Let The Music Play

Description

Let The Music Play by Steven Vass is a detailed look at how artists and producers used synths and other new music tech to reinvent R&B, concentrating on the period from 1978-86. Covering a wide range of artists, genres and scenes, including disco, LA/Solar Records, Minneapolis/Prince, boogie, New York electro/post-disco, Britfunk, Jam & Lewis, movie/promo influence and mid-80s pop. As well as covering big stars like Prince, Sade and Janet Jackson, it looks at many great artists who are often forgotten, such as Skyy, Loose Ends, Imagination, Colonel Abrams, Princess, Gwen Guthrie, Lillo Thomas, Zapp, Jonzun Crew and Yarbrough & Peoples.

“When anybody talks about 80s synth, they’re usually talking about British invaders like The Human League and Soft Cell, the beginnings of Detroit techno/Chicago house, or early hip-hop,” says author Steven Vass. “Now, these are all fantastic, but so much has been written about them already! We tend to ignore that generation of mainly black stars in America and the UK who used synths, drum machines and sequencers to bombard the charts with a new futuristic R&B. Sure, you can read books about Prince or Janet Jackson. Or you can read about how some of these R&B songs shaped techno or hip-hop. But what’s missing is a book about this music in its own right.”

Quotes

“The Glaswegian critic Steven Vass’s passion for the golden era of synth-driven R&B — 1978 to 1986, ’twixt disco and house — is evident on every page of his first book. Sometimes he overreaches: One chapter is titled “No Parking on the Ladies’ Candy Freakfloor.” But few writers, even in academia, describe music with such granular detail. Vass is also invested in the lore of this period — his chapters on Prince and the team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are particularly revelatory, climaxing with Prince tossing his copy of Janet Jackson’s Control on Jam’s lawn.” Michaelangelo Matos (Rolling Stone’s Best Books of 2024)