Introducing Fashwave, The Techno Soundtrack Of The ‘Alt-Right’
Image by Getty Images
By Sam Kestenbaum October 26, 2017
Over the last year the “alt-right” white nationalist movement has sought to look as non-threatening as possible in hopes of reaching a more mainstream audience. This includes an unofficial type of preppy uniform, haircut — and music genre.
“The alt-right struggled to find a sound appropriate to its carefully constructed façade,” the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in a recent post.
Punk and metal, favored by another generation of white nationalists, wouldn’t do — they decided on a techno style known as Syntheave. Synthwave is a contemporary genre that draws influence from 1980s film soundtracks and video games.
“Now, the alt-right has coopted Synthwave,” the SPLC wrote, “calling it ‘fashwave,’ in another facet of the movement’s attempt at normalizing hate.”
Richard Spencer and neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin have helped crystallize the aesthetic of the “alt-right,” including this new type of sound.
According to the SPLC, Fashwave seems to have first appeared on the internet in November 2015. “The music is composed of unremarkable synthesizers and samples … you likely wouldn’t realize this was white nationalist music until you read the song titles,” the SPLC writes. “Fashwave sounds innocuous, which is precisely the alt-right’s goal.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
