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The Man-Machine
- To all intents and purposes, the first synth-pop album was Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine, a release that triggered a surge of synth-based acts to spread across the Western world.
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Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument.
- Japan – Tin Drum
- Kraftwerk – The Man-Machine
- Depeche Mode – Violator
- New Order – Power Corruption and Lies
- Talk Talk – It’S My Life
- Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams
- Simple Minds – New Gold Dream
- Gary Numan – The Pleasure Principle
- Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric’s
- Blancmange – Mange Tout
South London synth-pop heroes Japan kept the good ship of David Bowie’s glam-era androgyny afloat in the late 1970s. The 1978 debut album Adolescent Sex garnered Japan a strong following, mostly thanks to its popular eponymous single. After the similarly guitar-driven Obscure Alternatives, Japan turned a corner with the synth-heavy Quiet Lifein 197...
German synth pioneers Kraftwerk had been tinkering away since the early 1970s, bringing their innovative electronic music to the masses with such releases asAutobahn and Radioactivity, but it wasn’t until 1978’s The Man-Machinethat they truly set the tone for the 1980s and the synth-pop takeover. The Man-Machine brought a more accessible edge and d...
In 1990, Essex gothic synth maestros Depeche Mode saw the synth-pop epoch out with a bang. Throughout the 1980s, Depeche Mode withered from the light of saccharine hits like ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ to venture melancholic and more complex themes. Music for the Masses arrived in 1987 to widespread acclaim and appeared insurmountable until its 1990 fo...
Following Ian Curtis’ tragic suicide in 1980, the remaining members of Joy Division reunited as New Order. After dabbling with synthesisers for their underrated yet unbalanced Joy Division hangover album, Movement, New Order returned triumphant with a seminal classic and quite possibly their masterpiece in 1983’s Power Corruption and Lies. The albu...
Led by the meticulous creative Mark Hollis, Talk Talk blossomed through a series of stylistic changes throughout the 1980s. The sound they eventually landed on in 1988’s Spirit of Eden and 1991’s Laughing Stockwas simply breathtaking, but one would be hard-pressed to describe them as synth-pop. Each of Talk Talk’s five studio albums bettered the pr...
Eurythmics was formed by vocalist Annie Lennox and multi-instrumentalist Dave Stewart from the ashes of The Tourists in 1980.In the Garden, the duo’s debut effort of 1981 was poorly received both critically and commercially, but they more than redeemed themselves in 1983 with the masterpiece follow-up Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). The album is u...
Simple Minds formed in the late 1970s as a post-punk outfit and gradually folded synth into their sound. After breaking through with Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call in 1981, the band, led by Jim Kerr, soared to higher heights with New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84), the band’s first album classifiable as synth-pop. In spite of its remarkably un...
Gary Numan released his most consummate and critically revered album, The Pleasure Principle, in 1979. Just by looking at the album cover, one can tell Numan was almost singularly inspired by Kraftwerk. The record marked Numan’s debut solo effort following a successful run of two albums fronting Tubeway Army. Like much of Kraftwerk’s seminal materi...
Yazoo – or Yaz, as they were known in North America for legal reasons – was a duo comprised of singer Alison Moyet and former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke. It was a transient project boasting only two studio albums, but what they lacked in longevity, they more than compensated for in enduring impact. Upstairs at Eric’s arrived in August 1981 as...
Blancmange consisted of Neil Arthur on vocals and Stephen Luscombe on keyboards. The pair significantly impacted the early 1980s synth-pop scene, but a lack of chart longevity has seen them retrospectively eclipsed by many of their peers. The first two of their three 1980s albums, Happy Families and Mange Tout, are true gems and determining which w...
Feb 10, 2020 · In many ways, synth-pop could only ever have been born in early ’80s Britain, as radical new tech met unique social conditions: the zenith of analogue synth technology colliding with grim reality as newly-elected Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher began to turn the screw.
- Future Music
The 1970 album Klopfzerichen by krautrock band Kluster has also been called an early precursor of industrial music. Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart in 1975, cited as inspirations by Herman Taylor
May 1, 2024 · Although there’s no particular starting point for synth-pop, Tubeway Army laid the foundation for the genre with their memorable hit, Friends? Electric. The best part about this is that they never meant to create a new genre.
Jul 6, 2019 · Characteristics. Synth-pop was defined by its primary use of synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers, sometimes using them to replace all other instruments.
May 11, 2020 · Casablanca. Donna Summer – “I Feel Love” This song wasn’t merely the future of disco, positioned as it was at the end of Summer’s Giorgio Moroder-produced time-hopping concept album I Remember Yesterday.
