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Jul 27, 2019 By Charles Steinberg Under the Radar’s Weekly Playlist

A couple things to get out there about this synth pop playlist: First, it’s modern so don’t be alarmed at the absence of groups like Depeche Mode, New Order, and Kraftwerk and other forefathers of synth pop who emerged in the eighties. Second, like many genres, the boundaries can be fuzzy; Is Beach House a synth pop band? Is LCD Soundsystem? I’m not sure, and there are others who are synth heavy groups but wouldn’t decisively be categorized as synth pop…like some on this very list so what am I even saying? (Blah to genre titles anyway.)

You can look at this as a synth music playlist like a hip-hop one from a person too young to acknowledge old school and has on it contemporaries like Chance the Rapper, Vince Staples and Kendrick Lamar. It’s not meant to be comprehensive [20 songs is long enough] but it is nevertheless a collection of some absolute whammers of this sub-genre. Make no mistake, these are the kinds of tracks that are meant to send tingles like Will Beyers when the Mind Flayer is close, but in a good way. They’re about letting go and hair flipping and feeling alive, but some can also hit you like a straight kick to the gut (Sharon…) These are basically some of my favorite synth pop songs. They provide some of the very best moments of being a music fanatic.