Professor Eddy

Pexels Enjoy the Billboard Dance/Disco Top 20 from 20 to 1, dated on May 12, 1984! The name of this chart is a bit misleading, though, For instance, the tracks by new wave/electro pop bands Culture Club, Wang Chung and Talk Talk on this chart cannot be categorized as dance or disco. A better name for this hit list would have been “Disco, New Wave & Electro” chart.  The electro artists certainly dominated this week’s top 20 in 1984. Personally I love that specific mid-eighties sound, but it is hard to discover any other instruments than keyboards, synthesizers and electronic drums. So aren't there any guitars in it at all? Oh yes there are, exactly 18 seconds into this mix you hear the first one, a fantastic guitar solo in the intro of Laura Branigan’s Self Control . Luckily there are some others great guitar solos on this chart as well. Just check out Coming Out Of Hiding by Pamela Stanley! Tracklist: Laura Branigan – Self Control Womack & Womack – Baby, I’m Scared Of ...

Pexels I like that upbeat, electronic eighties pop sound a lot and that’s what I wanted to catch in this new part of my imaginary station Sunshine Radio . I used some authentic jingles and air checks to recreate the feeling of the decade. The Calypso Drip FM intro is from an album about a fantasy station with the same name by retro wave artist Gryff. Enjoy! "I knew I wanted a project that reminded me of radio stations of decades past... especially the type you would have on GTA: Vice City. The accessibility and discovery of lost music to the new generation deeply resonates with me." (Gryff) Paris Is One Day Away by British band The Mood stalled at number 42 on the UK singles chart in 1982. Two places higher might have got them a slot on Top Of The Pops and might have catapulted these three good looking guys to world fame, but they did not have the same luck as Wham! Their Young Guns (Go For It) sold badly upon its initial release in November 1982, reaching just number 42 as...

Unsplash We all fade to grey, that is what this mixtape is all about! 😊 The tracks by Plastic Estate and Reeve Stimpson are brand new, but they recapture the 'new pop' sound of the eighties wonderfully. You have to watch Reeve Stimpson’s accompanying video on YouTube as well. The songs by Weekend and Chas Jankel are from the compilation Heaven Sent - The Rise Of New Pop 1979-1983 . The term ‘new pop’ was coined by NME journalist and co-founder of record label ZTT, Paul Morley. According to him it was any forward-thinking British music of the early 1980s that was anti-establishment in outlook and not ‘rockist’ (macho men with guitars) or clearly punky. I broadened his definition a little bit by adding some eighties (and new!) indie pop that sounds exactly like the music that Paul Morley originally had in mind. Peter Godwin started as one half of Metro in the 1970s (the other half was Duncan Browne, known for his classic The Wild Places ). The next decade he became a frontrunne...

Unsplash Enjoy the spacey sounds from the Dr. Who era! 😊 The other day I got inspired when I saw the movie Fly Me To The Moon about the first manned space flight with Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum in the leading roles. Space disco is the fusion of disco music with futuristic themes, sounds and visuals. This kind of music became popular in the late 1970s. It was heavily influenced by sci-fi movies and series like Star Wars and Star Trek and the growing popularity of electronic instruments. The main idea behind this subgenre was a musical or lyrical exploration of the wonders of outer space, and many bands often included robotic shapes, laser illumination and computer screens sequences in their live performances. The artists themselves often dressed in a way inspired by glam rock and somewhat futuristic fashion. They looked like astronauts on stage. The lyrics sometimes had some sexual innuendo too. Italo disco used quite a few elements from seventies space disco the next dec...

Unsplash It’s time to put eighties subgenre sophisti-pop in the limelight again, just like Taylor Swift did when she mentioned The Blue Nile in her song Guilty As Sin recently. Enjoy! “Some of the sound’s hallmarks are jazzy chord changes, air-tight drums, splashy synth melodies, high-sheen production, and a decidedly non-rockist embrace of everything from slow-jam R&B to Brazilian music and ‘50s film scores.” (Jim Allen/Discogs) One of the tracks is from The Dream Academy. The self-titled debut album from the art-school trio led by lead singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes was produced by him and David Gilmour (Pink Floyd). The band used lush string arrangements and multi-layered vocals to create a unique, sixties style sound. It worked to best effect on their hit Life In A Northern Town with its nostalgic lyrics and references to Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and The Walker Brothers ( Make It Easy On Yourself ). The song was written as an elegy to British folk singer Nick Drake, wh...