We’ve talked about how great the 1980s were for bass players, as they escaped the confines of guitar-rock music and found room to be heard in other genres. But looking back, the reality was that the 1980s would eventually spell the end of the road for many bassists, in the sense of being heard prominently on commercial releases; the synthesiser, the sampler, and the sequencer, conspired to take the low end action away from the traditional player, as the 1990s approached.