In 2021, artists revisited recognizable ’80s synth-pop cues—analog synthesizers, familiar basslines and drumbeats, and period recording approaches—while trying to make the results feel contemporary rather than simply recreate the past. Interviews with Duran Duran and Cold Connection show two different routes; they document individual creative choices, not how widespread an ’80s revival was across music that year.
What makes a song sound ’80s?
There is no single instrument or production trick that defines the decade. The examples artists discussed in 2021 point instead to a combination of cues: synth timbres associated with analog instruments, prominent basslines and drumbeats, and recording methods that recall how bands worked at the time. A song can draw on one or several of these without reproducing an entire period style.
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Those cues are starting points, not a formula. In the interviews below, the artists describe how they used or adapted them, but do not claim that any one sound is objectively more authentic than another.
How did Duran Duran revisit its earlier sound?
On Future Past, Duran Duran’s fifteenth studio album, the band approached its history as material to work with rather than a template to copy. Drummer Roger Taylor said producer Mark Ronson encouraged the group not to shy away from basslines or drumbeats that recalled earlier Duran Duran songs.
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Co-producer Erol Alkan offered a more direct link to the band’s original working methods. Taylor described the suggestion and the next step this way: “He just said forget all the technology, just set up the instruments and record like you would’ve done back in 1983. We brought the material in the live room into the control room and went through this process of making it sound contemporary.” The account was republished on Duran Duran’s official site on October 25, 2021. Read the band’s interview.
The distinction matters: recording in a way that recalls 1983 was a starting point, while shaping the material to sound contemporary was part of the same process. It illustrates how an established act could acknowledge its signature without treating nostalgia as the finished product.
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What did analog synths contribute?
In a separate interview, Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes discussed analog instruments including the Roland Jupiter-8, Moog, and Prophet-5 in connection with his electronic work. He described the appeal of analog sound personally; that is his perspective, not a universal technical verdict that analog equipment is inherently better or necessary to make synth-pop. Read Rhodes’s interview.
The instruments are useful context for understanding the palette artists may be drawing on, not a shopping list. The relevant creative choice is how a sound serves a song; the interviews do not suggest listeners or musicians need vintage hardware to explore it.
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How did newer acts avoid sounding like tribute bands?
Cold Connection described its influences as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Duran Duran, Rational Youth, and Jean-Michel Jarre. The Swedish group’s Daniel summed up the ambition: “We want to pick up that sound and bring it to the 2020s, you know? But without sounding like some tribute band.” Read the 2021 interview.
That phrasing makes the balancing act explicit: recognize the lineage, but make choices that give the music a present-day identity. The interview establishes what the band said it was aiming for; it does not provide an objective test for when homage becomes imitation. In practice, the difference is less about avoiding every familiar sound than about making those sounds part of a distinct song and artistic voice.
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What later interviews add—and what they do not
A 2023 interview with Nation of Language frontman Ian Richard Devaney offers later context for the continuing appeal of synth-pop traditions. Devaney discussed OMD as an influence and talked about analog gear and tape delay. Because the interview was published in 2023, it should be read as a later artist’s perspective, not evidence of something that happened in 2021. Read the interview.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What these examples show about the 2021 sound
Together, the interviews document several ways artists worked with ’80s references: bringing back familiar rhythmic and melodic cues, revisiting period instruments or recording approaches, and using those elements in pursuit of a contemporary result. They show creative intent and self-description, not the size of a broader revival. The available examples do not establish how common the approach was among 2021 releases or how audiences responded to it.
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