Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Soul: From Gospel to Groove
- 2 Funk: the Breakbeat Starts Here
- 3 Psychedelia: in My Mind’s Eye
- 4 Progressive Rock: Breaking the Blues’ Lineage
- 5 Punk Rock: Artifice or Authenticity?
- 6 Reggae: the Aesthetic Logic of a Diasporan Culture
- 7 Synthpop: Into the Digital Age
- 8 Heavy Metal: Noise for the Boys?
- 9 Rap: the Word, Rhythm and Rhyme
- 10 Indie: the Politics of Production and Distribution
- 11 Jungle: the Breakbeat’s Revenge
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Synthpop: Into the Digital Age
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 October 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Soul: From Gospel to Groove
- 2 Funk: the Breakbeat Starts Here
- 3 Psychedelia: in My Mind’s Eye
- 4 Progressive Rock: Breaking the Blues’ Lineage
- 5 Punk Rock: Artifice or Authenticity?
- 6 Reggae: the Aesthetic Logic of a Diasporan Culture
- 7 Synthpop: Into the Digital Age
- 8 Heavy Metal: Noise for the Boys?
- 9 Rap: the Word, Rhythm and Rhyme
- 10 Indie: the Politics of Production and Distribution
- 11 Jungle: the Breakbeat’s Revenge
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
An overview of the genre
In this chapter, we are adopting the term synthpop to deal with an era (around 1979-84) and style of music known by several other names. A more widely employed term in pop historiography has been ‘New Romantic’, but this is too narrowly focused on clothing and fashion, and was, as is ever the case, disowned by almost all those supposedly part of the musical ‘movement’. The term New Romantic is more usefully employed to describe the club scene, subculture and fashion associated with certain elements of early 1980s’ music in Britain. Other terms used to describe this genre included ‘futurist’ and ‘peacock punk’ (see Rimmer 2003). As well as its evident connections to early twentieth-century art and radical values, futurist carried more elitist connotations. It is certainly ironic that the Italian-in-origin futurist art movement was a reaction to the alleged sentimentalism of the original Romantics (see Lista 2001). Dave Gahan commented that Depeche Mode
were Futurists because we were involved with people who wanted to be individual. The New Romantic thing meant people all looking the same, however flamboyantly. Futurists were an extension from punk. That was our following at the time. (Quoted in Malins 2001: 24—5)
The term ‘New Pop’ was also used to describe many of the bands studied in this chapter. However, while ‘futurist’ was seen to be a kind of technological punk, ‘New Pop’ was often defined according to its opposition to more seemingly credible genres such as punk. As former Smash Hits journalist Dave Rimmer suggests:
The New Pop isn't rebellious. It embraces the star system. It conflates art, business and entertainment. It cares more about sales and royalties and the strength of the dollar than anything else and … it isn't the least bit guilty about it. (Rimmer 1985: 13)
The term ‘new musick’ (most associated with the journalist Jon Savage) was also used to describe some of the music examined below. However, whereas our term synthpop crosses the high/low cultural divide, Savage specifically developed the term ‘new musick’ to describe a post-punk move into experimentation, avant-gardism and a more synthetic and mythically European sound (noted as early as November 1977 - see Savage 1977).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Popular Music GenresAn Introduction, pp. 119 - 137Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2020