Reaction to How Synth-Pop Became Synth-Pop!
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Let's check out Trash Theory's deep dive into the origins of synth-pop! Before Are 'Friends' Electric? hit the scene, how did electronic music evolve into the genre we know today? From underground experimentation to mainstream dominance, this is the story of how synth-pop became synth-pop. Join me as I explore the beats, synths, and history behind one of music’s most influential movements!
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Never thought I’d hear Del Shannon, Telstar, and Dr Who all clubbed together in a narrative, and so interesting learning about the brilliance of Delia Derbyshire’s iconic original Dr Who theme.
Delia was incredible, the Delian Mode documentary is superb
@@vaudevillian7 Thanks, I’ll check it out.👍
@@vaudevillian7 She’s a legend !
There was a great BBC documentary called Synth Britannia that’s still out there… (and you should absolutely watch it)
Runaway is one of my favourites
It’s brilliant 😊
Delia = "Dee-lee-uh". Derbyshire = "Dar-bee-shuh".
And she'd a bloody legend. A bona fide genius.
She did sampling but with tape. Record a sound, physically cut the tape in the right place, stick bits of tape together, play it faster or slower on a varispeed.
For the Doctor Who theme, they had tape running down the BBC hallways to unspool it all and then measure out the beats and where the notes should go to cut it all up precisely.
I mean, just hearing about how she created that theme tune - completely manually - and you've got to tip your hat to the lass. That's a supreme effort and requires such skill.
It's funny. When synths became popular, Delia didn't actually like them too much. They came with "presets" and it was all too easy.
(The other thing to consider is not just that she did this... but that she thought of it in the first place. She invented so many techniques. No-one told her to do the Doctor Who theme in that way - which is why the composer Ron Grainer was so shocked and didn't recognise his own theme - but Delia just had this idea in her head and painstakingly made it happen.)
Dr Who theme deserves it's own documentary
Absolutely.
There must be one out there - JJ - react to it!!!
There a documentary about her, and it shows the way she was treated afterwards was not good.
@ericwolff6059 Not good but sadly the way women were treated back then (it's better now but still not as it should be).
You should definitely look more into Delia and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (that Delian Mode documentary they reference is great). She’s absolutely one of my heroes
Yeah, electronic music owes her a lot. She's a legend, way ahead of her time.
In certain circles Delia Derbyshire is a religious icon.
Your background and knowledge make these far more interesting
I Feel Love is one of the greatest songs of all time. Truly groundbreaking.
Sellotape is Scotch Tape essentially - he physically stuck the keys down
That's hilarious, and very innovative, even if it is a little bit Blue Peter (only Brits will get this reference)!!!
Gary Numan to this day is still one of the best show men I have ever seen.
If you ever get the chance in the UK, go and see "TUBEWAY DAYS" a tribute band that sound and look exactly the same.
thanks man. do they have a mental - swivel head guitarist as good as Steve Harris. He really adds to Gary’s show
Example in point … minus a guitar. ua-cam.com/video/ObJB_IcD7U0/v-deo.htmlsi=SBekO1j8ksmrxXO5
Ron Grainer visted my School in Hertfordshire back in '75, for a music lesson talk. I introduced him to Kraftwerk after getting the LP for my birthday a year earlier and had it already in the music block .
Jean-Michel Jarre is the son of Maurice Jarre who won three Academy Awards for Best Original Score for the David Lean films Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India (1984).
Jean-Michel is my favourite ever musician. I have all his albums bar 2. My goosebumps get goosebumps when I listen to his CDs....
I'm a 53 year-old guy and I love synthpop just as much as rock. I grew up with both types of music since my dad was a rock fan and rock music was also highly popular in the 70s, all the older kids in our neighbourhood were huge fans of KISS, Sweet and Queen while at the same time synth-pop became a mainstay on the scene from the early 80s on. I still remember that I had a sampler with Gary Numan between all this disco and rock stuff on it and a few years later the whole pop scene was synthetic.
So what I'm trying to say is: it's all music and either you like it or not, no matter if it's synthetic or not. I grew up with glam rock,hard rock, heavy metal, synth pop, punk rock, post-punk and new wave and I love it all, still to this day.
Throbbing Gristle's 'Hot on the Heels of Love' is brilliant imo.
It really is, definitely has that Tangerine Dream influence - I think Chris Carter was really into them if I remember rightly
You need to look into Joe Meek, a producer whose sound surely was an early influence on some of these artists.
I love Being Boiled, you should definitely listen to the full song 😂
Yeah the really short clips in this really don't do a few of these tracks justice. Being boiled is brilliant.
I think it’s their best song! I’m not really into the poppy stuff
It's interesting how many successful bands people like Midge Ure, Billy Currie, and Vince Clarke were in. An amazing time in music history.
You need to review Gary numan are friends electric and then delve deeper into his work because he is a pioneer of electronic music and influenced many many artists like NIN etc
There's a documentary on UA-cam about how Delia Derbyshire created the Dr. Who theme tune, that is very entertaining. Especially for someone with an audio engineering background, you should really get a kick out of how things used to work back in the 50s/60s before the more modern advancements came around.
You should really listen to Numan's whole catalogue, particularly from his resurgence with 1994's album "Sacrifice" on3ard. There would be no NIN without his music.
Interesting fact about Telstar, by 'The Tornadoes'. The rhythm guitarist for the Tornadoes was a man called George Bellamy . . . His son, Mathew . . . Is the frontman, lead singer and guitarist of a certain band called 'Muse'.
Their song 'Knights of Cydonia' pays homage to the ethereal soundscape of Telstar.
Never knew that, love Telstar
Wow, never knew that. Thanks for sharing.
One of the only people I've seen reacting to trash theory, his documentaries are fascinating
Hey JJ. Ultravox is one of my dave bands. If you listen to their greatest hits album, all the good songs are there. Vienna, Hymn, & All Stood Still are faves of mine.
OMD also had superb songs too. Have a listen to Electricity, Enola Gay, If You Leave.
My fave fact is that Enola Gay was banned by many radio stations in the US because they thought it had something to do with homosexuality 🙄. It's as actually the name of the AMERICAN plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. The pilot named it after his mum. OH, America.🤦🏽
I can't believe that you'd never heard of Jean Michelle Jarre, I thought he was huge everywhere, obviously America was listening to pop rock stuff like Boston.
I remember Jean Michel Jarre from later on when he was doing those amazing laser shows with his synth music. I never knew he went back that far, I'm shocked, as well as being shocked he wasn't at least famous for this in the US.
Also, Bowie's Low is fucking amazing sonically but also for the lines: "Don't look at the carpet. I drew something awful on it. See?" Something quintessentially British about that little scene.
Bowie and Iggy Pop collaborated on 4 albums in 1977, Bowie's Low and Heroes and Iggy's The Idiot and Lust for Life. Not a bad year's work if I say so myself.
JJ, A some album recommendations which I think that you might like for you: "Cabaret Voltaire - The Crackdown",
"Ultravox - Systems of Romance",
"Suicide - Suicide",
"John Foxx - The Garden",
"Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure",
"B.E.F. (British Electric Foundation) - Music for Listening To",
"Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports",
Jean-Michel Jarre - Oxygène",
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless,
"Giorgio Moroder - Son of My Father/Knights in White Satin/From Here to Eternity",
"The Human League - Travelogue/Reproduction",
Kraftwerk - Autobahn".
I think that you'd really enjoy these and they would give you a good foundation of electronic music.
Yeah Bowie collaborated with Eno on the Berlin Trilogy - Low is one of my favourite albums, love that sound
I love the theremin. In the hands of a master (not me), it's such a wonderful instrument.
Throbbing Gristle are legendary. Their story is completely mental, just pure chaos and absolute genius. 'Are Friends Electric?' is that one tune I can honestly say changed my life. Thank you, Gary. #numan4life
26 years old and a huge electronic music fan
Great reaction!
Loving this channel John, it's been needed for along time. Well done!
43.01...the novels of J. G. Ballard were such an influence to UK music in the late-1970s...and being a working class lad I read them all. It makes me feel very old that you've never heard of Throbbing Gristle...(next you'll be saying that The Beatles were more influential than Pyschic TV).
Jean Michel-Jarre has done some amazing live concerts. His 1986 show in Houston was watched by 1.5 million people and literally used a bunch of skyscrapers as part of his stage set.
Jarre is fantastic. A review of the Houston concert will blow your mind as he uses Houston skyscrapers as part of the staging. 1.3 million turned up to see it.
I don’t believe you’ve never heard of Vienna by Ultravox. Timeless.
Being of similar age to you, I was fortunate that my mom, and dad to lesser degree, embraced the growth of electronic music, especially synth pop and Jean Michelle Jarre and Vangelis - with both having very rock music tastes having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s - which meant I had a very eclectic musical upbringing from them both.
The up shot being that I never really fell into the rock (or bands) or electronic (more so in the late 80’s and early 90’s and the rise of acid house, house, hardcore, etc. I loved and appreciated both sides. I don’t know if anyone else experienced the whole Rocker or Raver thing during the early 90’s? Where I live it reminded me of the whole mods and rockers situation during the 60’s.
That said, I’m still going back to listen to bands in both areas that I missed out on or potentially dismissed at the time. There’s so much music I now appreciate with an older, greyer, and hopefully wiser head. These Trash Theory videos certainly help with this. One of my favourite music channels.
You should definitely indulge in some of these albums featured here and perhaps have a look at two of my favourite bands that blend the organic and electronic perfectly (in my opinion): Ozric Tentacles (I particularly love their 1989 - 1995 line up and albums) and Shpongle.
Delia Derbyshire looked like she was cutting 1/4" and I did that for years working in radio, it's pretty easy given that it isn't studio 2"! Splicing 2" would suck dude, you'd need a steep cutting angle to keep it even vaguely manageable but then the splice crossfade would be awfully short and prone to audibility, especially at 15ips and either way, it'd be a hefty chunk of splice tape bumping over the heads. Ah, nostalgia :) In case you can't tell, very much enjoying this one!
I was at school when Being Boiled came on the radio... It stopped me in my tracks... I still play it today. Give it a go, play it loud 👍
The Jean-Michel Jarre Houston concert was supposed to feature a duet with astronaut Ron McNair to be played from space. He was on board 'Challenger'
Hi JJLA! Pink Floyd were using the looped tape [many yards of tape] for Dark Side Of The Moon before the synthesisers were available. Tubeway Army's Are Friends Electric was wonderful, but they (Gary) never really fulfilled the promise it showed. Nice to hear your personal take on all this. Keep Reacting!
There is a synthesiser museum here in Melbourne at the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio with a large collection of historic old school synths and Moogs! I believe that it is possible to rent them for performances and recording too!!!
kraftwerk, jean michel jarre and depeche mode were the music of me breaking into teenagehood. jean michel jarre is incredible, you should definitely have a wee dabble. Perfect driving music on those good days. Thematic. Huge soundscapes.
Oxygene was my first album. It just came out and was something never heard before. Popcorn by Hot Butter came out in my favourite year, 1972, along with a lot of other great hits. Autobahn was another album I jumped on when I first heard it. Kraftwerk's other hits are favourites too. I feel Love was another goodie. But there's just so much good music it's impossible to list it all. In saying that there was a New Zealand hit from a Wellington based group called The Body Electric with a piece called Pulsing. Ahhhh, so much music over my 65 years, and so many memories.
I’ve seen Gary Numan live twice and he’s incredible as a performer and a musician.
Been listening to john peel on here all day today while playing fishing planet 👌
I never realised how much of a synth pop person I am having almost every album mention in my collection a d regularly playing them.
Now, I'm of to find out more about Silver Apples
Jean-Michel Jarre is a music god. The day in 1988 that my elder brother (then 12) played Jean-Michel's 'Revolutions' album during a car journey gave my spine goosebumps and transformed my whole musical world. I was 11 at the time, and remember the intense 'WOW' Moment that ricocheted through my body as the album began. By Track 2 on the album, my brain circuitry and cerebral chemistry was being rapidly altered as my love of electronic/synth/dance music was being programmed into my brain by one musical masterpiece after another. I was entranced, captivated and utterly blown away by the metaphorical musical boxing punch pinning me to the wall and pummeling my ears into rapturous submission.
By the end of the cassette, all I wanted to do was hear it again and again and again. I'm autistic, so being able to hear something over and over again brings me enormous aural comfort. I feel the same intensity of enjoyment every time, be it the first or 1001st. Every tune vibrant, effervescent, ebullient and exciting. I have all of his albums bar two, and I am also addicted to OMD, Erasure and the Pet Shop Boys. All goosebump generators, along with House, Trance, Techno and Electro.
All thanks to my elder brother! I owe him a huge debt of deep, everlasting gratitude.
I love Blah Blah Cafe from the album Zoolook. Actually, you need to close your eyes with headphones and plan to not be disturbed and listen to the whole album through in one go. It's phenomenal. (30th Anniversary remastering 😍)
and IIRC, The Tornadoes featured the father of Muse's Matt Bellamy... and man, do those early tunes remind me of Sunday mornings and BBC Radio 2. And Ultravox's "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes" still makes me cry like it did way back when. I'm very much a rock guy myself, but this stuff is so quintesstially European that you cannot help hearing this stuff growing up
As a kid in the Eighties, Tangerime Dream seemed to be the soundtrack to everything.
True story. About 25 years ago I was at a dance music festival in the UK. There were about 8 different tents. Kraftwerk were headlining the main tent. The Detroit Techno tent had to close when they were on, because no Detroit Techno DJ wanted to miss Kraftwerk.
There is also a full circle moment as the EDM band Orbital did an excellent cover of the Doctor Who theme as a tribute to the inspirational Delia Derbyshire. Worth a listen, as it’s an improvement on the current TV versions.
Also Gary Numan had 3 albums one after the other that all went to number 1. REPLICAS by Tubeway Army went to number 1 and the single ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC? was from that album, then THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE went to number 1, and the single CARS was from that album, then TELEKON went to number 1 also. This was a period that included 1979 and 1980.
Synth Britanica is a great documentary along the same line as this
I was born in 68 and Jean-Michel Jarre was my first real introduction to synth music in the 70's. (Check out the Houston 200 year celebration concert in 1986 if you want to see something inspirational impressive) The door was truly opened and deeply explored with Vangelis (notably Blade Runner soundtrack) and Tangerine Dream's Robycon. For me these led the way to Kraftwerk Pink Floyd, ELP etc. great stuff!!!
It was Gary Numan that inspired Hip Hop, It wouldn't exist without Gary :)
There is also a pop version of Bach , gave us the greatest TV theme ever. Ski Sunday.
I was surprised that MAGIC FLY by French band SPACE was not mentioned. They got to number 2 in the UK in September 1977 at the same time that OXYGENE pt4 got to number 4 for JEAN MICHEL JARRE.
I remember in the 80s my parents hating songs and bands for that matter that didn't use instruments, actually thinking about it they seemed to not like those that were trying to sound like traditional pop groups but using a drum machine instead of an actual drummer rather than these innovators. By the time haha like Eurythmics, OMD, and Human League became bigger if we easier to accept because the people at least seemed like musicians.
JJ -would love to know more about how you got into being a music engineer, you drop mentions of being one and namedropping famous people and bands you've worked with, would love you to include a bit more when don't these videos, you obviously know your stuff.
You should listen to all of Being Boiled. Also you should watch Synth Britannia, it’s all up here on UA-cam.
Oh god you need to go and listen to Vienna
How exactly are you an audio engineer without seemingly knowing any of this? What do you record, you own farts?
35:04 - Farfisa, not farisa. They're an italian instruments' manufacturer founded in 1946.
Kraftwerk was one of my mums favourites. She bought the single The Model - I was 9 and couldn’t stop playing it. I still love it today.
I had never considered where my love of electronic music actually came from. I just loved the unusual sounds.
But the comments about the British TV theme tunes, starting with 'Dr Who' but continuing throughout the 70s, makes a lot of sense: they were hugely influential.
It also goes a long way to explaining the stark difference between British and American popular music in the 80s.
With some notable exceptions like Michael Jackson and Madonna (who were big into synths), US music sounded and looked old fashioned to me at the time.
Meanwhile on the other side of the ocean, you were aware of the incoming electro-pop on MTV, but preferred the rock and roll you were accustomed to.
Neither of us was wrong.
You should check out The Jan Hammer Group track "Don't You Know"from his 1977 album "Melodies". It was written before Donna Summer's "I Feel Love " and sounds like electron8c dance music from the 90's. Also there are some great rock versions of electronic songs, notably The Rollins Band cover of Suicides "Ghost Rider" and Bauhaus did a great cover of Brian Eno's "Third Uncle"
Oh Lord! I understand Delia Derbyshire is a new name for you- but to hear you mangling it like that is painful! 😂😂 But identifying that she was a genius made up for it!
Loved Tubeway Army / Gary Numan when his" music first appeared- it was so different from anything else around. But saying the listening public "connected with 'Are friends Electric?' little knowing the song was about a robot prostitute from the future" We absolutely did know that? I mean it's there in the lyrics......if you bother listening to them. What a weird thing to say.....
John Peel was a legendary radio disc jockey. He played what other, shallower dj’s wouldn’t.
I still love listening to Kraftwork today
Jean Michelle Jarre performed this huge lights and music extravaganza thing back in the 80's in the Royal Docks, East London (pre regeneration) My sister was one of the local kids selected for the choir. On the night it rained so heavy that hardly anybody showed up and the organisers were going around the estates trying to sell cheap seats but as we could all see it and hear it fro our own homes uptake was minimal at best. I think it ruined him and its sad that, but for the weather, it would have been f*cking awesome
DARBY-SHER....
DERBY is pronoucned DARBY in the UK.
It was the fact that 'Delia' was clearly an unknown name that surprised me. JJ didn't know what to do with that.
You're generalising - it's pronounced "Darby-she-ya" in my part of the UK.
JJ you really need to not keep repeating that John Peel stuff. It's completely incorrect. John Peel played alternative stuff, like punk, and obscure stuff like Ivor Cutler. That's where you would hear the likes of Throbbing Gristle. Some of it became successful after which Peel would tend not to play it.
I believe one of the first Kraftwerk drum machines was a bastardised xxRoland TR-77xx correction ‘Maestro Rhythm King’ wired to ‘tin foil’ esk pads
The 1972 version of Popcorn was all done under Moog, except the drums.
If you've never experienced Kraftwerk's Autobahn, you owe it to yourself. Pure musical genius.I first heard in in the late 70's, maybe '79 or '79 and it rocked my world [no pun intended]. Then I learned of Tangerine Dream in the [very] early 80's was completely hooked.
Love the reaction. I grew up on lots of music. Have you looked into how MIDI came about?
The Shinng is a stunning OST.
You could probably calculate the £2.50 off the electric meter ;)
Yep. Delia Derbyshire was an utter genius.
Should have started with the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet and Electronic Tonalities. NICE
OMD. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
What a great band.
I have all of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre's work. One video to react to would be JMJ's Lyon/Houston Rendezvous ones. It is on YT. I remember having it on my walkman when I caught the bus back in the late '80s.
I bust out laughing at, “and even some bands that didn’t feature Vince Clark” 😅😅
Fun fact: my mum listened to Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene constantly while she was pregnant and that explains... pretty much everything about me.
I'm surprised he didn't mention Jean-Jacques Perrey from the 60s and 70s.
There’s loads of musique concrete that got missed as well but I guess there’s only so much to cover
JJP is amazing!
I’d suggest diving into some 70’s British Prog Rock to bridge the gap with synths. Tony Banks from Genesis is a melodic genius.
The problem is a 3 second clip of a song isn't really enough to get a true feeling for it.
Yes- in this documentary that really felt a problem. These types of tracks need hearing in longer bursts to even get an idea of what is going on.
100% - way too short to get a feel for most of those songs
That gal invented all electric music, not just British electro.
One could argue that Kraftwerk and the Beatles are the two most influential bands ever.
Low by Bowie is a brilliant album.
I always thought Ultravox were a bit dreary...but at least Midge Ure could sing a bit better than Foxx.
Vince Clark is probably more well known for success with Erasure than Depeche Mode...5 UK Number 1 albums and 15 Top Ten singles.
To be fair, Clarke wrote Depeche Mode's first hit single "Just Can't Get Enough."
OMDs best track for me was "Forever live and Die"
that was a great video, and aye, loved your reaction. so much good stuff in there that yes all collated to get us right up to the nineties (and beyond) however most of todays music just lacks.
Definitely look into Delia Derbyshire more!
Hi, great reaction, cheers. if you want a deeper dive (and a further reaction) in understanding the early synth music and bands in the UK, 'Synth Britannia' is available in its entirety on YT. A BBC documentary (covering 1977-81) and part of the 'Britannia' series (Prog, Metal, Jazz, Folk, Pop, Dance see below), similar concept to Thrash Theory but with more music and interviews from the people you see here.
Synth www.UA-cam.com/watch?v=1lVljmH0yUw
Metal www.UA-cam.com/watch?v=SSR5UQ_Kr1Y
Psychedelic www.UA-cam.com/watch?v=RWKfV7jbUJE&t=1949s
Punk pt1 www.UA-cam.com/watch?v=pB2mTW_61m0
Punk pt2 ua-cam.com/video/3EkUA8treKk/v-deo.html
Punk pt3 ua-cam.com/video/CB_hfteQAHM/v-deo.html
Like others have said check out Synth Britannia which is on UA-cam. It's very good and is a great companion to this.
It's a great video but for some reason he doesn't mention Yellow Magic Orchestra. Well worth checking out 'Raydeen' by them, it's mind boggling and also from 1979. I definitely agree with you about Kraftwerk, they're really charming. 'The model' is a good place to start, but you can't go wrong with most of their stuff. The man machine and Computer world are probably the most accessable. Bowie's Low is also one of my favourite albums as mentioned in the comment currently below mine. The first half is Bowie in coke withdrawal mode, it's resigned and frustrated but optimistic at the same time. The second half is the Brian Eno side, which has the incredible 'Warsawa' on it. Overall it's an amazing album, my Bowie album by a mile. Incidentally Bowie was living with Iggy pop in Berlin at this point, and I can't help picturing Iggy in leather trousers doing the washing up and grilling some bratwursts for tea.
Sisters with Transistors! - *The most British shit after Fred Dibna.
Kraftwerk are definitely worth a listen.
Not just as influential pioneers, which they were, but because their music was influenced by American culture, so there is a hint of funk syncopation in there. Their beats owe more to jazz and funk and rock, underlying it, even if it's all produced coldly by machine. There is a hint of "humanity" in there, for sure.
And, indeed, the big claim-to-fame is that the influence travelled back across the Pond, and Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" is basically rapping over a sample of a Kraftwerk beat... and it's credited by many as being the origins of hip hop.
So Kraftwerk were influenced by black music from America, and then it came home again, as the roots of hip hop.
For once, a YT Video that was really interesting, even though I lived through all of it