The Synthpop OPO10

1. Depeche Mode - Shake the Disease
2. Human League - Fascination
3. Heaven 17 - Temptation
4. Thomas Dolby - Europa and the Pirate Twins
5. Yaz(oo) - Only You
6. Howard Jones - New Song
7. OMD - Souvenir
8. Depeche Mode - Policy of Truth
9. Color Theory - Now I Know (Cosmicity's Continuum Transfunction Mix)
10. Erasure - Waiting for the Day

Men Without Hats - "I Got the Message"
Squeeze - "Take Me I'm Yours"
N.O.I.A. - "Be Alert"
The Cure - "Let's Go to Bed"
Adult. - "Skinlike"
Human League - "Seconds"
Depeche Mode - "Everything Counts"
A Flock of Seagulls - "What am I Supposed to Do?"
Alphaville - "Forever Young"
Pet Shop Boys - "West End Girls"

Berlin - The Metro (nice choice JBR!)
OMD - Talking Loud And Clear
OMD - Julia's Song (version as B-side of the above)
New Order - True Faith
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Duran Duran - The Chauffeur
Duran Duran - Anyone Out There
Japan - Visions Of China (maybe the most poppy they can get?)
Gary Numan - We Take Mystery To Bed
Riviera - Now We've Got Europe

btw - search the Alkaline Trio pop-punk cover of this. no synths, tho, so it doesn't really apply to this thread.

Wanted to put KLF and Machine and Waterfront Home in here but they're more dance/disco, yeah?

1. The Landscape Is Changing - Depeche Mode
2. Ghosts - Japan
3. Forbidden Colours - David Sylvian & Ryuchi Sakamoto
4. Told You So - Depeche Mode
5. Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode
6. Hide & Seek - Howard Jones
7. Do Or Die - Human League
8. Gentlemen Take Polaroids - Japan
9. Fools - Depeche Mode
10.Stories Of Old - Depeche Mode

And the next 15:

11.It's My Life - Talk Talk
12.Doctor! Doctor! - Thompson Twins
13.Dreaming Of Me - Depeche Mode
14.Don't You Want Me - Human League
15.Vienna - Ultravox
16.Fade To Grey - Visage
17.We Are Detective - Thompson Twins
18.Visions Of China - Japan
19.Souvenir - OMD
20.Two Minute Warning - Depeche Mode
21.You're In The Army Now - Bolland
22.Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
23.Today - Talk Talk
24.Bedsitter - Soft Cell
25.Everything Counts - Depeche Mode

De/Vision "Heart Shaped Tumor"
Deine Lakaien "Generators"
Zoot Woman "Information First"
Ladytron "The Way That I Found You"
Tok Tok vs Soffy O "Day Of Mine"
Apoptygma Berzerk "Kathy's Song"

80-84 English New Romantic

That would disqualify Peter Schilling, Falco, Nena, Camouflage...in my memory, 80s synthpop was at least as much German as it was English.

BUT!!
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc800/c827/c827939ly73.jpg
SYNTHPOP IS VINCE CLARKE!

Oi! There's guitars all over that, there is!

And, sorry:

Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In the Dark
Rush – Subdivisions
Linkin Park – In the End
Radiohead – Idioteque
Andrew WK – I Get Wet
Wire – Eardrum Buzz
Yes – Long Distance Runaround
Styx – Mr Roboto
Smashing Pumpkins – Here’s To the Atom Bomb
Robert Plant – In the Mood

Apart from Alphaville, don't mix up synthpop with Eurodisco...

Depeche Mode, Enjoy The Silence
Soft Cell, Sex Dwarf
OMD, Enola Gay
Duran Duran, Planet Earth
Kraftwerk, The Model
Madonna, Burning Up
Human Leage, Keep Feeling Fascination
Falco, Vienna Calling
Dead or Alive, You Spin Me Round
New Order, Temptation

ARRGH there's so much more I want to add.

The Normal, "Warm Leatherette"
Depeche Mode, "Dreaming of Me"
Gary Numan, "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
Prince, "Erotic City"
Kraftwerk, "Computer World"
Soft Cell, "Sex Dwarf"
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, "Messages"
Tom Schilling, "Major Tom"
Heaven 17, "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thing"
Human League, "Love Action"

In what way were Camouflage/Ultravox/et al Eurodisco?

re Falco: i remember a few Germans getting really angry when you called him "German." i.e., "Falco is Austrian! he is not German!"

Complaints to the email address below, etc.

yeah ... as Anal Cunt reminds us all, "Hitler was a sensitive man"!

HE WENT TO ART SCHOOL WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER
HE WANTED TO BE A PAINTER
HITLER WAS A VEGETARIAN
HE WAS ALSO A NON SMOKER ...

HE HIRED GAY AND HANDICAPPED OFFICERS
HE WAS CONCERNED ABOUT OVERPOPULATION
IF HITLER WAS ALIVE TODAY
HE'D LISTEN TO THE CURE, THE SMITHS, AND DEPECHE MODE

so put on those jimmy eat world and get-up kids cds, Adolf!

What the hell is this, a cover of the Falco song? Recent?

In what way was Ultravox not a UK act?

1)Flock Of Seagulls, "Wishing (If I had a photograph of you)"
2)Human League, "Seconds"
3)Radiohead, "Idioteque"
4)Flock Of Seagulls, "Space Age Love Song"
5)Bruce Springsteen, "Dancing In The Dark"
6)Billy Idol, "Catch My Fall"
7)Duran Duran, "Planet Earth"
8)Alphaville, "Big In Japan"
9)Flock Of Seagulls, "The More You Live, The More You Love"
10)Gary Numan, "Cars"

Forget EVERYTHING else, this guy was simply streets ahead. (Still is, but isnt stuck just doing electronics - check out 'Pure' and 'Hybrid' and when 'Jagged Halo' arrives... well, it'll be worth the wait).

NINuman50n

Pulp: Pink Glove
Roxy Music: More Than This
New Order: Temptation
Wire: Kidney Bingos
Rush: Subdivisions
Bruce Springsteen: Dancing In The Dark
Magnetic Fields: I Don't Want To Get Over You
Bronski Beat: Small Town Boy
Human League: Don't You Want Me

Freur - Doot
Q-Feel - Dancing in Heaven
Alphaville - Sounds Like a Melody
Real Life - Send Me An Angel
Talk Talk - Talk Talk
Secession - Touch
John Foxx - Underpass
OMD - Electricity
Blancmange - Blind Vision
Visage - The Damned Don't Cry
Kraftwerk - The Model
Icehouse - Great Southern Land
Yaz - Nobody's Diary
Tears for Fears - Mad World
Soft Cell - Bedsitter
Peter Godwin - Images of Heaven
B Movie - Nowhere Girl
Human League - The Sound of the Crowd
Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy - Kiss Me
SSQ - Synthicide
a-ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV
Industry - State of the Nation
Dead or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)
EBN OZN - AEIOU and Sometimes Y
Pseudo Echo - A Beat for You
Ministry - Revenge

Post-1986.

Depeche Mode - But Not Tonight
New Order - Round and Round
Pet Shop Boys - Left to My Own Devices
CCCP - American Soviets
Celebrate the Nun - She's a Secretary
Red Flag - If I Ever
Kon Kan - I Beg Your Pardon
Information Society - What's on Your Mind (Pure Energy)
Cetu Javu - Have in Mind
Anything Box - Living in Oblivion
Figures on a Beach - Accidentally 4th Street
Erasure - A Little Respect
Trans X - Living on Video
When in Rome - The Promise

And just because "Dancing in the Dark" is bouncy and has a very prominent use of synthesizers, does not make it a 'synth-pop' song! It was very common in the '80s for many popular artists to use synthesizers, including Prince, Hall and Oates, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Debbie Gibson, Billy Ocean, Michael McDonald, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston and countless others. In fact, I think the majority of '80s artists who continually hit the 'Top 20' employed heavy use of a synthesizer, especially during the latter half of the decade.

Synth pop: Visage, Blancmange, OMD, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan.

Dance/pop: The majority of artists I mentioned in the above paragraph. In fact, all of them. A synthesizer is mandatory, especially during the '80s, to make a dance/pop song. In no way does it mean a bouncy, upbeat number like "Dancing in the Dark" is synth pop though. Otherwise you could say Paula Abdul fits that criteria.

r.e.v.i.v.e.

Radiohead, "Idioteque"

WHAT???

OK, my top 10 now

Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Propaganda - P. Machinery
The Bronski Beat - Small Town Boy
Gary Numan - Cars
Depeche Mode - Strangelove
New Order - True Faith
The Human League - Don't You Want Me?
Desireless- Voyage Voyage
Sandra - Maria Magdalena
Kraftwerk - The Model

oh my god how can I make this list

I can't possibly do this for real because there is so fucking much good stuff, but here are top ten synth-pop songs in my last.fm:

1. Depeche Mode - "Photographic" (if you lump the Speak & Spell and Some Bizzare versions together)
2. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - "Souvenir"
3. Talk Talk - "Today"
4. Erasure - "Oh L'Amour"
5. Kraftwerk - "Computer Love"
6. New Order - "Blue Monday"
7. Ladytron - "Beauty*2"
8. Depeche Mode - "The Landscape is Changing"
8 (tie). Depeche Mode - "Strangelove"
10. Depeche Mode - "The Things You Said"

really isn't representative though, I'm not sure I'd call this my synthpop POX as it were

Geir's list is pretty OTM.

or not quite but it's the one on this thread I like most

yeah as much as people hate on geir he has pretty choice taste in 80s pop music

i guess my current ten would be (in no order):

1. sakamoto/sylvian - bamboo music
2. visage - tar
3. a flock of seagulls - rosenmontag
4. omd - vcl xi
5. suicide - shadazz
6. yazoo - too pieces
7. heaven 17 - let's all make a bomb
8. yukihiro takahashi - the real you
9. human league - fascination
10. duran duran - the cheauffer

Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls
Sparks - Tryouts for the Human Race
Depeche Mode - Get the Balance Right
OMD - Secret
Kraftwerk - Hall of Mirrors
Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science
New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle
Cameo - Word Up
Naked Eyes - Always Something There to Remind Me
Hot Chip - Boy From School

Pretty obvious that I've never listened to a lotta synthpop, since I mostly only know the really big hits. (Which is not to say that I disapprove of the stuff in any way, oh no.)

0. Donna Summer, "I Feel Love" (The template)
1. Pete Shelley, "Homosapien"
2. Men Without Hats, "Safety Dance"
3. Human League, "Don't You Want Me"
4. Soft Cell, "Sex Dwarf"
5. Berlin, "Take My Breath Away"
6. Trans X, "Living On Video"
7. Pet Shot Boys, "West End Girls"
8. Gary Numan, "Praying To The Aliens"
9. Yaz, "Situation"
10.Kraftwerk, "The Robots"

No one is gonna admit to adoring Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)? C'mon folks.

Here's a shot at POX post-80s Synthpop

1. Ladytron - Blue Jeans
2. The Knife - Silent Shout
3. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
4. Adult - Glue Your Eyelids Together
5. Prima Donnas - Reagan's Dead
6. Epoxies - Need More Time
7. Gerty - Lower Moreland
8. Capricorns - Pretty Girls
9. Cobra Killer - I Like it When it Burns a Bit
X. Hot Beat - Mall Song

Holla back!

Weird, but three years on, when somebody would finally nitpick on the fact that I included a German act (Bolland) in my list in spite of my definition, I was the one who did it. :)

The legendary rebellion, presented again it all its glory:

I will definitely use a very narrow definition here. Synthpop is, by definition, 80-84 English New Romantic pop music with male vocals and a completely synth dominated sound. Anyway, here is sort of a list:
1. The Landscape Is Changing - Depeche Mode
2. Ghosts - Japan
3. Forbidden Colours - David Sylvian & Ryuchi Sakamoto
4. Told You So - Depeche Mode
5. Blasphemous Rumours - Depeche Mode
6. Hide & Seek - Howard Jones
7. Do Or Die - Human League
8. Gentlemen Take Polaroids - Japan
9. Fools - Depeche Mode
10.Stories Of Old - Depeche Mode

And the next 15:

11.It's My Life - Talk Talk
12.Doctor! Doctor! - Thompson Twins
13.Dreaming Of Me - Depeche Mode
14.Don't You Want Me - Human League
15.Vienna - Ultravox
16.Fade To Grey - Visage
17.We Are Detective - Thompson Twins
18.Visions Of China - Japan
19.Souvenir - OMD
20.Two Minute Warning - Depeche Mode
21.[/b]You're In The Army Now - Bolland[/b]
22.Hold Me Now - Thompson Twins
23.Today - Talk Talk
24.Bedsitter - Soft Cell
25.Everything Counts - Depeche Mode

-- Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 30 March 2003 13:09 (4 years ago)

the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart
the twins - face to face, heart to heart

Never heard of this band, but the samples sound intriguing, in a "guilty pleasure" sort-of way.