The occasion line on 80s pop would have you ever imagine that evolving know-how sucked all of the soul out of the music. In actual fact, the other is true.
The pop sounds of the 80s had been soaked with soulful flavors, even when they had been dwelling alongside synths and drum machines. Apart from the acres of artists from the pop/rock realm whose types had been formed and whose careers had been made with assistance from soul inspiration, there have been loads of R&B acts who crossed over and adopted New Wave/80s Pop touches. Some main figures’ genre-defying sounds straddled each side of the fence.
Take heed to our Greatest 80s Hits playlist right here.
The motion with arguably the largest impression on 80s popular culture within the UK grew from deep soul roots. Because the 70s had been ending, ex-punks Steve Unusual and Rusty Egan kickstarted an underground membership scene, birthing what was finally dubbed the New Romantic revolution. The sounds spun by former Wealthy Children drummer/groundbreaking DJ Egan included 70s R&B and disco alongside Kraftwerk and David Bowie. The scene’s core bands – like Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, and Unusual and Egan’s Visage – had been filled with musicians who flew their “soul boy” flags proudly.
“The only kind of records I’ve ever bought are Black soul records,” Spandau chief Gary Kemp advised Creem’s Iman Lababedi in 1981. In 1980 Unusual enthused to Document Mirror’s Marc Cooper, “At 16 I started going to Wigan Casino [dance parties], the northern soul sessions… I used to travel 300 miles to be there.” Duran Duran’s John Taylor as soon as recalled, “I argued with punks about Chic. I’d say, ‘This shit is f***ing great!’”
The primary flood of New Romantic hits, like Duran Duran’s “Planet Earth,” Spandau’s “To Cut a Long Story Short,” and Visage’s “Fade to Grey,” centered on the funk and disco facets of their influences. However over the following couple of years got here a deluge: ABC’s Motown-indebted The Lexicon of Love, Spandau’s Al Inexperienced-influenced slow-jam smash “True,” and Tradition Membership’s light however world-beating mix of R&B, pop, and reggae on Kissing to Be Intelligent. Data like these would redefine the sound of mainstream pop within the 80s on a worldwide degree.
Early 80s synth-pop was carefully aligned with New Romanticism below the UK press’s catchall time period “futurism.” One of many interval’s most ubiquitous synth-pop blockbusters, Comfortable Cell‘s “Tainted Love,” was a cover of Gloria Jones’ 1965 soul basic. Just about all of The Human League’s largest tunes (“Don’t You Want Me,” “Fascination,” “Mirror Man”) would have been proper at residence on Motown should you swapped the synthesizers and LinnDrum for the Funk Brothers. And two of essentially the most soulful singers to emerge from the period are undeniably Yaz’s Alison Moyet and Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox.
However 80s artists from the rockier finish of the spectrum had been bitten by the soul bug too. Squeeze edged nearer to Memphis than London when new man Paul Carrack took the lead on 1981’s “Tempted,” and bandleaders Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook’s 1984 duo challenge was just about straight-up R&B. Jam frontman Paul Weller’s mod-derived soul roots had been no secret, however in his post-Jam challenge, The Fashion Council, he leaped into the R&B pool with each toes on hits like “Long Hot Summer” and “My Ever Changing Moods.”
On the US facet, Steely Dan had their solely American High 10 tune of the last decade with 1980’s “Hey Nineteen,” in all probability their most overtly R&B-flavored hit. The J. Geils Band had spent the 70s steeped in blues rock, however they earned exponentially extra consideration within the 80s by combining their soul facet with cutting-edge pop manufacturing on tunes like “Freeze Frame,” to not point out making a splash with their recorded-live cowl of The Marvelow’s 1965 “I Do.” The Fabulous Thunderbirds, that includes Stevie Ray Vaughan’s large brother Jimmie on guitar, had been belting out blues rock because the 70s too, however they dented the pop charts with a canopy of Sam & Dave’s randy “Wrap It Up.”
In some instances, America was extra receptive to R&B revamps by British synth poppers than the UK. When Bare Eyes introduced samplers and Simmons drums to their 1983 tackle Lou Johnson’s Bacharach/David-penned single “Always Something There to Remind Me,” the tune was a relative flop in England. Within the US, it grew to become as ubiquitous as spandex and mullets.
There was no scarcity of R&B artists adopting 80s synth-pop/New Wave manufacturing touches both. Rick James earned immortality together with his gloriously sleazy, synth-kissed ode to “the kind of girl you read about in New Wave magazines,” a music so iconic it’s not even needed to call it. “I started out in rock first and only really got into R&B when I joined Motown,” he advised Blues & Soul’s John Abbey in 1982, referencing his mid-‘60s band with Neil Younger, The Mynah Birds.
R&B star Ray Parker, Jr. ended up paying for the pop success of his Ghostbusters theme music with a court docket settlement after it was deemed too much like Huey Lewis & The Information’ “I Want a New Drug.” In 1984 Parker cleverly retorted to Rolling Stone’s Michael Goldberg, “I think both records sound like [M’s 1979 New Wave/proto synth-pop smash] ‘Pop Muzik.’”
Early 80s British R&B teams like Linx and Creativeness earned the appellation Britfunk, however they had been conversant with the pop/rock sphere too. Each Linx’s clean, refined sound and their interviews made it clear they had been Steely Dan followers. Linx’s keyboardist and drummer had helped Hazel O’Connor obtain New Wave fame, and their bassist went on to punk-funk outfit 23 Skidoo.
The manufacturing duo Jolley & Swain, who oversaw Creativeness’s 1981 debut album, are as well-known for intercontinental smashes like Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” and Spandau Ballet’s “True” as the rest. The affect of Creativeness’s Physique Speak was cited by Spandau as an affect on True‘s album manufacturing. Definitely, the effervescent synths on the early Creativeness singles would have match comfortably on any variety of hit-bound pop tunes on the time.
Spandau exemplified the cross-pollination in additional methods than one. The horn part from one other high-profile Britfunk band, Beggar and Co, had been on the core of Spandau Ballet’s edgy, groove-heavy 1981 hit “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On).”
Across the similar time, the Earth, Wind & Fireplace horn part had been throughout Face Worth, the album that made Phil Collins a solo sensation. (His 1982 replace of The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” didn’t harm both). In 1984, Collins partnered with EWF lead singer Philip Bailey on “Easy Lover,” a chart-topper on each side of the Atlantic. In 1982, Heaven 17 offshoot British Electrical Basis turned heads with a surging synth-pop reboot of The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” with Tina Turner up entrance. The eye-getting single reportedly satisfied Capitol Data to snap Turner up, resulting in her mid-80s profession explosion.
After all, sonic omnivores like Prince and Terence Trent D’Arby, who seamlessly blended R&B, pop, and rock influences, are indispensable to the annals of the 80s musical mainstream as effectively. The place would any accounting of the period’s cultural zeitgeist be with out “When Doves Cry,” “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Wishing Well,” et. al?
The know-how allergic reactions of hidebound traditionalists however, the Eighties’ intersection of pop, New Wave, and R&B made waves which might be nonetheless washing over the world at this time.
Take heed to our Greatest 80s Hits playlist right here.
