Just watched this on BBC iPlayer (as I was watching Benidorm on Friday night) and what a great documentary!
It was about..... hmmmm lets let the BBC describe it ;)
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including the Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Volatire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard and dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are Friends Electric heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of the NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.
By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.
Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
Broadcast on:
BBC Four, 12:20am Saturday 17th October 2009
Duration:
90 minutes
Available until:
10:29pm Friday 23rd October 2009
If you don't like using iPlayer it's on again on BBC4 tonight at 23:40 followed by 'Synth Britannia At The BBC' which is an hour of all the old synth bands of that era playing live on various BBC shows like '(Old grey) Whistle Test', TOTP etc. I'd highly recommend both shows if you've got the time to sit and watch them (2 1/2 hours in total) it was great to learn a bit more about the reasons and coming together of the bands I love to listen to.
Just watched this on BBC iPlayer (as I was watching Benidorm on Friday night) and what a great documentary!
It was about..... hmmmm lets let the BBC describe it ;)
If you don't like using iPlayer it's on again on BBC4 tonight at 23:40 followed by 'Synth Britannia At The BBC' which is an hour of all the old synth bands of that era playing live on various BBC shows like '(Old grey) Whistle Test', TOTP etc. I'd highly recommend both shows if you've got the time to sit and watch them (2 1/2 hours in total) it was great to learn a bit more about the reasons and coming together of the bands I love to listen to.