Synth rock

Many progressive rock bands had incorporated synthesisers into their sound, including Pink Floyd, Yes and Genesis. In 1977 Ultravoxmember Warren Cann purchased a Roland TR-77 drum machine, which was first featured in their October 1977 single release "Hiroshima Mon Amour". The ballad arrangement, metronome-like percussion and heavy use of the ARP Odyssey synthesiser was effectively a prototype for nearly all synth pop and rock bands that were to follow. In 1978, the first incarnation of The Human League released their début single "Being Boiled". Others were soon to follow, including Tubeway Army, a little known outfit from West London, who dropped their punk rock image and jumped on the band wagon, topping the UK charts in the summer of 1979 with the single "Are Friends Electric?". This prompted the singer, Gary Numan to go solo and in the same year he release the Kraftwerk inspired album, The Pleasure Principle and again topped the charts for the second time with the single "Cars". Particularly through its adoption by New Romantics, synthesizers came to dominate the pop and rock music of the early 80s. Albums such as Visage's Visage (1980), John Foxx's Metamatic (1980), Gary Numan'sTelekon (1980), Ultravox's Vienna (1980), The Human League's Dare (1981) and Depeche Mode's Speak and Spell (1981), established a sound that influenced most mainstream pop and rock bands, until it began to fall from popularity in the mid-1980s.

New romantics

New Romanticism emerged as part of the New Wave music movement in London nightclubs including Billy's and The Blitz Club towards the end of the 1970s. Influenced by David Bowie and Roxy Music, it developed glam rock fashions, gaining its name from the frilly fop shirts of early Romanticism. New Romantic music often made extensive use of synthesisers. Pioneers included Visage, Japan and Ultravox and among the commercially most successful acts associated with the movement were Adam and the Ants, Culture Club, The Human League,Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran. By about 1983 the original movement had dissolved, with surviving acts dropping most of the fashion elements to pursue mainstream careers.

The second British invasion

Dire Straits Playing in Norway in October 1985

From its inception in 1981, the cable music channel MTV featured a disproportionate amount of music videos from image conscious British acts. In the fall of 1982, "I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock of Seagulls entered the Billboard Top Ten, arguably the first successful song that owed almost everything to video. They would be followed by bands like Duran Duran whose glossy videos would come to symbolise the power of MTV. Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" gently poked fun at MTV which had helped make them international rock stars. In 1983, 30% of the record sales were from British acts. 18 of the top 40 and 6 of the top 10 singles on 18 July were by British artists. Overall record sales would rise by 10% from 1982. Newsweek featured Annie Lennox of Eurythmics and Boy George of Culture Club on the cover of one of its issues, while Rolling Stone would release an "England Swings" issue. In April 1984, 40 of the top 100 singles were from British acts while 8 of the top 10 singles in a May 1985 survey were of British origin Veteran music journalist Simon Reynolds theorised that similar to the first British Invasion the use of black American influences by the British acts helped to spur success. Commentators in the mainstream media credited MTV and the British acts with bringing colour and energy to back to pop music while rock journalists were generally hostile to the phenomenon because they felt it represented image over content.