Ultravox etc. The Brits make the best music when technology and individuality thrives. Without a doubt the 80s was the best era for British music. OK im biased as it brings back memories for me. But im listening to Howard Jones music on Rhapsody and its as fresh now as it was back then. One good thing about the music business now is that no longer can artists rely on copycat trite sample this and sample that now they would go out there learn basic piano and keyboards or guitar and just play. By the way in spite of some great keyboards manufactured in the 90s, M1, O1w, triton, trinity etc the 90s was one of the dullest decades of music where sampling ruled. One could spend ages trying to get a synth to sound like as real instrument while ignoring its great sounds.
Am i right ? Or am i just being nostalgic and silly ?

PS: What on earth happened to Five Star ?

Have to disagree. I think the 80s was the blandest decade for British music, but to each their own. If it keeps you happy ....

Do many people really care what happened to Five Star?

The 80s was one of the best decades of music as far as British bands were concerned. Shall i remind you of how many acts were spawned from old blighty that took on the world. Far better than the 90s and the 00s hasnt fared too much. Biggest UK bands now are Coldplay and U2 (An 80s band by the way).

Just to remind you of some of the acts that conquered America and the rest of the world in the 80s.

Tears for Fears
Duran Duran
The Police
Paul Young
Billy Ocean
Five Star (ok they did well in the R&b charts in the US)
Loose Ends
U2
Erasure
Pet Shop Boys
Big Country
Howard Jones

And so on and on

As for Five Star. I want to know what happened to them. Lets not poo poo their achievements. You may not like them but they did very wellfor a UK r&b/pop group in the 80s. They were the most successful in that genre.

Five Star suffered from one of the brothers being caught in a public convenience while his sister waited outside in the car.Maybe he was perfecting his limbo dancing under a cubicle door, who knows?

You're obviously a big fan of synth pop as I am.I thought the early 80s were good in retrospect, but then you got all this awful americanised drum machine sound and really weak pop-soul invading the charts.One seriously under rated synth pop group were Classix Nouveau.A baldie, bible bashing vocalist tended to detract from what were a lot of very good recordings. Add Flock of Seagulls and The Human league (before the girls joined and they went commercial) to my favourites as well.

Then you had Aneka..........

Well said. Actually it all started to go downhill in my opinion from 1986 when the Americans woke up and started to invade the charts again. But certainly from 1981 to about 1985 with 1985 being the pinnacle year for synth pop. My point about all this was not necessarily a nostalgic look back at the 80s but rather the way UK artists seemed to pick up the synths and make something ultra creative with it unlike their American counterparts who only seemed a bit too conservative in their approach. They still had some top sounds though but nothing matching the Brits. We do best when we run with technology and are creative but sadly since the M1 killed the synth, the talent seemed to be killed off with it. It may all be coming back again as now there is a cry for musicians to pick up their instruments once again and create great stuff. Lets hope they dont all become guitar bands who really cannot be innovative as there is only so much you can do with major chords and rock and roll. Bring on the synth and lets have a british synth pop revival. Anyone listening lol.

thank god for the Smiths

Your point is ... ????

I agree that the Smiths havent dated at all since the eighties.
I find it very interesting, that if you just use classic instruments, music stands the test of time.
A lot of the synth sounds from the 80`s, really grate on me now, rendering a large part of my record collection unlistenable to me.
These sounds still have their place though, as people dont overuse the sounds, they infuse them.
My gorgeous old Pro 1, synth, was bought off of me by Matt, who is in that band fronted by the other guy called JK! I do hope he is still using it..

The success of british acts in the 80s has (almost) nothing to with the quality of the music.

The second british invasion was based on the production of videos and mtv. When mtv started, there were (almost) no american videos, so they had to use british or australian content.

nm