Has comfy synth gone too far?

[andrewwerdna]

I made a big long rambly post, but that's not good for starting a thread.  I personally think comfy synth is lame, but that could just be because I just don't generally like major-key music.

What do you guys think of this new "comfy synth" phenomenon?

[crystallogic13]

At first, when there were like only 2-3 releases like Grandma's Cottage I really didn't mind, moreso enjoy the novelty/fun of a different thing coming out of DS. Musicwise, to me most of the "Comfy Synth" stuff can simply maybe be categorized as (Unreleased ) Video Game Music or and real music's equivalent of "easy listening styles" which I haven't much knowledge into.. I also seem to find "passable" (=nothing bad,nothing good,move on) almost all things I've heard (and that is most of the NYP bandcamp releases that have been up), so it's definitely NOT my style besides the obvious very rare very high quality release.. So I think I'm starting to just ignore it really ..

It's its own thing, I am glad that people are creative and other people get music they enjoy, that's great news. BUT at this point, I'd want the DS scene to move on and to focus on Dungeon Synth which is obviously for many people a completely different world/scene. Again, I don't mind a one in a while post about something really great but the FB groups for a while were full of them.. And I certainly DO NOT enjoy ALL random diy "comfy.synth" releases on bandcamp use also with no reason "dungeon.synth" to promote their music.. It's starting to feel kinda lame but in the end anyone will do whatever he wants so that's just my opinion..

[theswordthatsang]

It's not my cup of tea, although I really like the first Grandma's Cottage record.
Gone too far? I don't even understand what that means.
How can Comfy Synth possibly go too far?

[stormcrow]

it's just a temporary hype, nothing to be worried of. Everything now is being tagged as "comfy"...I would not be surprised if that tag will be applied even to Black Metal

Last but not least, you can see how many people have found out that most "comfy synth" albums are ABSOLUTELY LOW QUALITY music. It's mainly about artworks drawing cakes, grandmas and other "nostalgic" stuff. Even my album "Racconti del Focolare" has been heavy requested and uploaded on the Comfy Archives, while it's definitely NOT comfy at all (maybe 1 or 2 tracks are?).

in two words: WHO CARES?

[anfortas]

I have not realized how big a thing comfy synth is within the community, before reading this thread. I have only heard Grandma's Cottage and Tiny Mouse so far, which i found quite good. Nothing, that really grabbed my attention, but overall nice music that would be fitting for some fantasy video games.

But, I agree with stomrcrow, that it is mainly about the artworks that invoke some nostalgic, romantic 19th century feelings., in order for an album to be tagged "comfy". I gave a quick listen to a few albums on the comfy synth archives, and found some of them sounding more unsettling than comfy, if it wasn't for the cover.

And to answer the topic question: I don't really mind if an album is tagged comfy synth or anything else. If I like the music, I listen to it, if not, I skip it.

[andrewwerdna]

Feb 4, 2020 3:04:10 GMT -5 theswordthatsang said:

Gone too far? I don't even understand what that means.
How can Comfy Synth possibly go too far?

Well, initially I was going to have a secondary question to this thread about when, if ever, would aggressive gatekeeping be justified and effective? Not to suggest that should be done for comfy synth, but just wondering what hypothetical scenarios would that be the case, like maybe if a famous mumble rapper tagged an album "dungeon synth" and then a bunch of mainstream people start to think dungeon synth is what the mumble rapper does. I would hope the community would actively try to set the record straight in that scenario. But I think I might've already made a thread about that at some point so maybe a bit redundant.

As to how it could go too far, stuff like this is a little triggering haha:

babydinods.bandcamp.com/album/my-first-dungeon-synth-cassette

3littlekittens.bandcamp.com/album/meowing-and-purring

But everyone knows that's just obvious trolling/shitposting, so getting riled up about it at this point would just mean that the terrorists win.

[skirmisher]

Some of the music I've heard has been ok so fine, I guess, but there's no reason to call this Dungeon Synth. I think we're at a point where people are trivializing Dungeon Synth dividing it up into more and more ridiculous subgenres and it's turning into a massive pool of mediocrity where it will soon be very hard to find something worth listening to. But this is how it is now. Anyone can do music in this day and age so this kind of thing will happen again and again. To be honest, I don't really care. I've seen people do lame stuff before and it doesn't concern me so I'll just let them have their fun. If I don't like it, I'll probably just ignore it.

That being said, there is nothing comfy about my synth.

[utumno]

Am I the only one that is upset that I failed to buy a grandma's cottage tape when I had the chance and wish this style could progress? sure it's not amazing music in any sense but it's a fun concept and I would like to see it develop into a more refined style.

[element0s]

Whhhhaaaatever. I don't really care for the music at all because I'm not big into major-key stuff but the backlash against it has been pretty entertaining. As usual the stronger material from the fad will rise and stay near the top and the lazy joke shit will both live and die quickly.

[andrewwerdna]

Honestly the more I think about it the more I kind of want to go on the attack, not because it's making me more angry, but in fact I think that can be sort of like joining in the fun. Like maybe comfy synth is trying to be a sort of wrestling heel.

[stormcrow]

you know what? I think the real "problem" is HOW Comfy Synth has come to life.
There wouldn't have been any controversial reaction if CS wasn't born as a DS spin-off. I mean, CS would fit as a "punk" subgenre of New Age Music....in that case, we could have found the Grandma's Cottage albums and similar stuff listed in the NDSB boards, at best.

[thekeeper]

It's definitely a weird phenomenon. Some of the music is okay, but most is pretty uninteresting. I actually own the Grandma's Cottage tape, so obviously I think the music can be good. GC is really the only release that I think is kind of in the realm of dungeon synth, though. Sonically, you have some of the same tones or even feeling as you would from a DS album, albeit it's on the more contemplative or bittersweet side. The overly saccharine stuff I don't like. A lot of it comes off to me as the kinds of things some digital producers make to sell as stock theme music. I remember when the tag was inundated with one's guy's projects, all with only 5 or 6 tracks and themed around the cover art and their respective song titles. It's purely theme music 9 times out 10. It's possible that overuse of the DS tag on non-DS can be confusing to people and if given enough misuse could alter what people come to view DS as. I would personally prefer less 'theme music' in the DS scene, if I had to take a stance. I much prefer the personal stuff.

All that said, I feel like there's some crossover with what we've been calling 'idyllic synth', that kind of romantic pastoral sound that's not necessarily dungeony but it provides the same effect as a lot of DS, taking you elsewhere with the music. It has the same heart. GC kind of sounds like that to me. Would we retroactively start naming things comfy synth? There's part of me that thinks the short proliferation of CS is in reaction to the initial backlach of GC existing within the scope of DS, just by name, theme, titling alone. I even think those components influence how some people have reacted to the music. I would bet that if you changed the titles and the cover art, it would be received more easily but with less hype for being aesthetically different. I'm not against the idea of comfy synth existing, but it's connection to DS at this point is so minimal. Lower end keyboards, and maybe some fairy tale themes. That's about it. I don't even know if it's a resolute genre because it's just an aesthetically specific form of theme music.

I'm not going to make a comfy synth chart, so no one ask, haha.

[AndruJorj]

Like the fairy-music "idyllic synth" projects that seem to have co-opted the Dungeon Synth moniker, it's not Dungeon Synth, but often cloaks itself in the shroud of Dungeon Synth's aesthetics. To me, DS is inherently dark and gritty, adopting the spirit of black metal and manifesting it via synthesizers. If your synthesizer music doesn't fall into this category, I'm likely to dismiss it as a genre other than DS.

Ambient subgenres as a whole tend to bleed together, but I feel as though there is a distinct difference between these happy sounding comfy synth projects and DS, and there's simply no way to confuse the two unless you have no clue what either are.

[dungeonsnake]

I don't feel the least bit threatened by these neighbor-genres. Just let people make whatever music they want... If you don't like it, don't listen to it. I don't think most of these acts describe themselves as "Dungeon Synth" in the first place, so I don't see any reason to believe the genre is under assault. I could see how it would be annoying if Dungeon Synth became "mainstream" all of a sudden, but by its very nature I think that's unlikely, partly because it's intentionally alienating. if that were to happen then it would only become necessary to dig even deeper into the underground realm... As long as the artists keep making music I enjoy, everything else is just white noise.

[setfiretostrawmen]

This stuff is disturbing and incestous.