| As the forerunner of modern electronic music, | | | | whom had great influence on the genre's |
| synthpop was the first genre of music dominated by | | | | development and remain popular today. |
| synthesizers. Early synthpop has its origins set firmly | | | | Synthpop first developed as an offshoot of rock |
| in the age of vintage analog synthesis, when the | | | | music in 1970s Britain. By the mid 1980s it had grown |
| music software of today was still decades away | | | | into a mainstay of popular music, though by the end |
| from becoming a reality. Some of the first | | | | of the decade it had gradually lost much of its |
| "pre-synthpop" recordings of the early 1960s were | | | | mainstream appeal. In the late 2000s a second wave |
| made using synthesizer technologies that would be | | | | of synthpop emerged, with new bands bringing the |
| considered primitive by today's standards. It was not | | | | genre to a younger generation who had not |
| until the 1970s when companies such as Moog, ARP, | | | | experienced the first rise of synthpop. |
| Korg, Roland and others began producing a new | | | | Today, the most widely-used equipment used in the |
| generation of powerful synths that the idea of | | | | production of synthpop includes the digital audio |
| composing entire songs with electronic equipment | | | | workstations Steinberg Cubase and Apple Logic as |
| found a large following. | | | | well as vintage analog synthesizers such as the |
| Some of the most popular synthpop bands to | | | | Roland Juno-106 and SH-101 as well as the Korg |
| emerge in this time were Depeche Mode, New Order, | | | | MS-20. |
| Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk, all of | | | | |