Genre Watch: Futura

Also Known As: Tron Beat, Synthetica, Binary Disco, AlterModernism

Near the Western coast of France lies Nantes, a decent-sized city that probably has never been on the American cultural radar. It is not far enough off the beaten path to be considered exotic nor is it within the accepted centers of European culture (London, Paris, Berlin). We don’t hear or think much about Nantes, just like no one in Europe probably hears that much or thinks about Pittsburgh or Columbus, Ohio. Despite it’s apparent cultural irrelevancy, Nantes is at the center of new movement in electronic pop music that is radiating throughout Europe and is currently making inroads in America.

In 2007, a Nantes artist who goes by the name of College started a blog called Valerie. In his statement of purpose, College refers to “retro futurism” as the driving inspiration behind his music. College eventually connected with another Nantes-based artist called Anoraak. These two artists, along with a few others, have spearheaded a new direction in bedroom pop electronica. These artists have come together to form the Valerie Collective. Artists in the Valerie Collective use drum samples and synths to create songs that sound, on the surface, like they could have come out 25 years ago.

We have all been here before… ironic nostalgia for the 80’s has been hip for at least a decade. What is different with Valerie artists is their resolute genuineness and sincerity. Absent is the common emotional detachment displayed in most hipster dance music of the last decade.  Instead of using irony and parody to give their music an edge, artists like College, Anoraak, and Electric Youth forgo pretensions and express unabashed romanticism with startling candor. Listening to their music is like reading someone’s diary set to disco beats. It is private and personal, yet also free-flowing and uninhibited.

Valerie artists, along with their peers (the Discotexas collective based in Germany), incorporate a very distinct visual aesthetic along with their music. Take a look at the advertisements in a magazine from 1983, and you will get a good idea of what type of visuals these artists co-opt for their aesthetic. Again, this is not simply nostalgia, there is something more going on here, but it is very hard to pinpoint what that something really is. Part of the reason there is something more going on is that most of these artists grew up in Europe and experienced American pop culture from the 70’s and 80’s at a distance through tv, film, and music without any sort cultural knowledge to make sense of it all. Through their music and visuals, they are creating a new world (an alternative past, present, and future) out of the discarded vestiges of hyper consumerism.