neonnostalgia

Essential themes for any syn­th­wave artist or group look­ing to truly cap­ture that retro-80’s feel­ing. Roughly grouped, not or­dered.

  1. Nostalgia
  2. Time
  3. Memory & sen­ti­ment
  4. Analog pho­tographs
  5. Melancholy
  6. Love
  7. Young love, usu­ally as­sumed to be naïve
  8. Heartbreak
  9. The color blue
  10. Being lost / Losing things / Losing each other
  11. Summer
  12. Summer ro­mances that should have been some­thing more
  13. The idea of an end­less sum­mer
  14. Summer be­ing over
  15. Sunsets (the color or­ange) (often used in a sym­bolic way to rep­re­sent sum­mer be­ing over or the end of a ro­mance)
  16. Neon
  17. Chasing some­one/​thing and/​or run­ning away from some­one/​thing
  18. Driving
  19. Looking through rose col­ored lenses at the mem­ory of a lost love while dri­ving into the sun­set
  20. The night (preferably so late at night that no­body else is awake)
  21. Driving at night
  22. California
  23. Most forms of waves: ocean waves, ra­dio waves, wav­ing good­bye
  24. The ocean (almost al­ways the Pacific Ocean)
  25. The Pacific Coast Highway (i.e., dri­ving on the coast of California)
  26. Video games
  27. Arcades
  28. FM Radio
  29. Records / Record play­ers / Vinyl
  30. Kids / Being kids
  31. Underage drink­ing
  32. Growing older (not be­ing kids any more)