As an eighties kid, synth pop has been pumping in my blood ever since that first day I turned on my MTV. There’s some debate as to who’s considered a synth pop band and who isn’t. For this September Music Twitter challenge – #SynthPopSeptember – I’m focusing more on what’s considered synth pop, not who. The songs I’m featuring on Mental Jukebox this month aren’t solely composed of synthesizers. There may be drums, bass, and dare I say, electric guitars. But each of these songs were picked because the synthesizer is core to its being.
1985 was an absolute banner year for music. Hounds of Love. Brothers in Arms. The Head on the Door. Songs From the Big Chair. Hunting High and Low. No Jacket Required. Psychocandy. Rain Dogs. Meat is Murder. And the list goes on. For a junior high school kid like me, it was a dream. It’s safe to say that my early love for music was significantly shaped by the albums and songs of 1985. Level 42 also made some noise during the same year. They did it with the ubiquitous single, “Something About You”.
Look, I know there’s a pretty sweet guitar solo at the end of the song, but “Something About You” is all about the synthesizers. It’s a synth pop song with some juicy keyboard bits and that badass bass line. The synthesizer hooks us in early, and then uses minimal flourishes to keep things going. But the song is all about the vocals and melody. Maybe this is the greatest compliment I can give this eighties anthem: It’s a song you want to sing along to over and over again.
“Is it so wrong to be human after all?”