Last week a new study was released claiming there have only been three true pop music revolutions between 1960 and 2010: The British Invasion of 1964, the saturation of electronic pop in 1983, and the prevalence of hip-hop in 1991. The seeds of that middle revolution is now the subject of a proposed book by author David Laurie, and a Kickstarter has been launched to help fun it.
Titled Dare, which we assume is a nod to Human League’s 1981 album, will analyze the rise of synth-pop and electronic pop as a mainstream force by focusing on its early years of 1979 to 1982.
“The unprecedented genius of The Human League, New Order, Simple Minds, ABC, OMD, The Cure, Japan, Duran, Depeche Mode et al achieved what Punk had failed to,” Laurie writes. “A massively successful and largely British musical revolution, packed with freaks and weirdos that redrew the generation gap and took Pop on a much needed quantum leap into the future.”
Laurie is an industry veteran who runs independent label Something In Construction, which, as The Line Of Best Fit notes, “has released noises by Air France, Memory Tapes, Loney Dear and more. During his time in music, Laurie has also been, or remains, a music journalist, A&R, marketer, manager and more.”
Here’s a bit more of the Dare Kickstarter bio…
DARE focusses on 1979-1982 and takes a look back to the dizzying excitement of this time in Pop Music.
After the endless drab and grey of the 70s – microchips were suddenly everywhere: in the home, on your wrist and powering the Synthesizers that changed everything in Pop.
The Top Twenty filled up with all kinds of weird and wonderful hits, week after week. Each new Smash Hits and the Top Of The Pops was an unmissable feast for the eyes and ears.
It really felt like the sci-fi future was finally arriving.
A handful of ambitious electronic albums from David Bowie and Kraftwerk in the late Seventies, coupled with newly affordable computer technology, forever changed what it meant to be “In A Band” and taught Pop Music a whole new language.
This is the tale of how Synthpop rendered Rock’n’Roll redundant almost overnight and how Britain fell in love with the Bleep.
Currently, the Kickstarter has raised nearly $2,000 of its proposed $3,200 goal, which will be used to fund a print edition’s first run. Laurie’s states that the book has already been written, and in the Kickstarter page has detailed each chapter, including titles like “HEROES” 1974-1978: The Back Story Of Modern Pop Music., and TEMPTATION 1981-1982: Funk Gets Serious, Disco Is Exhumed. How Synthpop, Funk and Disco hypnotised all the cool guitar bands .
Here’s Human League’s Dare for additional inspiration…