A documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesizer 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.
39 Comments
eric3579Why not use the playlist embed? Much easier for us to watch.
volumptuousBest synthesizer music documentary ever. Some of the footage here is just amazing.
paul4dirt*quality
siftbotBoosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by paul4dirt.
siftbotMoving this video to SlipperyPete's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.
SlipperyPetegotta *beg for this?
siftbotSending this video to Beggar's Canyon to plea for a little attention - beg requested by original submitter SlipperyPete.
Clumsysays...I wish I could upvote twice, fantastic, although the second to last video was region locked for some reason.
lavoll*promote
siftbotPromoting this video back to the front page; last published Sunday, November 29th, 2009 3:12am PST - promote requested by lavoll.
ant1.25 minutes trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNiGnTSrL5o
antPart 9 gave me "This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions.".
And YouTube comments said the same too!
SlipperyPeteweird... 1/10th *blocked, I guess
siftbotThis video has been flagged as having an embed that is Region Blocked to not function in certain geographical locations - declared blocked by SlipperyPete.
DrivelsAdvocateI would have thought that Brian Eno deserved more than a cursory mention, but, apparently not. Quality stuff, nonetheless.
westygood post, well made documentary
Stingray*electronica
siftbotAdding video to channels (Electronica) - requested by Stingray.
Eklek*dead
replacement:
http://vimeo.com/10389458
siftbotThis video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by Eklek.
siftbotThe thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by Barseps.
eric3579*dead
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Grimm*backup=[...snipped...]
siftbotAdded alternate embed code for this video - backup requested by Grimm.
Grimm*backup
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siftbotReplaced video embed code with backup #7325 (supplied by member Grimm) - embed replaced by member Grimm.
chingaleraDude, I think the site is whack right now...I can't even search on you tube right now
*backup
chingalera*backup=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVljmH0yUw
chingalera*dead again
siftbotAutomatically replaced video embed code with backup #7291 (supplied by member Grimm) - video declared dead by member chingalera.
chicchorea*dead
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Grimm*backup
siftbotAdded alternate embed code for this video - backup requested by Grimm.
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Grimm*notdead
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