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Shiny and New: Ten Moments of Pop Genius that Defined the '80s

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Shiny and New: Ten Moments of Pop Genius that Defined the '80s
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Dylan Jones
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:320
Dimensions(mm): Height 232,Width 152
Category/GenreRock and Pop
ISBN/Barcode 9781474620062
ClassificationsDewey:306.48424
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Imprint White Rabbit
Publication Date 8 July 2021
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The Eighties were about big ideas writ large - new money, new style, gender fluidity, gay pride, attritional politics, the 'special relationship', nuclear fear, AIDS, cocaine, ecstasy, tabloid royalty, the rise of urban pop, and ultimately geopolitical chaos. Using a big narrative approach, Dylan Jones' history of the decade in pop frames the decade through some of its most important and popular hits, choosing records which either epitomised their time, or ushered in a new cultural shift. So we move seamlessly from Rapper's Delight and the genre defining moment of hip hop into The Specials' spectral, Ghost Town; from ABC and the apotheosis of New Pop (The Look of Love) to Madonna's breakthrough moment with Like a Virgin, and so on. In the '80s each year brought a new twist as technology shifted and genres snowballed, MTV reigned supreme and the story of pop became globalised. It was a decade of excess in all areas, especially ambition, but it was in the transcendent moments of pop perfection that the '80s found its true art-form. Subjective and idiosyncratic, SHINY AND NEW takes us from downtown New York to post-industrial Manchester, in the first widescreen attempt to weave together the stories, the songs and events that re-shaped music and society.

Author Biography

New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Dylan Jones has written or edited over twenty books. In the 1980s, he was one of the first editors of i-D, before becoming a Contributing Editor of The Face and Editor of Arena. He spent the next decade working in newspapers - principally the Observer and the Sunday Times - before embarking on a multi-award-winning tenure at GQ. A former columnist for the Guardian and the Independent, he is a Trustee of the Hay Festival, and a peripatetic television producer. In 2012 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing.