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1:28

Welcome back to Hit Parade, a

1:31

podcast of PopChart History from

1:33

Slate Magazine about the hits from

1:35

coast to coast. I'm Chris Melanfi,

1:38

chart analyst, pop critic and writer

1:40

of Slate's Why is this song number one

1:42

series. On our last episode,

1:45

we defined British invasion principles,

1:48

finding common ground between the

1:50

original 60s invasion and

1:53

the second invasion in the 80s. The

1:56

borrowings from American music, the

1:58

first

1:58

and second tier. bands, the

2:01

visual gimmicks, and British signifiers.

2:04

Having walked through the 60s from

2:06

The Beatles and The Stones to Petula

2:08

Clark and Herman's Hermits, we're

2:11

now about to walk through the 80s

2:13

and explain how it happened all

2:16

over again.

2:18

Before we skate past the 1970s, it must

2:23

be said that if the 60s

2:25

or the 80s had never happened,

2:28

the 70s would look like a very

2:30

British decade on the Billboard charts.

2:33

So many UK acts recorded

2:35

totemic music that defined

2:37

that decade's zeitgeist for us.

2:40

From Elton John

2:49

to Led Zeppelin to

2:55

The Bee Gees to

3:04

Queens. Even

3:14

Peter Frampton, possessor of the

3:16

top US album of our bicentennial

3:18

year of 1976, hailed

3:21

from Beckenham in Kent. When

3:24

he took the stage in America, Frampton

3:27

came alive. Basically,

3:38

the 60s British

3:40

invasion had already normalized

3:43

UK acts' presence on our charts.

3:46

These 70s Brits weren't invading.

3:49

They were just part of the Sonic Furniture.

3:53

Many sounded so American you

3:55

could even forget they were British.

3:58

However, there were 70s

4:00

musical movements

4:01

that set the stage for

4:03

the next British invasion. Glam

4:06

Rock, which dominated the UK

4:08

charts in the first half of the decade,

4:11

made smaller ripples in America

4:13

but proved very influential.

4:17

Oh, catch that bus,

4:20

love is the dog I'm thinking

4:23

of. Oh, catch that bus, love is the

4:25

dog I'm

4:25

thinking of. And Punk, which was first

4:28

spawned in the States, was

4:30

adopted early by the Brits

4:33

and arguably codified

4:35

by UK acts, even

4:37

if only a handful of first

4:40

wave punk acts had actual

4:42

chart hits.

4:52

But the ultimate bridge figure

4:55

of British pop, the man who presaged

4:57

the second invasion, was

4:59

the Londoner born David Robert

5:02

Jones, who by the late 60s

5:05

had rechristened himself David

5:08

Bowie. Bowie

5:18

straddled so many types of

5:21

music. The first British invasion,

5:23

folk rock, glam,

5:25

and art rock. He

5:27

was admired by mods, classic

5:29

rockers, and punks. His genre

5:32

promiscuity even led him to adopt

5:34

such styles as R&B, krautrock,

5:37

disco, and funk.

5:47

And in the late 70s, it

5:50

was David Bowie and his producer

5:52

and friend Brian Eno who championed

5:55

the electronic music being

5:57

pioneered by the likes of Kraftwerk.

6:00

and Donna Summer. Neither

6:02

synthesizers nor dance beats

6:04

were alien to Bowie.

6:14

In 1980, after a long

6:17

art rock period in Berlin, Bowie

6:20

signaled his return

6:21

to commercial pop recording with

6:23

the album Scary Monsters. In

6:26

essence, the LP fired a starter's

6:29

pistol for what 80s UK

6:31

pop would sound like, in

6:33

attitude as much as sound.

6:36

Arch. Angular. Synthetic.

6:39

Danceable.

6:47

But Bowie was not alone. As

6:50

we discussed in our Angry Young Men

6:52

episode of Hit Parade, several

6:54

British acts were shaping the contours

6:57

of what became known as post-punk

7:00

or New Wave, from the

7:02

police who cracked the Hot 100 as early

7:04

as 1979. ["Rockin'"

7:09

by The F To

7:17

the Buggles, the duo of Trevor Horne and Jeff

7:19

Downs, whose 1979 single Video Killed

7:22

the Radio Star

7:25

scraped the US Top 40

7:27

at the end of that year, and

7:30

would become considerably more

7:32

famous two years later.

7:34

More remarkably, in

7:36

the summer of 1980, British

7:39

electronic music

7:42

pioneer Gary

7:43

Newman

7:51

got all the way to number nine

7:53

on the Hot 100 with his austere

7:57

Cars. A one-hit wonder

7:59

in a America, Newman was

8:01

a couple of years ahead of

8:04

the next synth-pop wave.

8:07

And on Billboard's dance

8:09

chart, peaking at number 42

8:11

in October 1980 was Joy Division's

8:16

final

8:25

single, after the death of singer

8:27

Ian Curtis, Love Will Tear

8:29

Us Apart. Its synth

8:31

riff also sounded futuristic.

8:44

But none of this felt like a

8:46

coherent movement yet. Gary

8:49

Newman's cars felt novel,

8:52

even invasive, but

8:54

there was no invasion yet.

8:57

Over in England, however,

8:59

by 1981, several

9:01

bands were borrowing the art-damaged

9:04

style of David Bowie, the insouciance

9:07

of punk rock, and the rhythms

9:09

of American disco, and blending

9:11

them into a cutting-edge new

9:14

hybrid.

9:25

Legend has it that keyboardist

9:28

Nick Rhodes and bassist John

9:30

Taylor first envisioned Duran

9:33

Duran, named for a character from

9:35

the 1968 sci-fi film,

9:38

Barbarella, as a hybrid

9:41

of the Sex Pistols and Chic.

9:44

After the Birmingham band recruited

9:47

drummer Roger Taylor, guitarist

9:49

Andy Taylor, the band's three tailors

9:52

are all unrelated, and

9:54

singer Simon Le Bon, Duran

9:57

Duran recorded a self-titled

9:59

1981 debut album with

10:02

a sleek, danceable, and angular

10:04

style. They showcased this

10:07

unique sound on early British hits

10:09

like Planet Earth and Girls

10:11

on Film.

10:23

Both 1981 singles were

10:25

promoted in the UK with artsy

10:27

music videos, including

10:29

a version of Girls on Film

10:32

intended for nightclubs that featured

10:35

full frontal nudity. Meanwhile,

10:38

another band that had been trying different

10:40

incarnations since the late 70s was

10:43

also commanding the British charts in 1981

10:47

with a soulfully synthetic

10:49

new sound.

11:01

The Human League, fronted by Phil

11:03

Okey and featuring two newly

11:06

recruited teenage vocalists named

11:08

Susan Ann Sully and Joanne

11:10

Catheral, released their

11:13

acclaimed third album, Dare,

11:15

and proceeded to score multiple UK

11:18

Top 40 hits, including

11:20

The Sound of the Crowd and

11:23

Love Action.

11:35

Yet another band

11:36

that was evolving their sound

11:38

with synthesizers through the late 70s

11:40

had originally

11:43

charted as The Tourists. The

11:45

then five-person group was led

11:47

by a romantic couple, guitarist

11:50

and producer Dave Stewart, and

11:52

a potent vocalist named Annie

11:55

Lennox.

11:55

The Tourists scored a top

11:58

ten UK hit in late 90s. 1979 with

12:02

a new wave cover of, funnily

12:04

enough, a 60s British invasion

12:07

classic, Dusty Springfield's

12:09

I Only Want to Be With You.

12:20

After the tourists split,

12:22

Stuart and Lennox, now broken

12:25

up as a romantic couple, reformed

12:28

as a duo and leaned more

12:30

heavily into a synth-driven

12:32

sound. They called their new

12:34

duo, Eurythmics.

12:45

Mind you, none of these acclaimed

12:48

British bands were doing anything on

12:50

the US charts. Through

12:52

the first half of 1981, the only

12:55

British new wave band that had performed

12:58

decently on the Hot 100 were

13:00

the police, who'd cracked the top

13:03

ten a couple of times.

13:06

But then, on

13:09

the 1st of August 1981, a

13:11

new cable TV channel premiered in a

13:13

handful of

13:16

US

13:24

towns.

13:35

And that's when everything

13:37

changed.

13:48

As I noted in our music video

13:50

episode of Hit Parade, when MTV

13:53

launched with Video Killed the Radio

13:55

Star, that buggled hit was

13:58

nearly two years old.

13:59

In fact, a lot of

14:02

the music MTV played on

14:04

its first day was not current.

14:06

The new channel was desperate

14:08

for any name-brand artists who

14:10

had bothered to shoot music

14:13

videos.

14:23

Which explains why they played 11

14:26

Rod Stewart clips that first day,

14:29

most of which were years old. In

14:32

general, British acts, thanks to

14:34

the heritage of such TV shows as

14:36

Top of the Pops, had shot way

14:39

more music videos than their

14:41

American counterparts. On

14:43

day one, MTV played

14:46

multiple clips by such UK-based

14:48

acts as The Pretenders,

14:59

Phil Collins,

15:09

and, no surprise, David

15:11

Bowie. For

15:20

its first few months, it was hard

15:23

to tell if MTV was having

15:25

much of an impact on the American

15:27

charts.

15:28

In the fall of 1981, the police

15:31

scored their biggest hit to date with Every

15:33

Little Thing She Does Is Magic,

15:36

a number three hit. The trio

15:38

was due for a big hit anyway,

15:41

but the fact that Sting, Andy

15:43

Summers, and Stuart Copeland had

15:45

shot winsome videos for all

15:47

their singles, including Magic,

15:50

certainly didn't hurt.

16:02

And as I noted in our Daryl

16:04

Hall and John Oates episode of Hit

16:06

Parade, that duo also benefited

16:09

from MTV's launch, but

16:11

their videos were fairly cheaply

16:13

produced on videotape, focused

16:16

on band performance, and were

16:18

not especially cutting edge. It

16:31

wasn't until the summer of 1982 that a

16:33

number one hit was inarguably made by MTV, and

16:40

it was a human league single that

16:42

Phil Okey didn't even want

16:45

to release before it became

16:47

his band's biggest hit on

16:49

both sides of the Atlantic.

17:00

Don't You Want Me, a he

17:02

said, she said romantic melodrama

17:05

brought to life by Okey and

17:07

Susan Ann Sully was

17:10

the last track on the human league's

17:12

Dare album, and it

17:14

was the LP's fourth single.

17:17

Okey thought the song was filler,

17:20

he called it naff, and he

17:22

tried to dissuade his label, Virgin,

17:25

from putting it out as a 45. Instead,

17:29

the label doubled down

17:30

by commissioning the most expensive

17:33

music video the band had done to

17:35

date, a sort of meta-film

17:38

noir loosely based on

17:40

A Star Is Born, in which

17:42

the band members

17:43

played characters both in front

17:45

of and behind the camera.

17:48

It was easily the highest

17:49

gloss clip on MTV

17:52

at the time. In

18:00

the UK, Don't You Want Me reached the top in December 1981, taking the coveted Christmas

18:02

number

18:10

one slot. In America, it

18:12

took longer to break. But

18:16

by 1982, record executives

18:18

had started

18:18

to notice that any US

18:21

town that had MTV was seeing

18:24

spikes in record sales. The

18:26

human league's US label, A&M

18:29

Records, pushed the single hard

18:31

at radio, and it finally entered

18:34

the Hot 100 in March of 1982. After

18:38

a slow 18-week climb,

18:41

in July 1982, Don't

18:43

You Want Me was number one

18:46

in America.

18:57

Don't, Don't You Want

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By the summer of 1982, the

21:51

human league stood way out

21:53

on US radio. The charts

21:55

were still recovering from the post-disco

21:58

doldrums, playing softball.

21:59

pop by the likes of Air Supply

22:12

and lugubrious

22:12

album-oriented rock

22:15

like the band Asia.

22:25

Sure, these bands employed

22:28

electronics, but not the

22:30

way the new wave of British acts

22:32

did. While Don't You

22:34

Want Me spent its three weeks at number

22:37

one on the Hot 100, another

22:39

synth pop hit climbed into the

22:41

top ten after a slow

22:44

steady six-month chart run, soft-cells

22:46

aforementioned Tainted

22:49

Love.

23:00

By the end of 1982, other

23:03

glossy synth pop acts were starting

23:05

to break on the chart, including

23:08

the debonair Sheffield band ABC,

23:11

with their number 18 hit The

23:13

Look of Love.

23:24

And a Liverpool quartet

23:27

whose frontman Mike Score

23:30

had probably the most infamous

23:32

haircut of the entire 1980s,

23:36

A Flock of Seagulls.

23:48

A Flock of Seagulls offered evidence

23:51

of MTV's profound US

23:53

chart impact. They were bigger

23:55

in America than they ever were

23:57

in the UK.

23:59

only a number 43

24:02

hit in their homeland made

24:04

it all the way to number eight in

24:07

America and the follow-up

24:09

single Space Age Love Song.

24:20

Hit number 34 in the

24:23

UK, number 30 in the

24:25

US. Jonathan Bernstein

24:28

co-author of the 80s music

24:30

compendium Mad

24:31

World wrote quote, I

24:34

still wince

24:34

a little at a flock of seagulls.

24:37

In my UK homeland they

24:39

were seen as a joke act

24:42

unquote but Mad World

24:44

co-author Laurie Majewski, an

24:46

American, exalted about

24:49

the seagulls videos calling

24:51

Iran in particular quote

24:54

full-on resplendent technicolor.

25:07

In short for the US

25:10

audience the visual was driving

25:12

the music. On the strength

25:15

of Iran a flock

25:17

of seagulls self-titled debut

25:19

LP hit the US top ten,

25:22

went gold and rode the album

25:24

chart for nearly a year. Around

25:27

the same time an Australian band

25:29

called Men at Work did

25:32

even better.

25:42

Their debut album Business

25:44

as Usual, a blend of Brit

25:46

style new wave, heavy saxophone

25:49

and tropical rhythms spent

25:51

a staggering 15 weeks at

25:53

number one in the US, fueled

25:56

by its two Hot 100 number

25:59

one hits. Who can it be now

26:01

in the fall of 82 and

26:04

down under in the winter of 83?

26:17

On MTV, men at

26:19

work presented themselves with wide-eyed

26:22

whimsy and approachable Aussie

26:24

exoticism. But by

26:27

the end of 1982, no band

26:29

was selling

26:30

themselves harder in the music

26:32

video medium than Duran Duran.

26:46

The release of the Duran's second

26:48

album, Rio, and a series

26:51

of glossy music videos shot

26:53

in far-flung locations like

26:55

Antigua and Sri Lanka by

26:58

film director Russell

26:59

Mulcahy at last

27:02

broke the group in America. A

27:04

remix of the album to suit American

27:07

radio also helped.

27:19

Hungry Like the Wolf, Duran

27:21

Duran's breakthrough

27:22

video, modeled after Raiders

27:25

of the Lost Ark, was power

27:27

rotated on MTV, which

27:30

pushed the single onto the Hot 100

27:33

the last week of 1982. It

27:36

eventually rose to number three

27:38

by the spring of 83, and

27:41

was quickly followed by the Rio album's

27:44

title track, whose lustrous

27:46

clip featured the five Durans

27:49

in Antony-priced suits aboard

27:51

a yacht speeding across

27:53

the Caribbean Sea. It reached

27:56

number 14 on the Hot 100 by May.

28:00

Her name is Rio and

28:02

she dances on the stand. Just

28:07

like that river twisting

28:10

through a dusty land.

28:12

It took until 1983

28:13

for critics

28:15

and pundits to begin whispering

28:18

about a second British invasion.

28:21

The music business took notice first.

28:24

Rock radio consultant Lee

28:26

Abrams advised his radio

28:28

clients to program more new

28:31

music. And he declared,

28:33

quote, all my favorite bands

28:35

now are English. It's a

28:37

more artistic place. Experimentation

28:41

thrives there, unquote.

28:43

On the charts, the evidence

28:45

was becoming undeniable. Adam

28:48

Ant, who'd been a UK teen

28:50

idol and an avatar of the

28:53

new romantic movement as far

28:55

back as 1980, finally

28:57

cracked the US Top 40 with

29:00

the rollicking number 12 hit, Goody

29:02

Two Shoots.

29:04

Goody Two Shoots.

29:14

Dexi's Midnight Runners, whom

29:16

we talked about in our one-hit

29:18

wonders episode of Hit Parade, sorry,

29:21

UK Dexi's fans, rose

29:24

all the way to number one, actually

29:27

holding off two singles by Michael

29:29

Jackson with their Celtic

29:32

soul jam, Come On

29:33

I Lean. And

29:45

if Dexi's Celtic drag

29:47

seemed outlandish, the very

29:49

meaning of drag was redefined

29:52

by Culture Club's George O'Dowd,

29:54

aka Boy George. You

30:00

might call

30:02

Boy George a one-man RuPaul's drag race

30:05

about three decades early.

30:14

Serving realness in his makeup,

30:16

hat, and braids, and possessing

30:19

a remarkably supple R&B

30:21

style voice, George was

30:22

a near-instant sensation

30:25

when Culture Club issued their debut

30:28

LP Kissing to be Clever

30:30

in the closing weeks of 1982.

30:44

By

30:45

March of 83, the reggae

30:47

style Do You Really Want to Hurt

30:50

Me? fueled by a melodramatic

30:52

video of George cavorting through

30:54

a courthouse and a prison, hit

30:57

number two on the Hot 100. The

31:00

LP went platinum, spawned

31:02

three top ten hits, and rode

31:05

the Billboard album chart for nearly

31:07

two years.

31:09

The second British invasion had

31:11

gained full velocity by the summer

31:14

of 83. The wave of MTV-fueled glossy

31:18

hitmaking made New Wave forefather

31:21

David Bowie a chart topper all

31:24

over again, as his Nile Rodgers

31:26

produced Let's Dance reached

31:29

number one.

31:39

Followed less than two months later

31:41

by the only ever US number

31:43

one for the police. Every

31:46

breath you take, which was boosted

31:48

by a widely acclaimed, highly

31:51

cinematic, black and white video

31:53

directed by MTV-era

31:56

auteurs Godly and Cream. On

32:01

the charts, it was 1965 all over again.

32:07

By

32:13

the time the police reached number one

32:15

in July 1983, British acts held down 20 singles in

32:20

the top 40. A new record.

32:23

Joining Sting's trio were British

32:26

Guyanese

32:26

singer Eddie Grant with

32:28

his New Wave reggae fusion Electric

32:31

Avenue, a number two hit.

32:43

Kaja

32:43

Gugu, a band produced

32:45

by Duran Duran's Nick Rhodes,

32:48

whose disco meets new romantic

32:50

jam Too Shy reached

32:52

number five.

33:04

The Kinks, yes, the veterans

33:06

of the first British invasion, still

33:09

fronted by Ray Davis, with

33:11

their keyboard-speckled nostalgic

33:13

tale Come Dancing, a

33:15

number six hit. And

33:26

Madness, the acclaimed kings

33:28

of two-tone ska who'd been

33:30

dominating the UK charts since 1979,

33:34

but only made the US

33:36

Top 10 in 1983,

33:39

with the whimsical number seven hit

33:41

Our House.

33:52

What's more, three of the biggest

33:54

breakthroughs of 1982 and early 83 were back that summer

33:59

with top

35:59

march around a conference room

36:02

table. It was MTV

36:04

GOLP.

36:06

Sweet Dreams

36:09

took 17 weeks to climb the

36:12

Hot 100. It

36:19

even waited out the police's every

36:21

breath you take for four weeks

36:24

at number two, before knocking

36:26

out the mighty sting and taking

36:28

number one the first week of

36:30

September 1983.

36:42

At last, in the fall of 83,

36:45

Rolling Stone magazine belatedly

36:47

called it. A cover

36:49

story declared, quote, England

36:52

swings. Great Britain invades

36:55

America's music and style again,

36:57

unquote.

36:59

It was all next to a picture of

37:01

Boy George, who, by the

37:03

way, was about to top the Hot 100

37:07

just a few months

37:08

later with Karma Chameleon.

37:10

Karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon.

37:15

You come and go. You

37:17

come and go.

37:20

Like the British invasion of

37:22

the 60s, the second British

37:25

invasion was, again, taking

37:27

American idioms and reupholstering

37:30

them for a new age. It

37:32

was also turning former 70s

37:34

rockers into 80s synth popsters.

37:37

For example, progressive rock

37:39

veterans Yes! were transformed

37:42

by Bugles leader and producer Trevor

37:44

Horn into electro rock

37:46

gods on the breakbeat happy

37:49

owner of a lonely

37:50

heart, a number one hit at

37:53

the start of 1984.

38:03

Genesis, led by Phil Collins,

38:05

cracked the top ten for the first time

38:08

in early 84 with the new

38:10

wave adjacent That's All.

38:22

And veteran

38:22

arena rockers Queen

38:25

went deeper than they ever had into

38:27

synthesizers on Radio Gaga

38:30

and returned to the top 20 on

38:33

the Hot 100

38:34

for the first time in two

38:36

years. By

38:45

April 84, 40% of

38:47

the Hot 100 was British, including

38:50

hits by the Thompson Twins, Eurythmics,

39:03

and Duran Duran. After

39:24

five

39:24

straight top 20 US hits,

39:27

Duran

39:27

Duran finally reached number

39:29

one after they commissioned producer

39:32

extraordinaire, Nile Rodgers, to

39:34

remix their track, The Reflex.

39:37

It topped the Hot 100 in June 1984.

39:55

Macy's is making moods to

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41:45

Went

41:52

on to another level.

41:55

Michael Jackson was accused of child

41:58

molestation for the first time in 1993. This

42:02

is the story of what came before and

42:04

what came after.

42:06

I'm a mother, and I remember

42:08

being a cast. Can

42:10

this be true? We could

42:13

be watching the downfall of a superstar.

42:16

I'm Leon Nayfach. And

42:18

I'm Jay Smooth. Think Twice

42:20

is an attempt to reconcile our conflicted

42:22

emotions about Michael Jackson, the man,

42:25

with our deep-seated love of his art. Listen

42:28

to Think Twice, Michael Jackson, on Audible

42:30

and Amazon Music.

42:34

The second invasion had gone

42:37

on long enough that acts that

42:39

couldn't cross over in America

42:41

the first time were given a second

42:44

chance at chart glory. For

42:46

example, in 1983, the duo Wham got

42:51

no further than number 60 on

42:53

the Hot 100 with their teen

42:55

pop story song, Bad Boys.

42:58

We're with you last night. We're

43:00

a cast if you're hard of free. We're

43:03

with you last night.

43:06

Well, I think that you may just be right before

43:08

we go. Then, in 1984, determined to

43:09

break in the United States, Wham

43:14

leader George Michael pulled the

43:16

old British invasion trick of

43:19

selling America back to

43:21

the Americans. Wake Me Up

43:23

Before You Go-Go was a shameless

43:26

send-up of 50s sock hop

43:28

and 60s Motown. And it

43:30

got Wham to number one on

43:32

the Hot 100 by

43:33

November, 84.

43:35

Wake me up before you

43:37

go-go. Don't leave me hanging on

43:39

the line for you. Wake me up

43:42

before you go-go. I don't want

43:44

to miss you. Or what about the Scottish

43:46

band Simple Minds? They

43:49

had tried going danceable back in 1982 on

43:53

Promised You, A Miracle. Though

43:55

it was a top 20 UK hit,

43:57

in America, it missed the Hot 100.

43:59

entirely and only barely

44:02

scraped Billboard's club play

44:04

chart.

44:06

But then in 1985, Simple Minds swallowed

44:10

their pride and agreed to record a soundtrack song for

44:15

the

44:22

American movie, The Breakfast Club,

44:24

directed by teen film auteur,

44:27

John Hughes. Turned down

44:29

by both Billy Idol and Roxy

44:31

Music's Brian Ferry, Don't

44:33

You Forget About Me broke

44:36

Simple Minds in the States and took

44:38

them all the way to number

44:40

one.

44:48

And Tears for Fears,

44:51

the bath Somerset

44:52

duo of Roland Orzabal

44:54

and Kurt Smith. They had launched

44:57

with Icy But Catchy synth pop

44:59

in 1983 and generated

45:02

a string of top ten UK

45:04

hits. But in America, Tears

45:07

for Fears couldn't climb

45:08

higher than number 73 with 1983's Change.

45:23

Two

45:23

years later, Roland Orzabal and

45:25

his co-writers aimed squarely

45:27

for the American market with a

45:30

song that singer Kurt Smith called

45:32

Drive Music, a more upbeat

45:35

take on the theme of global power

45:37

a la Eurythmics Sweet Dreams,

45:40

titled, appropriately enough, Everybody

45:43

Wants to Rule the World, the

45:45

result, another number one

45:48

hit.

45:59

these same lines of World Conquest

46:02

and the evil that men do, Depeche

46:05

Mode scored a fluke top 20 hit

46:08

in the summer of 85 with

46:10

the danceable anti-racist lament

46:12

People Are People.

46:15

People Are People so why

46:17

should it be? You guys

46:20

should get it, I'm so hungry.

46:23

By 1984 and 85, New

46:26

Wave synth pop was morphing into

46:29

Sophistopop, a blend of

46:31

soul, cocktail jazz, and lavish

46:34

production. Think of the saxophone

46:37

line on Wham's second US

46:39

number one, Careless Whisper.

46:51

Or the jet-setting bossa

46:53

nova rhythms of Sade's

46:56

breakthrough US hit, Smooth

46:58

Operator, which reached number five

47:01

in May 1985.

47:13

British

47:13

synth pop was now so well

47:15

regarded by high pop culture

47:18

that Duran Duran were tapped

47:20

by the James Bond franchise to

47:22

record the theme to 1985's A View to

47:25

a Kill. To this

47:25

day, Duran's Bond

47:29

theme is the only one in

47:32

the franchise's 60-year history

47:34

to reach number one on the Hot 100.

47:39

The choice for you is

47:42

the view to a kill.

47:46

You might say that this British

47:49

invasion circa 1985

47:51

was becoming like the first invasion

47:54

circa 1966, getting

47:57

glossier and broadening in

47:59

scope.

47:59

but also thinning out.

48:02

Like that 66 Raga

48:04

and Music Hall moment, the move

48:07

toward Sephistopop produced

48:09

big hits that felt less coherent.

48:12

Debonair acts were still having

48:14

breakthroughs, such as ABC,

48:17

who cracked the top ten for the first

48:19

time in late 85 with

48:21

Be Near Me.

48:31

Or the very Natalie dressed

48:34

Robert Palmer, who took Addicted

48:36

to Love to number one in early 86.

48:47

Or orchestral maneuvers

48:49

in the dark, better known as OMD,

48:52

who followed in Simple Minds Footsteps

48:55

and soundtracked a John Hughes

48:57

movie, Pretty in Pink. Their

49:00

gushy love-lorn If You Leave

49:03

reached number four in the spring

49:05

of 86.

49:15

But by the time the worldly

49:18

Pet Shop Boys took their austere

49:21

West End girls to number one

49:23

in May of 86, it was

49:25

harder to say the second invasion

49:28

was really

49:28

invading anything

49:31

anymore.

49:42

As in the 1960s, the Yanks of the 80s had adapted. The

49:44

rise of Madonna in 1984 and 85 offered

49:47

a new kind

49:54

of synthetic pop model, an

49:56

outgrowth of new wave that was tied

49:59

to the club. Ooh, you're

50:01

an angel. Ooh, you're

50:04

an angel. Ooh, you're

50:07

an angel. In

50:09

late 85, the Minneapolis

50:11

synth-funk band

50:12

Ready for the World opened

50:15

their number one smash, Oh Sheila,

50:17

with a spoken word bit by lead

50:20

singer Melvin Riley Jr. that

50:22

approximated a faux British

50:24

accent. Like the Raiders or

50:27

the Sir Douglas Quintet in the 60s,

50:30

it felt like a troll

50:31

move. Even more than in

50:34

the 60s, what brought

50:36

this British invasion to a close

50:38

was simply

50:48

evolving taste. The breakthrough

50:51

chart act of 1985 and 86 was Whitney Houston, who

50:56

re-centered the primacy of the voice

50:59

with big American gospel

51:01

power

51:01

in her string of chart-topping

51:04

hits. Similarly,

51:07

the rise of New Jack Swin,

51:10

presaged by Janet Jackson's 1986

51:13

Control album,

51:14

offered

51:23

a different model of synth-pop that

51:25

gave the synthesizer more of

51:27

a groove.

51:34

Ooh, yeah.

51:38

Speaking of Janet Jackson,

51:41

a poetic bookend took place

51:43

late in 1986. In

51:46

a move to get ahead of this shift toward

51:48

New Jack Swin, the human league,

51:51

whose hit Don't You Want Me had

51:53

launched the second invasion back

51:55

in 1982 teamed up with

51:58

Janet's producers, Jimmy Jan.

51:59

and Terry Lewis on what

52:02

turned out to be the human league's final

52:04

number one hit the R&B

52:07

adjacent human.

52:17

One week after human topped

52:20

the Hot 100 the human league

52:22

were replaced at number one by this

52:25

band of vulgar Americans.

52:37

Bon

52:37

Jovi were ascendant, American

52:40

Anglophiles had been put in their place,

52:42

and the second British invasion was

52:45

over. Again as in

52:47

the 60s English superstars

52:49

would continue to command our charts

52:52

periodically.

53:02

And occasionally a new

53:04

British pop act would break out on

53:06

the Hot 100, however briefly. Swing

53:09

out sister, breathe, Johnny hates

53:12

jazz, we hardly knew ye.

53:23

But

53:24

by the end

53:24

of the 80s Yanks who considered

53:27

themselves Anglophiles had turned away from

53:29

Big 80s pop and were seeking

53:32

refuge on alternative radio

53:34

and the modern rock chart. As

53:36

we discussed in our lost and lonely

53:39

edition of Hit Parade, doomy

53:41

new waivers like The Cure, The

53:43

Smiths and Depeche Mode became

53:45

hipsters

53:46

favorite hit makers. So that's

53:48

a tour of the

53:59

through two decades worth of revolutionary

54:03

British pop. Certainly, the 80s

54:05

didn't represent the last gasp

54:07

of UK incursions on the US

54:10

charts. From Adele to

54:12

Ed Sheeran to Dua Lipa, natives

54:14

of old Blighty are still capable

54:17

of commanding the Hot 100 to

54:19

this day. But the mid-60s

54:21

and the mid-80s represent

54:24

a high watermark of British influence.

54:27

When one sonic innovation begat

54:30

another, and made our American

54:31

hit parade brighter, punchier,

54:34

glossier, and made American

54:37

pop, I'd argue, better. One

54:40

last footnote. As good as

54:42

the 60s and the 80s were

54:44

for UK hitmaking, British

54:46

fans have their own

54:48

periods of musical nostalgia.

54:50

Ask a late-gen Exer or a millennial

54:53

from Great Britain what period of

54:55

pop makes them wistful, and

54:58

they're

54:58

likelier to mention a different

55:00

era of cool Britannia. The

55:03

90s. And here's the thing. America

55:06

proved largely immune to that

55:08

Brit pop era. There was

55:11

no

55:12

90s British invasion. Which

55:14

begs the question. Why? Hold

55:27

tight,

55:27

because we're going to get to that

55:30

question in a future episode. Brit

55:32

pop had its own catalog of styles

55:35

and stars. But to Americans,

55:38

it's the control group in our multi-decade

55:41

pop experiment. The British

55:43

invasion that didn't take. We'll

55:45

take some time here on Hit

55:47

Parade to do Brit pop justice.

55:50

Because to do any less would

55:53

be rubbish.

56:00

Take your time,

56:02

say, I'm looking for girls

56:05

who are boys, who are boys, two people.

56:08

I hope you enjoyed this episode

56:10

of Hit Parade. Our show was written,

56:13

edited, and narrated by Chris Malanfy.

56:16

That's me. My producer is

56:18

Kevin Bendis. Kevin also

56:20

produced the latest installment of our monthly

56:22

Hit Parade The Bridge shows, which

56:25

are available exclusively to Slate

56:27

Plus members. In our latest

56:30

Bridge episode, I talked to radio

56:32

host and author Laurie Majewski

56:35

about the second British invasion and

56:37

the shiny new wave of British acts

56:40

that stormed America's charts in

56:42

the 80s. To sign up for

56:44

Slate Plus and hear not only

56:46

The Bridge but all our shows the day

56:49

they drop, visit slate.com

56:51

slash Hit Parade Plus. Derek

56:54

John is executive producer of narrative

56:56

podcasts, and Alicia Montgomery

56:59

is VP of audio for Slate podcasts.

57:01

Check out their roster of shows at

57:04

slate.com slash podcasts.

57:06

You can subscribe to Hit Parade

57:08

wherever you get your podcasts, in

57:10

addition to finding it in the Slate culture

57:12

feed. If you're subscribing on Apple

57:15

Podcasts, please rate and review

57:17

us while you're there. It helps other listeners

57:20

find the show. Thanks for listening,

57:22

and I look forward to leading the Hit Parade

57:24

back your way. Until then, keep

57:26

on marching on

57:27

the one. I'm Chris Melanphy.

57:42

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57:45

be listening to this episode and all

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