This German Electronic Musician From the 80s Invented Chillwave (And I Bet You’ve Never Heard of Him)

When most people think of late 2000s and early 2010s chillwave and synthwave music, one often thinks of artists like Washed Out, Toro y Moi, and Neon Indian. If you were a young adult (like me) at the time, glittery and colorful visuals you’d find while scrolling Tumblr come to mind. 

Man, was that a cool era for electronic music. And to many a music historian, chillwave as a genre came to be around the late 2000s in the United States. Specifically, 2009 boasted what is considered the “Summer of Chillwave.” It was the year when this kind of music really became a thing. You couldn’t get away from “Feel It All Around” by Washed Out on the radio or at parties anywhere. Chillwave had taken over the airwaves.

However, these now-legendary genre pioneers weren’t actually the first artists to create this kind of music. In fact, chillwave can be traced decades prior to one particular release by a man named Harald Grosskopf. And the moment you listen to “So Weit, So Gut”, you would think this song came out in 2009 or 2010. Rather… this song came out in 1980, decades prior to the early years of chillwave. And it wasn’t an American producer that put it together. Harald Grosskopf hailed from Germany.

Was Harald Grosskopf the Blueprint for Chillwave and Synthwave?

I have to admit, I didn’t even know Grosskopf existed until I saw the above video from @musicallyproper. I was shocked when I first heard this song and realized it was a song from 1980.

“So Weit, So Gut” by Harald Grosskopf was released in 1980 and comes from his debut album, Synthesist. He created this song using a Minimoog and an 8-track at home. It’s ahead of its time in so many ways. The early 1980s were all about using synths to create high-energy dance music. Grosskopf opted to make the chillest music on the planet at the time.

So, did producers like Washed Out or Neon Indian rip off Harald Grosskopf? On the contrary, I don’t think they were even directly inspired by him. Rather, the chillwave genre and movement seemed to be born out of nostalgia, in a way. You can’t deny that the synth-y goodness of chillwave, though modern for its time in the 2000s, had an 80s feel to it. Chillwave was sort of like a revival movement for synth pop, but with a uniquely 2000s edge to it. Perhaps the similarities between Grosskopf’s electronic works and chillwave of the 2000s are just enormous coincidences.

I can’t help but think that if Grosskopf had gotten bigger back in his heyday, the Summer of Chillwave could have very well taken place in 1980, rather than 2009.

Photo via Getty Images

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