New Order – Blue Monday
New Order’s Blue Monday (Factory, 1983): drum-machine 12-inch designed to make people dance, as Sumner described it.
Phoenix Festival 1996 – The Prodigy
At Phoenix Festival 1996 near Stratford-upon-Avon, The Prodigy headlined in peak Firestarter form under July sun on a bill with Bowie.
Blondie – Heart of Glass
Blondie’s Heart of Glass (Parallel Lines, 1978): disco grid after ballad/reggae tries, Harry’s cool vocal, Chapman, No. 1.
Björk – Born of ice and sound
Björk recorded in a Reykjavík studio at eleven. The voice already cut sharp and refused to sit still.
Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy
Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy (London, May 1984) put an openly gay leaving-home story on daytime radio over Mike Thorne’s synth-pop pulse.
Blondie – Hanging On The Telephone
Blondie’s Hanging On The Telephone opens Parallel Lines (1978): a Nerves cover sped up by Mike Chapman and Debbie Harry’s urgent vocal.
Dare – Human League
The Human League’s 1981 Dare, rebuilt by Phil Oakey with Sulley, Catherall, and Martin Rushent, made Sheffield synth-pop a chart template via Don’t You Want Me.
Phoenix – 1901
1901 landed on 23 February 2009 as the lead single from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and later topped Billboard Alternative after a 31-week climb.
Devo – Gut Feeling
Devo’s Gut Feeling, from the 1978 Eno-produced debut Q: Are We Not Men?, turns restless guitar and flat vocal into a report on instinct gone wrong.
Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence
Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence (Violator, 1990): Wilder’s disco push, Gore lyric, Gahan cool, guitar intro.