The Afterword

Tiggerlion on Cupid & Psyche 85 by Scritti Politti

Green Gartside and his co-conspirators created this shimmering beauty of a pop album right in the middle of the dire eighties. It was the decade of Margaret Thatcher, economic recession, crippling unemployment, the miners’ strike, “the most bitter industrial dispute in British history”, UK military personnel dying and injured in an actual war, the dreaded Poll Tax and riots in most major cities. Sinn Féin began to stand in elections and The Troubles reached the most powerful in the country, the cabinet itself, at the Brighton Grand Hotel bombing in October 1984. HIV/AIDS was recognised and soon became widespread across the world. Mad Cow Disease appeared in British cattle. Princess Di produced an heir and a spare. Mobile phones, home computers, CDs and the Nintendo Entertainment System went on sale to the public, Eastenders appeared on the BBC and Channel 4 came into being. Live Aid changed the relationship between pop stars and the public. Rapidly developing synthesisers dominated the charts, along with gated drums, reverb, and jangly guitars as typified by the Rickenbacker 330. MTV transformed pop music into images, songs into cultural touchstones, and artists into icons. Michael Jackson’s » Continue Reading.