You may know your ABC from your OMD, but what about those pivotal figures who facilitated those famous bands’ ascent to the top of the charts? Hidden behind the angular hair and programmed grooves were an elite group of game-changing individuals pushing the buttons, and here Classic Pop presents the underground avant-garde innovators who (mostly) never quite made it overground – fearless pathfinders who bashed down the door for those who did. We also salute the producers and programmers – sculptors of sound whose technical prowess shaped the hits.
Selecting just 20 entries has proved as challenging as patching up a modular synth, and some readers will no doubt be screaming at the glaring omissions. But hopefully the results sound pleasingly otherworldly, if not always tuneful…