK!), maybe. When someone actually starts to get shamed in real life for listening to this music due to some imagined association THEN this might be a 'real' issue. Untl then, not so much.

P.S. do you think the people Buzzfeed is trying to associate with this music care what buzzfeed says?

I had a response to this earlier but accidentally closed the tab and lost my text.

Something about how I wouldn't be surprised if indie music culture or the synth scene becomes the next political target of the establishment media, following gaming culture.

Some of the people have taken the right approach, i.e. ignore both the fashwave scene and the media and just focus on the music. That's where I'm at now; I've calmed down since I posted about this the other day. Life's too short..

EDIT: to answer that last question, of course the alt-right doesn't give a shit, and if anything they will probably boast about this, wear it like a badge of honor that they've aroused the media's attention and contempt. The mainstream media doesn't understand trolling and how to handle it the way more internet-saavy folks do. Regardless of whether or not the alt-right is a legit movement, they've successfully trolled the media and the media took the bait and fed the trolls for the last year. This latest buzzfeed article is another food pellet for pepe.

 

[Jaguar]

I think you're taking BuzzFeed too seriously. Walk it off.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I think you're taking BuzzFeed too seriously. Walk it off.

I've calmed down since I posted about this the other day. Life's too short..

k