Ridley Scott’s 1982 Cyberpunk film-noir adaptation of the 1968 Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? changed science fiction forever. Similarly to how Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey had done previously, and how later The Matrix would, the genre could never be the same after Blade Runner.
This article was originally published back in 2015. As with other well-read posts on this site, I’m trying to revisit some to tidy up some of the writing and audio and generally make them a little more professional.
Continuing in our series looking at at each year from the decade that shaped electronic music perhaps more than any other, we arrive at 1983, a huge year not only in terms of albums and singles released but also in terms of technology.
Back with another “the year is…” and this time we’re taking a look at 1982. Some of the biggest songs of 1982 include Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners (and apparently the Emerald Express, who I always forget about) and Men at Work’s Down Under.
Continuing with the series, today we take a look at the year that was 1981. Here’s a playlist of some interesting tracks:
A lot of fantastic albums released in 1981, including Prince’s Controversy, Chaka Khan’s What Cha’ Gonna Do for Me, Kraftwerk’s Computer World, Nightclubbing (Grace Jones), an eponymous album from The Time (also Prince produced), Devo’s New Traditionalists, Kool & The Gang’s Something Special, Ghost in the Machine by The Police, For Those About to Rock We Salute You by AC/DC and the much sampled Tom Tom Club.
As part of a module I’m teaching at the moment I’m compiling Spotify playlists for a range of different time signatures. As the vast majority of popular music including dance/EDM, hip hop, rock, pop, soul, country etc is in 4/4 time, it can often be tricky for people to compile examples of a range of different time signatures.
Nothing is more synonymous with Hip Hop than the sampler – a cornerstone on which Hip Hop is built. Without Kool Herc’s beat juggling of “breaks” from Soul, Disco, Jazz and Funk records there would be no Hip Hop and none of the countless breakbeat inspired genres that spawned off the back off its legacy.
It’s not controversial to say that the 1980s was an utterly transformative decade in music. Over the next how-ever-long it takes me I want to chronicle some of the music, year by year, that means something to me from a truly iconic decade.
Taken from their 1974 Light of Worlds album, Summer Madness is perhaps one of Kool and the Gang’s coolest tracks in a slew of well known dancefloor fillers.
The Fat of the Land was the Prodigy’s third album, and a huge commercial success. Released in 1997, I still remember buying it on cassette and taking it home to listen to for the first time (there were no leaks or previews in those days!)