Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Synth Britannia: The Emergence of British Synth Pop
By James Grahame
The potentially brilliant BBC4 documentary Synth Britannia airs on Friday,
October 16th, 2009:
"In the late Seventies small pockets of electronic
artists such as
The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle were inspired
by Kraftwerk and J G Ballard to dream of the sound of the future
against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
Gary Numan's 1979 appearance on Top Of The Pops heralded the invention of synthpop, which would provide the soundtrack as Britain entered a new, ruthless era in the Eighties.
Depeche Mode, four lads from Basildon, came to embody the new sound, while post-punk bands such as Ultravox, Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Yazoo took the synth from the pages of the NME and onto the front cover of Smash Hits.
By 1983 the Pet Shop Boys and New Order were pointing to where the future of electronic music lay -- in dance."
Featured artists include Phil Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
Synth Britannia [via the Yahoo! Fairlight Group]
