Recently, there has been an uptick in a new genre of music that invokes a style reminiscent of a 1980’s sound combined with a modern electronic kick to create a uniquely fused genre of music called synthwave.

 

The Midnight is a band that has managed to cultivate and develop their identity around this genre of music, and as a result have become a distinguished member in the musical community. The band consists of two members, singer-songwriter Tyler Lyle, and producer Tim McEwan, and has been active since 2012 releasing music independently. Throughout their career, they have released three albums and their 4th and newest album, Kids was released on September 21, 2018. This record comes at a pivotal time in The Midnight’s career because they have been able to fit themselves into a certain style and sound that their audience has become comfortable with and has given them success. This is due to the similar sound of their previous three albums without much change between projects. However, with Kids there seemed to be a different take on the way The Midnight was approaching their synth-filled, nostalgia-inducing sounds that had given them over 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

          

Before Kids, The Midnight relied on a sound that consisted mainly of vocals provided by singer Tyler Lyle and production done by Tim McEwan with a frequent appearance by musician Thomas Edinger on the saxophone. This saxophone dominated much of the early hits by The Midnight with tracks like Jason, Sunset, and The Comeback Kid; however, their new album attempts to depart from that formula and instead tries to mainly rely on the musical production by Tim and songwriting by Tyler. There is not a single second of music in this album that was not crafted by either Tim McEwan or Tyler Lyle, and so it serves as a passion project for them and to start to carve out a new identity for themselves as artists since they are now six years into their musical careers as a band. This new identity, in the form of Kids, is an introspective one and aims to tackle a multitude of topics like growing up, nostalgia, and memories while trailblazing a new path musically for the acclaimed band.

 

 Kids take a reflective look on childhood through the lens of many frames including its production, art design, and lyrics. This is especially evident in the song Lost Boy, which is the lead single from the album. The musical production in the song begins with an almost dream-like sequence of synths progressively enveloping around you. This is to create the effect that one is looking back in time at an event or a place in their life with that kind of musical effect taking place at the beginning of the song. Throughout the song, these hollow synth sounds subsist as they maintain this dream-like quality to the track throughout its entirety.

 

The song’s lyrics, written by Tyler Lyle, Tim McEwan, and Lenno Linjama, are in the past tense to also suggest that the song is talking about the past. This retrospective look on childhood is taken even further in the lyrics as verse 2 of Lost Boy  states, “We were the rebels, lone survivors/We were the cult of deep sea divers/We were young once then we grew old/We were shining, we were fool's gold.” This verse examines how sometimes, as children, we have the sense to think of ourselves as something that is exclusive and that feeling of exclusivity fades as one gets older because we find that the world is a lot bigger than we once thought. The album art for Kids also displays a mall arcade, which is a symbol of childhood as the members of the band would have been children when mall arcades were popular in the 1980s. The Midnight goes onto further explore the concept of childhood by examining nostalgia and how that can sometimes affect the way we view the past.

 

The Midnight attempts to expand on its message of retroactively looking back on childhood and putting a nostalgic twist on it by looking back at it fondly as if it were a simpler time. Like mentioned before, the album art that presents a mall arcade holds some merit to this message of nostalgia as well because video games and arcades are symbols of leisurely activities that hold no real-world consequences. Dr. Clay Routledge, a psychology professor at North Dakota State University states in reference to nostalgia in modern media, “Nostalgia’s not a silver bullet, it works best when you celebrate or bring back a sentiment or idea connected to it without stepping on sacred ground” (Variety).

 

This is something that The Midnight do exceptionally with their production in the album. There are entire tracks dedicated to the sounds of television commercials and arcade sounds in the songs Youth and Arcade Dreams. These songs play actual audio footage from the 1980s along with smooth synths to elicit a feeling of warmth with the words that are being broadcast. In Kids, The Midnight expands on their nostalgia for their childhood by pouring their message into their music as well as their lyrics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Midnight explores the concept of childhood and a growing sense of nostalgia for that era of life in their 4th and most recent album in Kids. Throughout their entire career, The Midnight has released music independently without a proper music label and that has significantly affected their career track. Since there has never been a label to pressure them into a certain direction, The Midnight has not strayed far from their original path as mentioned previously. So it was through the sheer drive to be creative, and not just pressure from a record label, that produced the uniquely styled album in Kids. This sets The Midnight apart from many musicians in that they have creative control of their music, which can be a rarity in modern times. It also means they are required to constantly stay afloat in order to keep their jobs so they are often selling merchandise as a means to make more income.  This is the consequence many modern artists, unfortunately, face due to the lack of funding that streaming has seemed to provide in lieu of CD sales dropping. Overall, however, The Midnight remains a strong independent force in the musical world, and after their new sound with Kids, their future in music has the potential to be as dream-like and positive as their past.

 

References

Home. Retrieved fromhttps://www.themidnightofficial.com/

 

The Midnight – Lost Boy. (2018, July 13). Retrieved fromhttps://genius.com/The-midnight-lost-

boy-lyrics

 

Schwindt, O. (2016, July 25). 'Stranger Things' Tests Limits of Netflix's Nostalgia Strategy.

Retrieved fromhttps://variety.com/2016/tv/news/stranger-things-netflix-fuller-house-nostalgia-strategy-1201822075/