Episode 12: Synth Pop of the 80's

Synth Pop of the 80's Spotify Playlist

Get out your neon windbreaker and hair gel for this week's episode.  We are going to talk about some totally awesome 80's synth pop songs that became popular as the music took a technical turn in the beginning of the decade.

Transcript

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Welcome to Mixtapes of Today, Episode 12. I am your host, Suze Jones. This week, we are going to talk about the synthpop music from the decade of Excess, the 1980s. We are talking about neon windbreakers, spiky hair, and totally rad memories. Synthpop really shaped what we knew about music back then at the turn of the decade. 80s synthpop was defined by bands using electronic synthesizers as the primary instrument, dominating the charts with catchy melodies and driving electronic beats. It was a totally new type of music that came from musicians using innovative technology. It basically was like an electronic orchestra from the future that threw out the rules for popular music by introducing the synthesizer that not only could duplicate other instruments, but create completely new sounds. The tech kit started with the synthesizer, drum machines, sequencers, and the magic technology that allowed it all to talk together was the MIDI. The groundbreaking technology allowed a single person to create music with this futuristic sound without the need of a full band. Synthpop not only was a new type of music, but a whole cultural revolution with the fashion and the music videos that followed. It all started in 1981 when MTV launched, which not only played music, but gave visual concepts with many films that would put the spotlight on a band's look and not just their sound. The fashion was just as futuristic as the music, with bold bright colors and dramatic hairstyles and makeup for women and men alike. This introduced an androgynous look that changed the vibe of pop music all through the 1980s. I have 10 tracks this week of 80s synthpop that are like totally awesome. So check out my Spotify playlist link in the description. Track 1, Just Can't Get Enough by Depeche Mode. Depeche Mode is an English electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. They released their debut album Speak and Spell in 1981 amid the British New Wave scene and were a part of the MTV-driven Second British Invasion. Just Can't Get Enough was their third single, released on September 7, 1981. It was recorded during the summer of that year at Blackwing Studios and was the band's first single to be released in the United States on February 18, 1982. A riff-driven synthpop song, Just Can't Get Enough, was the final single to be written by founding member Vince Clark, who left the band in December of 1981. Clark moved on to form another synthpop band, Yazoo, which is also on the list this week. Track 2, Don't You Want Me by the Human League. The Human League is an English synthpop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially, an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album, Dare, in 1981. Don't You Want Me from that album was the band's best known and most commercially successful song. It was the best-selling UK single of 1981, and that year's Christmas number one. The lyrics were inspired after the Human League's lead vocalist Philip Oaky read a photo story in a Teen Girls magazine about the American musical romantic drama film A Star Is Born from 1976. And he decided to turn the song into a conflicting duet with one of the band's two teenage female vocalists. The duo split in May 1983 with Moye going on to launch a successful solo career and Clark co-forming The Assembly and then Eraser. Yet another synthpop band listed this week. Don't Go was released on July 5th, 1982, as the second single from their debut album, Upstairs at Eric's. The song peaked at number three on the UK singles chart, becoming Yazoo's second top five hit. In the US, where the band was known as Yaz, the song was their second big hit on the American dance chart, where it spent two weeks at number one in October 1982. Soft Cell are an English synthpop band who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consisted of vocalist Mark Allman and instrumentalist David Ball. The band are primarily known for their 1981 hit version of Tainted Love and their platinum-selling debut album Nonstop Erotic Cabaret. Tainted Love is a song composed by Ed Cobb, formerly of American group The Four Preps, which was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964. The song attained worldwide fame after being covered and reworked by SoftSell for their album in 1981. The song has since been covered by numerous groups and artists. The psychedelic furs are an English rock band founded in London in February 1977. Led by lead vocalist Richard Butler and his brother Tim Butler on bass guitar. The psychedelic furs are one of the many acts spawned from the British post punk scene. Love My Way was released in July 1982 as the first single from their third studio album, Forever Now. Love My Way was written by the four members of the group and produced by Todd Rundgren, who also played on the song. It became another UK chart entry and also their first US Billboard Hot 100 single.

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Eurythmix were a British New Wave duo formed in 1980, consisting of Scottish vocalist Annie Lennox and English musician and producer Dave Stewart. They were both previously in the Tourists, a band that broke up in 1980. Sweet Dreams Are Made of This was written by the duo and recorded in a small project studio in the attic of an old warehouse in North London where they were living. It was released in January 1983 by RCA Records as the fourth and final single from their second album of the same title. The song was the duo's breakthrough hit, establishing their popularity worldwide. New Order is an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1980 by vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook, and drummer Stephen Morris, with keyboardist Gillian Gilbert joining the band shortly after. Their fusion of post-punk and electronic dance music made them one of the most acclaimed and influential bands of the 1980s. Blue Monday is a Eurodisco, synthpop, and alternative dance song that drew inspiration from many works of other artists. It was released as a 12-inch single on March 7, 1983, through Factory Records. The 12-inch single was backed with a primarily instrumental version of the song entitled The Beach. Pet Shop Boys are an English synthpop duo formed in London in 1981. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe met in a hi-fi shop, Chelsea Records Center, where they discovered their mutual interest in disco and electronic music and became friends. West End Girls was written and released by the duo twice as a single. The first version of the song was produced by Bobby Orlando and was released on Columbia Records Bobcat Records imprint in April 1984. After the duo signed with EMI, the song was re-recorded with producer Stephen Haig for their first studio album, Please, in 1986. Thompson Twins were an English pop band formed in 1977 in Sheffield. Initially a new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity during the early and mid-1980s, scoring a string of hits in the United Kingdom, the United States, and around the world. The band's name was based on the two bumbling detectives, Thompson and Thompson, from a comic series where the characters were similar in appearance. Doctor Doctor is the second single from the band's studio album, Into the Gap, in 1984. It was written by Tom Bailey, Helena Curry, and Joe Leeway, and prominently features a keyboard solo. Erasure is an English synthpop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell, and songwriter, producer, and keyboardist Vince Clark. As you remember, Vince Clark was previously co-founder of both groups Depeche Mode and Yazoo, so he was very heavy in the British synthpop scene. A little respect was written by the duo and released in September of 1988. The heavily synthesized instrumentation is accentuated by acoustic guitar and Bell's vocal falsetto in the chorus. It was their tenth single from their third studio album The Innocence. Known as one of their signature songs, the single reached number four on the UK singles chart, and on the US Billboard Hot 100, it made number 14. This concludes this episode of Mixtapes of Today. Ten synth pop tracks that are bangers even today. Please check out the Spotify playlist link in the description. Thanks for listening to Mixtapes of Today. We will be back next week. Talk to you soon.