Dark Waves

The Synthesizer and the Dystopian Sound of Britain (1977-80)

Dark Waves cover

Dark Waves

The Synthesizer and the Dystopian Sound of Britain (1977-80)

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Description

Between 1977 and 1980, Britain was a country and culture in flux. The threat of nuclear war, mass unemployment, and strikes made it a particularly gloomy period historically. Within this, a growing number of electronic music acts were using technology and the synthesizer to soundtrack changing times.
Dark Waves: The Synthesizer and the Dystopian Sound of Britain (1977- 80) is the first musicological collection of essays on acts that include Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and The Human League, mapping how the synthesizer spurred toward a fundamental shift in the mechanisms of electronic musicmaking in late 1970s. The volume traces how, along with the musical aesthetics established by both the Punk and Post-Punk movements, the synthesizer led to new and innovative effects, ideas, processes, and musical genres. Dark Waves explores the background, influences, and use of technology and how such developments would result in the more commercial electronically produced sound of 1980s synth pop which, in turn, shaped the sound of electronic music today.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Background - Social and Cultural Influences
Chapter 2: The Rise of the Synthesizer in Popular Music
Chapter 3: Cabaret Voltaire and Dadaism
Chapter 4: Throbbing Gristle and Confrontation
Chapter 5: The Normal and J.G Ballard
Chapter 6: Fad Gadget and Concrete Britain
Chapter 7: Afterwards and Influences
Chapter 8: Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography

Product details

Published Feb 15 2023
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 200
ISBN 9781538165300
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions 229 x 152 mm
Series Popular Musics Matter: Social, Political and Cultural Interventions
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

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