@ClassicPopMag

Three years into the decade and, for a cast of talented artists, it was time to bring those Sweet Dreams to fruition. In 1983, pop hit a pinnacle.

The tech revolution begun the previous decade had rewired the way music was being made. And now artists began to talk of ‘designing’ hits as opposed to just writing them. Where the dawn of the 80s had been dedicated to discovery, experimentation and manifesto, 1983 was all guns blazing.

The thrifty graduates of the early DIY movement, previously wide-eyed at any piece of kit they could get their mitts on, were now geared up and masters of the art, fast becoming the big guns of pop – and with big budgets to match. The result was a disproportionate amount of innovation and drive – and a disproportionate amount of massive tunes. At the same time, the recession in which they’d evolved was digging its heels in for the masses, with over three million still out of work, as – in stark contrast – NASA blasted billions back into space. Curious times indeed. Yet through that disharmony and hardship came liberation via the giant creative, machine-born leaps being made back on terra firma.