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“I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas.

I'm frightened of the old ones.”

John Cage

 
 
    music

Dwoogie

 
Secrets of the 80s Part 1 - the Power Ballad   Secrets of the 80s Part I - the Power Ballad

1. Foreign

2. Hero

3. Power I

4. Power III

5. Breath

6. Everything

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The 80s - bad hair, bad clothes, and bad sounds. Pop music's wasteland. A decade most who lived through were glad to see the back of. And there was one pop music form that was determinedly 80s. From its horribly twee piano openings to its gated reverbed choruses, the power ballad was the 80s at its worst. Think Jennifer Rush. Think Tina Turner. Think, God help us, Phil Collins.

However, after no small amount of audio research into power ballads, I began to notice something strange. Beneath the surface, these superficially ghastly, breast-beating paeans to love had hidden depths, and those depths were disturbing and chilling in equal measure. Ghostly voices, machine clanks, chains rippling in a foetid draught.

I present here the results of my research, 6 thoroughly demixed power ballads, stripped bare of pomposity to reveal the heart of darkness within.

The 80s will never seem the same.

There were two rules for this project:
1. All sound material for 1 piece must be sourced from 1 power ballad.
2. No more than one day to be spent on each piece - keep it quick and dirty.

 

  
 
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This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.