Your explanation of that song by Lloyd is exactly why us Gen Xers complain about "modern music." It seems like songcraft now is just about finding a good sample from an old original song, and just building around it. It's one thing to cover a great song, but it's another thing just to rip it off.
Agreed. But also modern music is about as least diverse as it’s ever been. And yet we’re being told it’s all about diversity now. The 70s 80s and 90s was twice as diverse as the industry is now. All lies.
I totally agree. Im not against sampling when it’s done in a creative way, but way too many modern pop songs just take the melody and change NOTHING. I guess the one good thing is the original artist ideally gets to claim royalties for it (assuming they don’t have to go to court over it, in which case the original band would win anyway). I just hate the lack of creativity today.
It's tough when the industry tries not to promote actual talent when they can make money with drivel. Sure, there has always been low-calorie filler songs, but when musicians had to be masters of their instruments even the stinker songs were better than the overly-produced, hyper technically manipulated soul-less music we get now. For example, Dave Grohl made the first Foo Fighters album by playing all of the instrumental parts himself. That is an amazing/superhuman feat, but an example of something that needs to be valued by the industry so that it doesn't disappear.
This came out in 1983 and it is still a beautiful song. Tony Hadley can sing anything. He still performs. Sade ( the english singer) designed their outfit
Spandau Ballet were huge in the UK and only crossed over to the USA with this #4 hit. They were a big part of the early-'80s "New Romantic" musical movement in England. Psychedelic rappers P.M. Dawn took this sample all the way to #1 Pop with their "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" back around 1991.
@@pamelariker5525 Sorry, I was giving American English pronunciation. The first syllable has more of an o sound to it, like how we say spawn. Span has an a sound the way we talk. And yes, I meant dow as in how the Dow Jones is pronounced. :)
I am 80 years younger, I don't listen to much new "music. I listen mainly classic and metal music. Much better musicians. Please find some 60 to 80's music from War. Just pick something, they always put out good songs. You already heard Ozzy, try Iron Maiden, Dio, and my favorite Kamelot.
the reason your recognising so many of these songs is because artists over the last 20 to 30 years don't come up with original material especially R&B and RAP artists they just sample and as a younger lady that's the version you've heard. its great seeing your reaction when you recognised the original song
The egregious sampling that started in the 90s bugs me. It is one thing to like a song and do a cover of it in your own style, but many were just lifting melodies and rhythms from songs as if it was their own. So many young people have gone through their lives thinking 'artists' they liked came up with these great sounds, when they were actually lifted from other songs. It is not until they stumble across the original that they realize what happened.
Yeah, hope there's a way to let younger folks express themselves, but there's no replacement for being the actual creator of something rather than just an inheritor. Dig deep within themselves and find something new that makes all of excited to hear it!
For all of us to be excited about. Beyond music this goes to design fields as well. We used to reference and transform...not copy and hope no one has the memory of the original. No hate...it's just such a missed opportunity for people to tap into themselves instead of collecting things other people created.
Ugh, shut up. All those oldschool musicians you worship, often lifted a shitload of riffs and interpolations from songs before them. And because of artists sampling older tracks, the new gen gets up on the old gems, so the flame of the classics gets passed on. Maybe get off your high horse and try being a bit less sour and give credit where credit is due 🙄
A little history for you; Spandau {spand dow[ prison is in Germany where they housed the top nazi criminals after WW2. After each execution the top guard there used to dance, or ballet to show how happy he was.
Good fact to know but I don't really think the band named themselves after that . It just sounded like a cool name for a band in the 80's . Are you an English history buff interested in Nazi history like a lot of Brits are who f!ckin hate the Germans ? That's in the past learn to move on. Schade !
This was called the romantic period and all the bands dressed well and produced exceptional work. Spandau Ballet were exceptional, this and Gold are considered their top songs but others are also fantastic. The singer is Tony Hadley and is still singing today and his voice is still brilliant.
If this ain't proof of what truly works; many recent artists seem to fall back to the 70's 80's music to boost their careers. If you can't make good music yourself, just cover an oldie that is timeless. Most times, covers rarely stack up to the original .
A large percentage of popular music artists are simply sampling a prior musician’s creative work. The artist may add a beat or background sound effect, but the melody comes from the musician.
It's 80's SophistiPop and no one did it Better than Spandau Ballet.. Other 80's SophistiPop bands are Swing Out Sister, Blow Monkeys, ABC, Sade, Everything But the Girl, Style Coucil & Bryan Ferry.
I'd say most of the artists you mentioned did Sophisti-pop as well as Spandau Ballet, particularly Sade, Style Council, Everything but the girl. Also Simply Red, The Blue Nile, Level 42
Worse than that..The term is thought to refer to the many prisoners who hanged at Spandau - and whose bodies 'twitched and jumped on the end of a rope' as if dancing.
It actually refers to the twitching movement of Nazi war criminals that were hanged at the Spandau prison, although there is also the possibility that it even goes back to WWI and those Allied soldiers shot by the Spandau MG42 machine while caught in barbed wire.
Wrong. The term “Spandau ballet” originated in World War 1, when the German biplane pilots fired the (rotary firing) Spandau machine gun. They said that the bullets danced around like a ballet, and Allied pilots adopted the term “Spandau ballet” for the spiralling pattern of bullets coming towards them. The WW2 term came 35-plus years later.
More reason to argue that so many of today's music is unoriginal and resorts to ripping off hooks from songs from past decades. And today's generation thinks these are original hooks. Without making it abundantly clear these songs are built around sampling from another artist's work is just creative theft, even if they pay royalties, allowing listeners to believe it is an original work is creative theft.
This is the REAL version and so much better. Spandau Ballet were a big time original band in the 80'and far from cheesy and i wonder what they are going to say about most of today's crap in 40 years.
Just bc it's excepted, doesn't mean he didn't do anything wrong lol in fact lots of 90s hip-hop singers just stole so much from artists . Sad , i mean they could have at least gave them credit
@samjohnson7869 not exactly true, there's some people who do but theres alot that say they just sample it and it's ok. I mean dr. Dre never paid David McCallum anything for use of " the edge " when they used it in " The Next Episode " bc he talked crap about Dre until the day he passed lol
Accepted. Excepted would refer to an exception. Example would be: Everyone on the bus.. except you two! Accept(ed) - means to receive something (usually willingly). Examples include : I accept your proposal. The offer was accepted. He accepted a plea bargain. Your welcome. This is why in America we have to teach English to HS students who've spent years using the language (incorrectly). No child left behind.
In the day 15 of June 2024 my mother passed away at 92 yrs old and every time i see TRUE video from HUMAN LEAGUE i cry because life is full of happiness and sadness at the same time.
Spandau Ballet had a natural progression from New Romantic to sophisti-pop. Garry Kemp, the bands guitarist and songwriter (yet on piano in ithis clip) wrote the song for his friend and unrequited love interest, Scottish singer and actress Clare Grogan. Tony Hadley brings the foghorn vocals. Check out their songs "Gold" and "Only when you leave"
It's not plagiarism, but it sure is lack of musical talent, creativity, and laziness. It's not about integrity as a so called "artist?, It's about quick 💵💵💵💵💵 with the least amount of effort for everyone involved! It's 🐂💩.
THAT is the song I was trying to remember as Britt was talking about Lloyd's song "You"! And, yes, she should react to "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" now that she has heard "True".
I think Tony Hadley was actually in their Music video towards the end of this song. Not sure he voiced the backup sample though, but the recording does sound cleaner than the original.
ooo that hair is ❤🔥. SB is iconic 80's but every time I hear those cords it reminds me of PM Dawn - Set A Drift On Memory Bliss at the same time. Another song that should blow your mind is Kate Bush - This Woman's Work.
You pronounced it correctly the first time: SPAN-DOW ballet Bill Murray on SNL used to do an act that mocked lounge singers which I think was the term you were looking for when you said they were like singers on a cruise. Absolutely wonderful song. I thought we were going to see a PDC award for it.
Running out of music? NEVER! You don't go back very far these days. Try 'The Man the with Child in his eyes' (Kate Bush), 'Without You' (Nillson), 'Yesterday' (Beatles), 'Soldier Blue' Buffy St Marie, 'It's over' (Roy Orbison), 'Angie' (Rolling Stones), 'Spirit in the Sky' (Norman Greenbaum), 'I won't let the show go on' (Leo Sayer), 'Giving it all away' (Roger Daltrey, vocals the Who), 'Jolene' (Ray LaMontagne - not the same as Dolly's!), and that's just the bangers off the top of my head..........
Steve Buscemi anyone..? lol Span-dau Ballet The "dau" has the same vowel sound as "cow". I'm also gonna throw out Spandau Ballet, through the barricades for a future reaction.
This band and song was big in the UK, and you are quite right in that for the school prom, or disco, they would often play this song last. Tony Hadley is just a great vocalist within a great band. One song that would often get played when the prom / disco was in full swing is another of their songs called Gold. It is possible you could have heard this song somewhere, but is well worth a reaction.
When you first showed that you recognized the song I thought you were going to refer to “the wedding singer” the Adam Sandler movie. This was one of many eighties songs . Always good to have you react to great music!!! Thank you always!!!!
My special category of music that I love is romantic decadent music. It's so romantic that it is decadent to the point that it is about the obsession of being in love and the atmosphere around that condition. There's a whole list of music artists that have that obsession of love and most of these songs reside in the 1980s and 1990s.
The term “Spandau ballet” originated in World War 1, when the German biplane pilots fired the (rotary firing) Spandau machine gun. They said that the bullets danced around like a ballet, and Allied pilots adopted the term “Spandau ballet” for the spiralling pattern of bullets coming towards them. The WW2 term came 35-plus years later.
Spandau, as I have always pronounced it, is Span-Dow, like "Ow! I hurt myself." I am sure the German pronunciation is slightly different. This is one of those really romantic songs that take me back to my teen years in the early 80s when I would watch MTV all day. Fun fact: The piano player in the video, Gary Kemp, played the role of Sy Spector in the 1992 hit movie The Bodyguard, starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.
Can anyone say 'copyright infringement'? These newbies not only don't know the music of the original artists, THEY CAN'T EVEN PRONOUNCE THEIR NAME CORRECTLY - LOL. This was an eighties anthem, used in so many film soundtracks and on MTV for a long while. "Span-DOW" like the Dow Jones Industrial Average - from Spandau Prison, in Berlin Germany.
The term “Spandau ballet” originated in World War 1, when the German biplane pilots fired the (rotary firing) Spandau machine gun. They said that the bullets danced around like a ballet, and Allied pilots adopted the term “Spandau ballet” for the spiralling pattern of bullets coming towards them. The WW2 term came 35-plus years later.
The style of dress is "New Romantic" which was counter culture to Punk which was counter culture to rock n roll. Britain was and has long been a hot bed of cultural, fashion and musical innovation.
Why I subscribed to your channel is not because I love your reactions as it brings me to a smile but because of your wide range of true quality music stored in your bright mind…keep smiling that beautiful smile and take care out there😉
Exactly Britt. This takes me back to my youth and going to beef and beers. This was usually the last song of the night. Last chance to ask a girl to dance.
Oh yeah- PM Dawn also sampled this song. That's another good, nostalgic song and also a 90's R&B hit. Anyway, Spandau is classic. One of the bands that ruled the 80's. Saturday morning, waking up in a clean flat- ready for the day/weekendand this song in the background. This is what I always think about when I hear this song.
Even though they were a kinda soft rock band their name has dark and eerie roots. Spandau was a prison that was located on the outskirts of Berlin. When World War 2 ended the allies took control of the prison and used it to house the Nazi war criminals that were sentenced from the various trials held in Nuremberg. Some of the executions, for those sentenced to death, were carried out at Spandau Prison and the method used was hanging. When a prisoner was hanged his legs would jerk and twitch. American GI's, who were the executioners, would call this the Spandau Ballet. Spandau Prison was demolished in 1987 when it's last inmate, Rudolph Hess, died in custody. He was the last Nazi of Hitler's inner circle who was still incarcerated. He was the sole occupant of Spandau Prison from 1966 until his death in 1987.
It's funny. Graduated from high school in '85. When fashion was mentioned, I kind of have been wishing recent ly that I had had the foresight to buy extra '80s shirts and pants, sneakers, etc and tucked them away until now, and then wear them on occassion. How fun. Oh well. I guess it would've probably seemed not practical because your body has a high chance of changing in late middle age, but actually I ended up being the same size I was in high school. At least my jonior and senior years of high school.
The throwback look, instrumentation, singing style are completely intentional. A lot of '80s new wave groups were modeling themselves on American soul groups and Motown acts, hence the lyric "Listening to Marvin [as in Marvin Gaye] all night long." See also: ABC, another British act who had a US hit with a tribute to Smokey Robinson, "When Smokey Sings."
Their first track was - to cut a long story short - great track. Britt - your reactions are amazing - check more British 80s - Aztec Camera, ABC, Terence Trent Darby - US Gi who broker in Britain.