Listening to the Music the Machines Make - Inventing Electronic Pop 1978 to 1983: Inventing Electronic Pop 1978-1983

Product Information

Its still fascinating especially if , like me, can remember actually reading some of the reviews and hearing the music for the first time. They gave great press but for whatever reason, it took quite a long time for them to break through into the mainstream and even then, it was only because their music was used in other contexts like films. I’m not great on contemporary electronic music, the things I hear about, I tend to hear about from ELECTRICITYCLUB.

This definitive account explores how krautrock, disco, glam rock and punk inspired a new generation to rip up the rulebook and venture toward a new frontier of electronic music - one that laid the foundations for Hip-Hop, house, techno and beyond. I don’t think I have a moment for that, my musical church is quite broad and I’ve never been very over-intellectual about my music tastes, it’s like “I do or I don’t”.Other artists inspired by these authors would include The Normal, Throbbing Gristle, John Foxx, Cabaret Voltaire and Joy Division and therefore their influence on these pioneering artists cannot be ignored. I think there was a snobbishness which we’ve already touched on that this really wasn’t “proper music” because it was machines, these bands hadn’t paid their dues, they hadn’t picked up the guitar, they hadn’t done the toilet circuit playing to 3 people and a dog, being spat on and having their van stolen, all that kind of thing that supposedly makes you a worthy musician. So the two things in tandem, the bands wanting to make more of a mark and wanting the recognition that came with that, plus Virgin’s financial situation which meant they needed bands to step up and start making more commercial records, was actually a very powerful moment in shaping some of the most important records in Virgin’s catalogue I would say. Now when the electronic bands started coming through, they came with this aesthetic with the keyboards and it looked fantastic.

There was also this new generation of journalists like Nick Kent and Julie Burchill who were quite vicious with this punk rock attitude which was probably quite exciting at the time.If I take Erasure out of the equation then at a guess it’s between OMD, Depeche Mode, The Human League and maybe Nine Inch Nails. Howard Jones came in with a different take on the form and actually, I loved Howard Jones so from my point of view, my love of electronic pop did continue.