Soft Cell

It's also the name given to the group of young filmmakers who popped up in France in the early 60s, including Truffaut and Godard. Read More

After a crazybusy week, I finally made the time this weekend to sit down with Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment . Read More

In the early 1990s, two brothers and some friends in Munich formed the Poets of Rhythm, a band inspired by the "deep funk" sound of late-1960s James Brown, The Meters and similar groups. Read More

The phrase "no homo" (signifying that the user isn't gay) is used often in music now, especially in heavily auto-tuned rap cameos appearing in otherwise generic pop songs, but it still makes me laugh every time I hear it. Read More

One of the most genuinely chilling hip-hop tracks ever, this Geto Boys song convincingly paints a (somewhat) nuanced portrait of paranoia and psychological deterioration. Read More

Soul singer Gloria Jones was dubbed by the Brits as "The Northern Queen of Soul" and recorded the original version of what may arguably be the most famous cover song in history, "Tainted Love" in 1964. Read More

A consideration of these Alienated Synthesists and the inspiringly bleak late-1970s/ early-1980s environment that produced them – such brilliant, awkward, nagging and usually northern post-punk outfits as Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle and Joy Division, as well as slightly less estranged acts like John Foxx, OMD and Gary Numan – makes up the first half of Synth Britannia (BBC Four, Friday, 9pm), the latest in BBC Four's unfailingly solid series of documentaries on the cultural impact of British music. Read More

The synth-pop era really kicked off in June 1979, when Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric ? hit No 1. Read More

The birthplace of all that's cool and modern in music wasn't Memphis, Liverpool or the South Bronx. Read More

How could I know that this was my invitation to the Swinging 80s, where daily life would never sound or feel the same again? Read More