Listening to the Music the Machines Make : Inventing Electronic Pop 1978-1983 (Paperback) - Richard Evans

Setting out to chart a unique chapter in the history of popular music, Listening To The Music The Machines Make tells the story of a single generation of post-punk musicians, mavericks, visionaries and opportunists tinkering with primitive synthesisers in bedrooms, bedsits and basements around Britain, who assembled a potent cocktail of ideas and influences, took them apart, mixed them up, and reassembled them in entirely new ways to create a genuine golden age of British pop, and along the way creating some of the most enduring, iconic and influential records in pop history.

Krautrock provided a new sonic landscape, a bright post-war sound that echoed the technological advancements and ambitions of the day; glam rock provided colour, androgyny, glitter, glamour and a new type of pop star; disco supplied a spirit of hedonism and celebration, a glossy dance-floor sensibility, and an emerging remix and production culture; and punk rock enabled everything by rejecting previously held beliefs about talent and virtuosity, and providing a DIY attitude, a rebellious backbone and an embryonic infrastructure.

Drawing from years of extensive research, as well as from conversations with many of the movement’s key movers and shakers, Listening To The Music The Machines Make sets out to examine the multitude of influences that led to the synthpop revolution that spanned 1978 to 1983; tell the definitive story of a true golden age of British pop through the careers, releases and stories of the movement’s pioneers, mavericks and superstars; and explores the era’s lasting musical impact and enduring influence, including it’s role in the development of hip-hop, house, techno and beyond.