How will we remember David Bowie? For most, the defining image of Bowie will be one of his many guises in the 1970s: Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, the Thin White Duke. More recent converts may point to his innovative, often … read more
Huge thanks to all our readers over the past year, may 2016 bring you everything you hope for! Here’s a special virtual mixtape showcasing what your favourite ’80s acts did in 2015. read more
In many ways the last year of the decade wasn’t too dissimilar from the early years – people were still using synths and computers to make their records, except the computers were now the size of a suitcase rather than … read more
Thanks to the increased availability of samplers and home recording equipment, in 1988 36% of the population was taking old records apart and welding them back together to make new ones. Bomb The Bass, Coldcut and S-Express were the most … read more
1987 saw the proper arrival of house music in the UK, with Steve “Silk” Hurley’s Jack Your Body topping the chart in January and M/A/R/R/S blithely sampling every record they could get their hands on and reaching number 1 with … read more
Something seemed to have shifted in 1986. Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and Frankie Goes To Hollywood all returned from their mid-decade break to lesser acclaim, failing to score a top three hit between them. Wham! called it a … read more
After the pop frenzy of the previous year, 1985 was something of a let down. With Frankie, Spandau and Culture Club all taking a year off and Wham! and Duran each offering up only one new song in the entire … read more
1984 was the high water mark for ’80s pop. Duran Duran, Wham!, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet and Frankie Goes To Hollywood dominated the chart. If only all these amazing acts could come together to record one enormous hit single together, … read more
As we hit the mid-80s, 1983 was the year the decade really started to establish a distinguishable style. In the face of the grim reality of a second term of Thatcher government, pop went flamboyant with Culture Club, Spandau Ballet … read more
You might have thought that by 1982 old-fashioned analogue music would be dead and the entire chart would be computer generated. Of course that scenario was still a good 25 years away. In fact synthpop was struggling, with the likes … read more
1981 had been something of a transitional year. The past had been condensed into a series of bite-sized chunks thanks to a slew of medley singles – the works of the Beatles (Stars On 45), ABBA (Stars On 45 2), … read more
Christmas 1980 was something of a subdued affair. Chartwise there was a fairly standard mix of Christmas songs, novelty records and songs that had been hanging around for a while and just happened to be caught up in the festive … read more
