Richard Evans - Inventing Electronic Pop

Electronic Music

Richard Evans has worked in the music industry for over thirty years in a variety of roles, including positions at London Records, Factory Records and MTV Europe. In 1998 he set up marketing consultancy The Fan Base and has been connecting musical artists with their audiences ever since. He is the founder of the This Is Not Retro website and record label and has worked for Andy Bell, Vince Clarke and Erasure since 2009.

During the pandemic, Richard set out to create a definitive record of electronic music during its earliest and most defining era, between 1978 and 1983. Instead of interviewing people with rose-tinted and distorted memories of that period, he instead decided to research the very magazines and publications being created as things happened to piece together an accurate record of the movement as it unfolded in real time.

See the Show Notes for further details.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:16 - Why chose this 5-year period?
04:40 - What made you want to write this book?
12:17 - What do you consider milestone songs in electronic pop?
17:29 - Were producers and labels more important back then?
20:07 - Why was British electronic pop at the forefront of the movement?
28:00 - The impact of Bowie
31:29 - The influence of literature and politics on early electronic pop
35:05 - Witnessing electronic music live
40:00 - Will we ever see a musical revolution like that again?
44:05 - What did you learn about how underrepresented women were in this genre?

Richard Evans Biog
Richard Evans has worked in the music industry for over thirty years in a variety of roles, including positions at London Records, Factory Records and MTV Europe. In 1998 he set up marketing consultancy The Fan Base and has been connecting musical artists with their audiences ever since. He is the founder of the This Is Not Retro website and record label and has worked for Andy Bell, Vince Clarke and Erasure since 2009. Richard is based in Dorset where he lives in perpetual fear of being asked what his favourite record is.

https://inventingelectronicpop.com/

Accompanying Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/ 31rfel5t6akji2obaa3g2bdyhpni

Rob Puricelli Biog
Rob Puricelli is a Music Technologist and Instructional Designer who has a healthy obsession with classic synthesizers and their history. In conjunction with former Fairlight Studio Manager, Peter Wielk, he fixes and restores Fairlight CMI’s so that they can enjoy prolonged and productive lives with new owners. He also writes reviews and articles for Sound On Sound, his website Failed Muso, and other music-related publications, as well as hosting a weekly livestream on YouTube for the Pro Synth Network and guesting on numerous music technology podcasts and shows. He also works alongside a number of manufacturers, demonstrating their products and lecturing at various educational and vocational establishments about music technology.

www.failedmuso.com
Twitter: @failedmuso
Instagram: @failedmuso
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/failedmuso/