Film

Synth Britannia

Name: Synth Britannia
Genre: Documentary, Music, TV Movie
Released: 2009
Cast: Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan, Neil Tennant

Musical

Synth Britannia charts the unlikely rise of the synthesiser from art-school oddity to the beating heart of British pop in the 1980s. Featuring Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, The Human League and more, it traces how a generation of post-punk rebels turned electronic music into chart dominance. Brisk, infectiously enthusiastic, and essential viewing for anyone curious how synths conquered the world.

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Pump Up the Volume1990

Captures the exact moment synth-pop exploded into the mainstream. Features brilliant performances of era-defining tracks and reveals how electronic music became the sound of an entire decade. A love letter to the 1980s.

But It's very much of its time, which means some visuals and fashion choices have aged in ways that might feel dated rather than nostalgic.

The Defiant Ones2017

Follows Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's partnership across music, business and culture. Like Synth Britannia, it's about how outsiders with vision fundamentally changed popular music and the industry around it.

But Hip-hop and electronic pop are entirely different beasts sonically; this is about parallel paths rather than shared sounds.

Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams2017

An anthology series set against synthesiser-driven soundtracks that captures the exact texture and paranoia of 80s electronic music. Beautifully evokes why that era felt like the future.

But The stories are inconsistent in quality, and some episodes get bogged down in verbose sci-fi concepts rather than atmosphere.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Synth Britannia

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Performance.1970

Both celebrate artifice and electronic texture as a form of liberation; Performance is the artistic ancestor synth artists inherited from.

Mick Jagger in a hallucinogenic crime thriller that predates synth-pop by a decade but embodies its visual language: androgyny, artifice, electronic mood, sensory overload, and a total collapse of reality. Musically prophetic.

But It's genuinely difficult to follow, deeply weird, and some sexual content remains jarring even now. The narrative isn't the point, which frustrates viewers seeking plot.

Joy Division2009

Brilliant documentary about the post-punk band whose guitar-driven melancholy informed every brooding synthpop artist that followed. Essential for understanding what synth artists were reacting against and towards.

But It's primarily a tragedy—Ian Curtis's suicide hangs over the entire film—which means it's heavier and sadder than Synth Britannia's celebratory tone.

24 Hour Party People2002

Fictional account of Manchester's Factory Records scene, which ran parallel to synth-pop's rise. It's funny, energetic, and captures the anarchic spirit of post-punk culture that birthed electronic music.

But It's more interested in narrative chaos and comedy than musical accuracy, so the soundtrack serves story rather than the other way around.

Berlin Calling2008

A drama set in the contemporary electronic music scene that nonetheless captures the obsessive, solitary intensity of electronic production. Beautifully shot, musically literate, and deeply felt.

But It's a modern story about contemporary techno, not a historical documentary, so you're trading context for atmosphere.

Possession1981

Both use electronic/synthetic elements (score, production design, performance) to destabilise reality and express emotional rupture rather than explain it.

Andrzej Żuławski's nightmarish Polish-French drama about a crumbling marriage, shot with the same feverish intensity and synthesiser score that defines early electronic music. Visually disorienting in the exact way 80s synth felt.

But It's viscerally upsetting—body horror, gaslighting, grotesque practical effects—and the narrative is deliberately incoherent. Not a comfortable evening.