The Only 1983 Playlist that Matters: Synthetic Pop Pleasures

You can’t talk about 1983 without talking about Eurythmics, who bookended the year with two big hit LPs Sweet Dreams and Touch. Their sound wasn’t anything new for the genre but was certainly a bracing shock to be hearing on Top 40 radio at the time.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart had been kicking around the music scene since the mid-70s and had formed a mediocre Blondie knockoff called The Tourists towards the end of the decade. They scored a couple minor UK hits then reformed as Eurythmics. Their first album was mostly standard-issue guitar-driven new wave art rock, but their second saw the two dive headfirst into synthpop. And then the gods smiled on them with a string of hits for the rest of the decade.

I’m not a fan per se, but love this shit (as well as their insanely-overlooked 1984 LP). And I have to say that you can really get a sense of how eye-wateringly beautiful Annie Lennox was when she femmed up. Holy elfin’ crap.

A SEQUENCER OF EVENTS

Synthpop had been kicking around as long as synthesizers had, but it usually leaned more into the novelty end of the spectrum. Reliable synths were prohibitively expensive and not even that reliable. And as such, they were predominantly seen as the playthings of prog bands with public school pedigrees.

Some see Giorgio Moroder’s epic 1975 collaboration with Donna Summer “I Feel Love” as the earliest exemplar as the form, but I’d also nominate Gary Wright’s The Dream Weaver LP as a prototype for the Synthpop genre as it came to be known. You just didn't hear synths as the primary musical instruments on AM radio then. Wright’s musical reference points lean more towards traditional R&B than Eurodisco, but he also serves up quite a lot of ethereal atmospherics as well. 

And to cap it off Wright wears makeup on the LP cover, not unlike another Gary who’d soon come along and set out the basic parameters of the 80s variant a few years later.

Kraftwerk were the elder statesmen of synthpop, and were pretty much universally respected within the genre. They’d also exert a big influence on the embryonic hip-hop and electro movements stateside. Happily, they popped up in ’83 to show the mascara’d minions how it was done with this catchy little toe-tapper.

Gary Numan kicked off the synthpop stampede back in '79 with his epochal ‘Are Friends Electric,' but was more ancient-than-ancient history by 1983. His post-Pleasure Principle/Telekon 80s work has its defenders, but I can’t say I’m one of them. 

The Warriors album was originally produced by Bill Nelson and it sounds it, even though Numan fired him halfway through the sessions. I don’t know who mixed this shit but it’s almost like an Mi6 experiment to discover which combinations of sonic frequencies are most likely to induce vomiting. Probably would have been a halfway decent track with a proper mix. 

Numan didn’t help his cause with his widely-ridiculed Mad Max cosplay.

The new-model Human League were still riding high in ’83 with their Motown-inflected singles “Fascination” and “Mirror Man.” This one is apparently about Adam Ant, whose precarious mental state Philip Oakley was reportedly worried about. I can take or (mostly) leave this lot, but this has a nice nostalgic vibe nonetheless.

The original League were Oakley and this trio, who split off into the British Electronic Foundation, later renamed 'Heaven 17' after an outfit mentioned in A Clockwork Orange. 

The music video for it seems to have been scrubbed off the ‘Net but this song really captures this strange sensation I got around the time of memory flashes from a different reality. It was the damndest thing and every time I try to nail it down it evaporates. But certain songs — this, “African and White,” and “A Perfect Way,” among others — really hit the vibe for some inexplicable reason.

Depeche Mode kept plugging away following the exit of primary songwriter Vince Clarke in 1981, and kept scoring moderate UK hits but no one was really paying them much attention. They seemed to be a scene unto themself, at least the way it seemed at the time. Which was a blessing in disguise since the Modies were free to follow the muse where it lead them. And by the end of the decade their muse would lead them to the promised land of gold and platinum.

Vince Clarke’s Yaz/Yazoo were on their last microchips by ’83 but still had a classic single to unleash on an unsuspecting populace. Allison Moyet would soon go solo and Clarke would go out and hire a guy who pretty much sounded exactly like her and carry on as Erasure. 

See? Everybody wins.

The basic duo was the dominant template for UK synthpop and these chaps made a splash with this tune, which I thought was the Simple Minds first few times I heard it. This was their peak chart wise, and I pretty much loathed everything that followed. So maybe it’s not the best idea to name your band after a dessert.

THE SYNTHETIC BANDWAGON

If you took music seriously in the early 80s you were reflexively inclined to regard any New Wave band coming out of LA with very deep suspicion. You often had a weird mix of leftover 70s musos teaming up with strippers and porno starlets (or at least it seemed that way) and generally exuding a cloud of insincerity and opportunism. Plus, the playing was too slick and the faces too pretty to come off as genuine freak music. 

Of course, it’s not like some of these outfits couldn’t throw out a decent single now and then.

Case in point: Missing Persons was a very strange little proposition, boasting an all-star lineup of former Zappa sidemen with shit-hot chops and a freaky porno princess who was married at the time to the drummer. They ran out of creative juice fairly quickly, but not before flinging some classic singles like ‘Mental Hopscotch,’ ‘Words,’ and this ’83 stormer.

Said porno princess — Dale Bozzio — would soon have a lot of her thunder stolen by an East Coast variant on the template who leaned more into disco, despite dressing the way all the little punkettes in the East Village were at the time. Some years later a next-generation variant who dubbed herself Lady Gaga would raid both Bozzio and Madonna’s tool-kit for “inspiration.”

Bonus factoid: Missing Persons actually boasted two nudie models. Guitarist Warren Cuccurolo got into bodybuilding after leaving Duran Duran and did some porno pin-ups of his own. Considering what the guy was packing, I can't rightly blame him for wanting to show it off.

Another porno princess hooked up with a pack of LA poseurs and called themselves Berlin. I’ve actually got an interesting story about this one, even though I think the song itself is very stinky.. 

So, one fine 1983 afternoon, my buddy Gregg and I were walking to the T station on our way into town (meaning Boston, for non-locals). Suddenly a convertible pulled up with this very, very attractive young lady at the wheel, who was blasting this very song. She goes, “Hey, you guys get high? I’m dying for some weed. Wanna get high with me?” 

Both Gregg and I were stunned by this turn of events but instinctively realized this was way too good to be true and demurred. On account of having grown up in Braintree, you see.

Which was good, because I’m sure that encounter would have ultimately ended up with us hogtied and ball-gagged in some sex dungeon in the middle of nowhere. 

Bonus factoid: Terri Nunn was/is a big Cocteau Twins fan. 

A patron suggested this outfit, who I hadn’t heard of. It’s a nice variant on the template in question, and that bouncy little pixie at the mic exudes potent proto-Gwen Stefani energy and boasts a striking set of BFEs. Kind of like an early prototype for Republica and the like.

On the artier end of the synthpop spectrum sits this lost classic, which bottled and preserved that weird elusive 1983 vibration as well as anything else. One of those songs that received scant attention at the time but grew in stature as it was rediscovered by music nerds.

First-wave punk hero Paul Weller split up The Jam to form The Style Council. They mostly traded in fake R&B but managed to squeak through this catchy little chunk of fake synthpop. 

Seeing how many synthpopsters played footsy with disco, it’s only natural that disco would respond in kind. This classic single made use of the nascent sampling technology coming out of Japan and coupled it with an ear worm of a tune and an impassioned vocal. 

I lost count of how many Madonna songs copied Shannon's formula. Not because there was an infinite amount, mind you, but because I don’t give two shits about Madonna. Except when she was dressing like a cute punkette. 

Sigh.

COPY AND PASTE

Back in the late 70s you had a spate of songs try to copy the distinctive chords of The Doobie Brothers’ smasheroo “What a Fool Believes.” Which is only fair considering Michael McDonald lifted them from the Captain and Tennille in the first place. Or if you want to get really rock-nerdy about it, from Neil Sedaka.

Similarly you had synthpop bands serving up variations of the distinctive opening riff of 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' for their little boppers. 

Real Life is one, with this quasi-goth mope-pop classic.

Canuckistanian pretty-boy Corey Hart is another with 'Sunglasses at Night.' There are others that aren’t coming to my frazzled mind yet, so please drop your examples in the comments.

'83 SKIDOO

Luckily for '83-lovers there’s been a tsunami of bands keeping the flames burning. One prime example is Timecop1983, who I've yet to hear a bad record from.

Another is M83, whom most of you are probably familiar with. That riff is kind of like the 'Sweet Dreams' riff played sideways. I love this video so much it hurts. 

Youth is wasted on the young.

And then of course there’s the sublime Drab Majesty, whose LP The Demonstration comes with the highest possible recommendation. I give it six suns out of six. 

And mother of fuck; that chord sequence after the bridge. I’m pretty sure it opened a portal somewhere. I'll have to check my equations.

I’m certain I’ve overlooked quite a lot of prime pickings from the '83 cornucopia of synthery. What are some of your examples? Drop wisdom in the comments.

NEXT: THE (MAINSTREAM) EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

Come enroll at the Secret Sun Institute of Advanced Synchromysticism. We'll be doing some primo '83-diving there in the coming weeks.

Don't forget: the legendary Secret Sun Facebook group is back in action, after a three year hiatus.

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