Depeche Mode (French for "hurried fashion") was one of the first and best of the British synth-pop bands, combining breathless, melodic pop with perky electronics. With main songwriter Vince Clarke's departure for Yaz, Martin Gore took the reigns, an…

Led by depressive pop prince Robert Smith, the Cure have taken their legions of fans on a journey from post-punk to gothic to new wave to art rock, stopping only for refills of hairspray along the way. An amazing band both live and in the studio, the…

Joy Division virtually defined the term "post-punk." They combined punk's rawness and iconoclasm with an artier sensibility that encompassed poetic lyrics, existentialism, and a dark moody mix of guitars and keyboards that was a major influence on go…

Formed in the mid-1980s, the British electropop dance duo Pet Shop Boys neatly summed up the age of WALL STREET player Gordon Gecko's greed-is-good dictum and Ronald Reagan's trickle-down economics policy in one of their early singles, "Opportunities…

Despite the band's name, the Love Generation touches that brought the Psychedelic Furs great acclaim came only after they'd established their initial style. Theirs was a dark, swirling sound that mixed Bowie-ish art-rock and post-punk guitars with Ri…

Along with Teardrop Explodes and Wah! Heat, Echo & the Bunnymen were part of the early-1980s Liverpool scene that was somewhat misleadingly dubbed "neo-psychedelic." While the Bunnymen bore elements of the Doors' dark, mysterious sound and decidedly …

At the dawn of the 1980s, Duran Duran was part of Britain's "futurist" or "new romantic" scene, which merged glam-rock attitude with disco beats and synthesizers to form an intensely fashion-conscious variant on new wave. With their good looks and po…

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's debut album as Tears For Fears appeared smack dab in the middle of the '80s UK synth-pop invasion, but it was no mere pop trifle. THE HURTING is full of sophisticated production and accomplished songwriting, using the …

In its crude initial formation in 1976, Siouxsie & the Banshees consisted of members of the "Bromley contingent," a group of notorious Sex Pistols groupies. In various permutations, the band survived for almost 20 years. Featuring core members Siouxs…

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into th…

The 1987 breakup of the Smiths saddened legions of fans, but it led to a fruitful solo career for lead singer and lyricist Morrissey. The Smiths were very much a singles band, and VIVA HATE, Morrissey's first record, continued in the Smiths vein with…

Like many groups that achieved mainstream success in the 1980s, Australia's INXS was kinetically inspired by the British punk scene. Led by charismatic singer Michael Hutchence and the musically gifted Farriss brothers, INXS began as a new-wave rock …

After founding seminal synth-pop outfits Depeche Mode and Yaz, Vince Clarke joined forces with singer Andy Bell in the mid-1980s to form Erasure, combining Clarke's melodic electro-pop pedigree with a more danceable approach. The duo scored numerous …

Formed by ex-Depeche Mode leader/synth wizard Vince Clarke and London soul/blues vocalist Allison Moyet, Yaz (originally known as Yazoo), at first seemed like an unlikely duo, but their electro-soul sound managed to chart repeatedly in the UK Top 10.…

U2's Bono was one of the few real rock heroes of the 1980s, leading the Irish band to international recognition with a charged, political approach to music. The band's early efforts brought a stadium-size presence to alt-rock, with Bono's expressive …

The Clash was one of the first and most important British punk bands. In the 1970s, they were the Beatles to the Sex Pistols' Stones, and went on to incorporate elements from all the roots music they loved--reggae, rockabilly, soul, blues--without ev…

The mercurial David Bowie is the original pop chameleon. He's been everything from inoffensive pop singer to glam icon to white soul man to art-rocker and more in the course of his long, prolific career. Although Bowie's first hit was 1969's "Space O…

Pair a disciple of Oscar Wilde (Morrissey) with an innovator of the electric guitar (Johnny Marr) and you have the most clever cult band of the 1980s, the Smiths. Though they made some of the most effortlessly catchy music of the era, the tension bet…

Proving you could rock despite having attended the Rhode Island School of Design, Talking Heads' innovative brand of downtown art-pop featured David Byrne's manic yelp, pointed lyrics about mundane subjects, and R&B-meets-Velvet Underground grooves, …

With their minimalist electronic approach and lyrics preoccupied with the seedier side of sensuality, the British duo Soft Cell were unlikely pop stars. Nevertheless, that's what they became in the early '80s, boosted by their massive hit "Tainted Lo…