The British Broadcasting Corporation has assembled its biggest season of music television this fall. The announcement came this week that its cultural channel, BBC Four, will continue its analysis of popular music's most significant movements. The fall line-up coincides with the arrival of BBC TV's new head of music and events Jan Younghusband.
In October BBC Four will screen Synth Britannia, the latest from its genre-specific series which traces the development of UK electronic music.
From the BBC Press Office: In the late Seventies small pockets of electronic artists such as The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard to dream of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
Gary Numan's 1979 appearance on Top Of The Pops heralded the invention of synthpop, which would provide the soundtrack as Britain entered a new, ruthless era in the Eighties.
Depeche Mode, four lads from Basildon, came to embody the new sound, while post-punk bands such as Ultravox, Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Yazoo took the synth from the pages of the NME and onto the front cover of Smash Hits.
By 1983 the Pet Shop Boys and New Order were pointing to where the future of electronic music lay - in dance.
Contributors to Synth Britannia include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
Photo: bbc.co.uk/totp2
