1984 was another transitional year for him, a year that in many ways saw as many changes as had 1981, the year he left Boston for Atlanta. In 1984, he left his job with the state and started a new career with an environmental engineering company, a firm for which he went on to work for the next 20 years. He learned how to make a living by consulting, he traveled the country, and he vacationed in the Bahamas.
Meanwhile, The Art of Noise's debut album came out that year and heralded "the dawn of a new pop sensibility where sequencers, samplers and drum machines held sway" (Charles Waring). He was fascinated not only by the sampling and the sound of the Fairlight Synthesizer, but also the plasticity of the songs, which were endlessly remixed and reissued. He became accustomed to the 12" single format upon which those remixes were released, and collected not only Art of Noise singles, but the numerous mixes of Frankie Goes to Hollywood songs produced by the Art of Noises' Trevor Horn as well. His conception of pop songs expanded from a fixed sequence of notes and words and sounds to a suggestion of any one of an infinite number of mutable possibilities that could be rearranged, mixed up, and blended with other sounds, possibly even DIY-style, implying new roles and a new relationship to music for non-musician listeners like himself. He likes it that the video above embraces that same DIY attitude and involvement.
It wasn't all vacations and record stores for him that year, however. To his surprise, he had fallen in love with that co-worker who had moved down from Boston and had become his girlfriend, but 1984 was a transitional year for her, too, as she had accepted a job offer in Denver. So 1984 also witnessed the start of the long, painful dissolution of the attempted long-distance relationship that followed. Throughout the year, an undercurrent of melancholy and loss darkened the mid-80s party atmosphere, and lingered around him for the rest of the decade.
Meanwhile, The Art of Noise's debut album came out that year and heralded "the dawn of a new pop sensibility where sequencers, samplers and drum machines held sway" (Charles Waring). He was fascinated not only by the sampling and the sound of the Fairlight Synthesizer, but also the plasticity of the songs, which were endlessly remixed and reissued. He became accustomed to the 12" single format upon which those remixes were released, and collected not only Art of Noise singles, but the numerous mixes of Frankie Goes to Hollywood songs produced by the Art of Noises' Trevor Horn as well. His conception of pop songs expanded from a fixed sequence of notes and words and sounds to a suggestion of any one of an infinite number of mutable possibilities that could be rearranged, mixed up, and blended with other sounds, possibly even DIY-style, implying new roles and a new relationship to music for non-musician listeners like himself. He likes it that the video above embraces that same DIY attitude and involvement.
FWIW, he first heard both The Art of Noise and Frankie Goes To Hollywood on Georgia State's WRAS, Album 88.
It wasn't all vacations and record stores for him that year, however. To his surprise, he had fallen in love with that co-worker who had moved down from Boston and had become his girlfriend, but 1984 was a transitional year for her, too, as she had accepted a job offer in Denver. So 1984 also witnessed the start of the long, painful dissolution of the attempted long-distance relationship that followed. Throughout the year, an undercurrent of melancholy and loss darkened the mid-80s party atmosphere, and lingered around him for the rest of the decade.
http://youtu.be/4zgh0y9vTgY
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