Political Influences On British Popular Music

I was twelve years old when we entered the eighties. I had just started adolescence, and I hated the boring town I had grown up in. I had been playing electronic organ for a while and became fascinated with electronic music. By the time I was sixteen, I had started to go to an obscure underground club every Saturday night. I started to smoke and thought I had an opinion about the world around me. I was convinced that having funny hair and liking a certain kind of music gave me an identity, a political view, one that was heavily influenced by my new surroundings. I had started a band which played electronic music, and I wrote lyrics around themes as paying taxes, war and drugs.
Thinking back, on an evening in 2011, I realised that most of my pupils’ parents were about the same age as I was and that they knew the music I grew up with, …show more content…
This paper will try to paint a picture of the background to the music of the eighties which came from the UK, and to explore the message that it spread. It covers the main political events and themes of the decade and makes connections with the contemporary politically flavoured songs.
The list of politically relevant songs is nearly endless, and many are beyond the scope of this paper. Therefore, this paper will only focus on British popular music published in the 1980s, excluding folk music, punk and other songs that did not enter the charts. Only the most historically important political events will be covered, starting with Thatcher and her influence on British pop music. Other relevant contemporary events which were used in songs by various artists are also discussed.
Three books have been used to establish a chronological timeline of the various events, songs and artists which I further explored on the Internet, which has proven to be a vital source for additional information and explanations of