Synthpop
Synthpop is pop music in which the synthesizer is the main instrument, usually backed by drum machines.
Melodies, bass lines and chords are all played on keyboards, giving a clean, electronic sound that can be cold and robotic or bright and catchy. It emerged in the late 1970s, mainly in Britain and Japan, following the lead of Kraftwerk and of disco producers, and dominated the charts in the early 1980s. It differs from other electronic music by sticking to short pop songs with verses, choruses and a lead singer.
Artists it is known for: Depeche Mode, The Human League, Pet Shop Boys, Gary Numan.
- Family
- Pop
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom and Japan, late 1970s
- Also called
- synth-pop, synth pop, techno-pop
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 5%
About 4,300 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have synthpop among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Synthpop artists
Depeche Mode
Tears For Fears
Duran Duran
New Order
And One
Spandau Ballet
Pet Shop Boys
Oingo Boingo
Modern Talking
Ashbury Heights
The synthpop artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.