In Let the Music Play: How R&B Fell In Love With 80s Synths (Paperback, March 5, 2024), author Steven Vass dives deep into a revolutionary moment in Black music history. This vibrant chronicle captures the era when R&B, funk, and disco collided with emerging synth technology to reshape sound, style, and production forever. From pioneering legends like Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock to breakout icons like Prince, Sade, and the producers who defined the decade, Vass unpacks how this genre-bending era helped build the foundation of modern pop and hip-hop.
Let the Music Play: How R&B Fell In Love With 80s Synths is the overlooked story of how R&B, disco and funk were transformed by the explosion of synths and other music tech in the era of ghetto blasters, shoulder pads and Ronald Reagan. It traces how pioneers like Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock inspired a new generation of black musicians and producers in the US and UK to reinvent music using a whole new set of rules.
From superstars like Prince and Sade to production geniuses like Kashif and Jam & Lewis, it looks at how sounds and genres kept adapting to each new innovation, including drum machines, samplers and digital studios. It tells the fascinating stories of the artists involved and how some of the best-loved records of the era were made – creating a blueprint for music today.