OT - pop synth music

[bkeane1259]

So this week my 17 year old asked me for some pop music from the 70's and 80's that is heavy on old school synthesizers.

No problem, I said, sort of shaking my head. So I threw together (without much thought) a small playlist for him and he actually likes a lot of the tracks!! Don't get me wrong; he's got a very diverse taste for music but the synthesizer thing is just a temporary kick, I'm sure.

I thought I'd go ahead and share the playlist, but I'd like to ask for some collaboration, to expand the playlist. So maybe if you listen to some of this stuff and it rattles your memory, you can throw some more suggestions my way. Thanks!!

[Sydney]

Looks like you are after particular tracks vs bands that used synth...
Like Yes, Gentle Giant, Isao Tomita, Mike Quattro, Manfred Mann's Earth Band

[bkeane1259]

Looks like you are after particular tracks vs bands that used synth...
Like Yes, Gentle Giant, Isao Tomita, Mike Quattro, Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Not at all....sorry if my playlist is misleading because of the file names, but I did include YES and MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND...thanks for the others!!

[Sydney]

Not at all....sorry if my playlist is misleading because of the file names, but I did include YES and MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND...thanks for the others!!

A lot of 70's bands used synth. to one degree or another.
Gary Wright comes to mind.
Saw FZ's band use it a lot back then.
It's not rock but include W Carlos.
( I was hugely into electronic music in the 70's, used a MiniMoog as a basis for a college paper on Fourier Synthesis, and built VCA, VCF, VCO circuits etc and programmed sequencers )

[jclin4]

I'll just add a couple of German pop bands from the 70's which were original techno:
* Tangerine Dream
* Kraftwerk

[jerryanderson]

Thomas Dolby's "Golden Age Of Wireless"! Lots of Synth...

[rhubarb9999]

No Prince ?!?!?! 1999 or Let's Get Crazy

Van Halen - Jump (probably the most famous 'synth' line ever)

[Dean1000]

First thought that came to mind was some Emerson, Lake & Palmer. But, I see you have "Lucky Man".

[bendaniels]

Pretty much anything from RUSH's Power Windows would qualify.

EDIT: Oops. Well, it would qualify on the synths, but less so on the pop. Just tell him that everybody was listening to this in '85.

[john trials]

Gary Numan

[MagicO309d]

I'll just add a couple of German pop bands from the 70's which were original techno:
* Tangerine Dream
* Kraftwerk

Don't forget:

La Düsseldorf
Amon Duul
Can
Neu!

1970's Neu! and Kraftwerk may be the mother culture, "The Robots" and "Isi" from those bands respectively are a good starting point. "Radioactivity" by Kraftwerk is very interesting and extra relevant today because of the recent disaster.

[jclin4]

Don't forget:

La Düsseldorf
Amon Duul
Can
Neu!

1970's Neu! and Kraftwerk may be the mother culture, "The Robots" and "Isi" from those bands respectively are a good starting point. "Radioactivity" by Kraftwerk is very interesting and extra relevant today because of the recent disaster.

Cool, I didn't know about these bands.

Gary Numan

Also along the same lines, I would add:

* Ultravox
* Depeche Mode
* Yaz/Yazoo (Alison Moyet)

[kornphlake]

Depeche Mode and Erasure were the two groups that came to mind first. They may be on the list already, I'm not a really big fan of either and wouldn't recognize their music from the file name only.

[emrliquidlife]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing the list. Wish there was band name info on the song titles too.

I'd include Book of Love for Pop heavy Synth lines.

[Frank]

A little more on the funkier side of pop, there's "Flashlight" from Parliament, with Bernie Worrell on plenty of Moog synths.

[Mikers]

Haha, "Whip It"! I was at an '80's party a month ago where someone was dressed like Divo on this video. too funny

So this week my 17 year old asked me for some pop music from the 70's and 80's that is heavy on old school synthesizers.

No problem, I said, sort of shaking my head. So I threw together (without much thought) a small playlist for him and he actually likes a lot of the tracks!! Don't get me wrong; he's got a very diverse taste for music but the synthesizer thing is just a temporary kick, I'm sure.

I thought I'd go ahead and share the playlist, but I'd like to ask for some collaboration, to expand the playlist. So maybe if you listen to some of this stuff and it rattles your memory, you can throw some more suggestions my way. Thanks!!

[bkeane1259]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing the list. Wish there was band name info on the song titles too.

I'd include Book of Love for Pop heavy Synth lines.

If you do a download, all the songs are properly tagged.

[CJB67]

+1 on Ultravox. Can't forget about DEVO and Electric Light Orchestra.
The Cars, B-52's, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads....the list is literally endless. If you can find Toy Matinee they were fun and well recorded. -CJB

[bkeane1259]

Awesome suggestions guys.... many thanks. Believe it or not I'm still cleaning up a relative's PC .......sort of derailed me so far this weekend..... Keep the suggestions rolling!!!!