Future Pop: Music for the Eighties

This book is fascinating from a historical perspective. It covers no less than 108 artists and groups with a page devoted to each, containing photographs and quotes from the artists about their lives, their music and the pop world. Looking back after many years, it's interesting to note who made it big, who's still alive and who faded into obscurity. Of those still making music, U2, Laurie Anderson, Sting, The Cure, Madonna, Peter Gabriel and Eurythmics became most successful, while defunct bands like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Culture Club, OMD and others also made their mark on the charts. Many of these acts became cult artists with a devoted following, like David Byrne, Tom Verlaine, Nina Hagen, Alan Vega, Howard Devoto, Richard Hell and Julian Cope, while others had already reached cult status when the book was published, like John Cale, Robert Fripp, Nico, Rick James, Bill Nelson and Jayne County. Other seminal acts include The Cramps, Klaus Nomi, Joan Jett, Dead Kennedys, Public Image Limited, The Stranglers and Iggy Pop. The startling and impressive color and black&white photographs by Noble capture the essence of the artists and the style of a long-forgotten era in the history of popular culture so well. The book concludes with a discography of albums and singles plus a short history of the artists' careers up to that point in time. Future Pop gives us a rare early look at the musicians who left their stamp and style on the music and other art forms. It is also a fount of information on those really obscure artists that stopped recording somewhere along the way.