Were the synth/post-punk bands of them early eighties 'detached'...

[applause]

I think colin is otm with this - and a lot of it, i don't think, is even naive.

I do see the detatched feeling/mannerisms/attitude in a lot of 80s synth stuff, but it usually makes me think its covering up something else, it sort of exposes some type of vulnerability or something. Somehow that makes a lot of the more cheesy stuff a little bit more endearing somehow. Take Kraftwerk. I know they aren't particularly a synthpop band (I mean, they are but you know) but I think they really have the *detatched* attitude down (I sort of think we need to pin down what we think this *detatchedness* is though), but so much of their music is really touching and beautiful, even while its cold and synthetic. Of course its only in the listener's perception - I've no idea what Gary Numan or OMD or any of them were actually thinking, but I think what I feel is just as important was what they were REALLY feeling.

Hmmm, that said, I think a problem is that we're talking about a zillion bands here.

(This statement can approach banality if I'm not too careful, since most good music does something like this.)

this thread reminds me of something i wrote about dmx krew way back in 2000 (little did i know what an onslaught of 80's revisionism awaited me in the future), but i can't remember how full of shit i was or even if i made sense and i can no longer read the village voice with the browser i use so who knows. but i can provide a link. i do remember thinking that a lot of 80's synth stuff was a great reflection of the fear people felt about the future and technology. as it turns out, they were right to be afraid.

Why? And more importantly, how?

Especially a band like Soft Cell, whose over-the-top lyrics are delivered in a theatrical way that is both sincere and detached--the very essence of camp.

There must exist a G3irbot somewhere who would argue that.