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Before Are “Friends” Electric?: How Synth-Pop Became Synth-Pop

Trash Theory | February 3, 2025



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A vision of the future that never properly arrived, Synth-pop was an ever present staple of the British charts in the 1980s. A canny fusion of pop-suss and technological invention, its height reflected the increased affordability of commercial synthesizers from the late 1970s onward. But that doesn’t mean that the likes of The Human League, Ultravox, OMD and Gary Numan were the first to splice synths and pop together. So who were the pioneers? What were the essential steps along the way, the key tracks and influencers? And how did we get to the point where “Are “Friends” Electric” got to number one? This is how Synth-pop became Synth-pop.

#GaryNuman #Synthpop #MusicDocumentary

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Soundtrack:
Luar – Citrine (https://soundcloud.com/luarbeats)
B-Side – Pen Unubis
Jesse Gallagher – The Golden Present
Luar – Anchor (https://soundcloud.com/luarbeats)

0:00 Introduction
02:12 Del Shannon
03:18 Delia Derbyshire
05:26 1968
08:14 Wendy Carlos
10:46 Popcorn
12:38 Roxy Music & Brian Eno
15:06 Kraftwerk
17:50 Jean-Michel Jarre
19:54 David Bowie
22:10 I Feel Love
24:26 That New York Synth Band
26:01 Ultravox!
28:19 The Human League
30:05 Warm Leatherette
31:45 OMD
33:10 Gary Numan & Tubeway Army

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Written by Trash Theory

Comments

This post currently has 22 comments.

  1. @Gk2003m

    February 3, 2025 at 11:35 pm

    Isn’t it strange. Prog was glossed over, yet in 1973 ELP utilized Moogs along with one of the first ever electronic drum sets. Yes, Deep Purple and ELP were some of the powerful (and massively popular at that time) utilizing synths in live performance.

  2. @markleaman8313

    February 3, 2025 at 11:35 pm

    You did a good job listing all of the early synth groups, however ,you missed 1, the canadian synth group from 1970 called "Syrinx, they created a theme song for the then tv show called "here comes the 70s"!

  3. @elliotf1029

    February 3, 2025 at 11:35 pm

    this would be such a different video if your scope wasn’t near-exclusively limited to white and/or european artists. since that is your clear focus, and you’re talking like some sort of expert, you’re doing a disservice to viewers on this platform and perpetuating misinfo-by-omission, flatly erasing the achievements of POC

    “trash theory” is spot-on. wish you would just delete this one

  4. @flinthelm-v1c

    February 3, 2025 at 11:35 pm

    A few you missed. Daily Nightly" by The Monkees is considered the first known pop recording to use a synthesizer ,the stones 2000 light years from home and you missed out the work of Tristan Carey forgotten contemporary of Moog. who produced music for Quatermass and also sounds for dr who. Bruce huck electric lucifer Jean-Jacques Perrey the in sound from way out 'loather and the hand people' Space Hymn and 50ft hose Cauldron two albums that who also pioneered synthesizers, .the hellers use of synth on their fantastic LP singers talkers and players the silicone teens later 70s mute pre- depeche mode synth pop

  5. @ianmeredith7969

    February 3, 2025 at 11:35 pm

    Great video. I'd have to say like Bowie, Gary has created a wide range of albums wherein not all were great. The most lomg lasting from a critical position are perhaps the most challenging, exactly like with Bowie. Ziggy will always be more popular than Low but Low is the superior work of art.

    Early Numan is defined by Pleasure Principle but I wonder how many who cite that actually listen to it?

    I think Telekon infinitely superior , but then despite the first of a number of image changes that unlike those of Bowie, I felt were increasingly alienating to his fans, I believe Dance was a fake changer. It is often ignored but of all Nuksns work and in collaboration with Japan's Mick Karn, I think it Numan's most pure Art house albums. It remains a favourite of that era… And then everything went to hell bar a few exceptional singles mot least that of the lyric "I'm back and I'm proven, I was down and ashamed'" but while the end of that statement is the disarming honesty of Gary, the claim to be back was at that pont beyond optimistic. How shocking then the game changer – Sacrifice.

    It changed everything. I am not going to say it was down to buying an Alesis Quadrasynth plus Piano of which I have two but that his wife, Gemma, said… If you are not succeeding stop trying to be ever more like the current successes because they are not you… Just be you, make music YOU like… And the result was a return to everything we adore about Numan.

    I am still shocked to have read recently that Gary actively sought to suppress his lyric on much of his recordings, lacking confidence in his voice. It took his producer to tell him, I am convinced with a baffled look "Gary your unique vocal with its interesting breaks is absolutely the most signature element of your music and precisely what drives your appreciators.

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