Richard Evans: Listening to the Music the Machines Make

Book number 47 of 2024

The 80s are my favorite decade for music, when it seemed like all kinds of new styles were being created. In 1983, you could turn on the radio and hear hard rock, roots rock, soul, melodic pop, and electronic music all mixed together. My favorite genre from that era was (and is) synthpop, as epitomized by artists such as Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, and Ultravox. Richard Evans has documented the birth and rise of electronic music from 1978 through 1983 in his massive tome (528 pages!), Listening to the Music the Machines Make. It’s a fascinating history of this primarily British musical movement.

Instead of relying exclusively on contemporary interviews of the artists, Evans went back to articles, reviews, and interviews that were published in the music press at the time the music was being released. He does have some recent interviews to support what his research uncovers, but for the most part he unearths reactions and thoughts of the artists when the music was fresh and new. This makes for an honest account that doesn’t rely on the memories of people who were creating this music more than 40 years ago.

Evans begins with describing the effect David Bowie had on British popular music when he unveiled his Ziggy Stardust persona on the BBC television show, Top of the Pops. Bowie’s innovation was to seem to look forward into the future to explain his music. This perspective, along with the availability of inexpensive synthesizers, opened the floodgates for a new wave of music. The short-lived punk movement added its manic energy and DIY aesthetic. All of these elements combined to create the perfect atmosphere in which to create music that was experimental, yet accessible.

Like Evans, I date “The 80s” from about 1977 to 1987. In 1977, I bought the Ramones’ Leave Home album, Talking Heads ’77, The Cars’ debut, Wire’s Pink Flag, as well as many other new wave albums. It was clear to my adolescent ears that drastic changes were happening in music – changes that would challenge the laid-back music of artists like The Eagles or the arena rock of Journey and Foreigner for popularity. Very quickly, the old guard of pop/rock were being supplanted by a host of new, innovative artists.

For me, things didn’t really get interesting until 1980/81. The electronic music produced before then (with the exception of Gary Numan, who, unsurprisingly, was the first big selling synthpop artist) was very experimental and often crude. Cabaret Voltaire, Fad Gadget, and early Ultravox just weren’t very tuneful. However, beginning in 1981, this musical movement began to really shake up the British pop charts. Once Midge Ure joined Ultravox, they became a formidable hit machine. 1981 is also the year Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode released early hits.

Evans obviously did exhaustive research to write this book; it is divided into three main sections: Revolution (1978 & 1979), Transition (1980 & 1981), and Mainstream (1982 & 1983). He also includes a couple of shorter bookend chapters: Inspiration 1977 and Reaction 1984 – 1993. He must have read every issue of New Musical Express, Smash Hits, Record Mirror, Flexidisc, Melody Maker, and ZigZag from 1977 through 1983! I, personally, would have gotten depressed, because one thing that comes across loud and clear from Evans’ comprehensive and meticulous research is the sheer pettiness and shallowness of the British music press. I could cite hundreds of examples, but here are two:

‘Landscape make my flesh crawl, put snakes in my stomach and make my bowels twitch’, wrote Sounds’ Mick Middles. (page 248)

‘The only recognisable feature of Duran Duran is the singer’s voice, otherwise they have no personality, no individuality, no quirks of style. I think this is what is known in some quarters as “good pop”.’ (page 257)

If there’s one common characteristic of practically every reviewer, it’s resentment. As soon as an artist gains popularity, the music media turn on them and try their best to tear them down. Poor Gary Numan, who was the first electronic artist to break big, comes in for a savaging the rest of his career whenever he released a new album. When Blancmange had some chart success, Ian Pye in Melody Maker wrote,

“The K-Tel answer to Simple Minds, the revolting Blancmange have found themselves a mould and of course a shape follows. Pink, soft, and powdery to taste, this will remind you of school dinners and other things too unpleasant to mention here.” (page 361)

Time and time again, the reviewers neglect to actually describe and critique the music, instead going for a clever putdown.

That said, it is entertaining to read what the contemporaneous reactions were to albums that are today considered classics. Duran Duran’s Rio is now counted as one of the essential albums of the 80s, but it was pretty much dismissed in 1981. Ultravox’s Rage In Eden garnered a little more respect, but not much. One group that the consensus seemed to get right was Depeche Mode. Their first album with Vince Clarke, Speak and Spell, was well-crafted but disposable pop, and their album after Clarke left, A Broken Frame, was fairly lightweight. However, by the time Alan Wilder was integrated into the group and they released Construction Time Again, they were recognized as a significant force to be reckoned with.

Even though I am a big fan of this era and style of music, I still learned many new facts about the various artists: for example, the history of The Human League/Heaven 17 personnel, and their beginnings before the Dare and Penthouse and Pavement albums. I also learned that Peter Saville used a color code to include messages on New Order’s Blue Monday‘s and Power, Corruption, and Lies‘ cover art. Fascinating stuff for music nerds like myself!

Evans is a very good writer; he takes what could have been a boring recitation of musical history and turns it into a very entertaining account of some interesting personalities. If you ever wondered what the backstory was to huge hits like The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me or Gary Numan’s Cars, then Listening to the Music the Machines Make is the perfect resource. Evans has spent untold hours revisiting decades-old British music publications and organizing the material into an essential reference. This is a book I’ll be returning to often, and I appreciate all of the work he put into it.

If you are interested in actually listening to the music Evans documents in his book, there is a Spotify playlist for each of the book’s main sections. (Hey, this is the 21st century, right?) They contain practically every song mentioned. I had a blast listening to the songs while reading about them. You can access the playlists here.

Megan Basham’s Shepherds For Sale – Stirring Up a Hornets Nest

Book number 41 of 2024

Megan Basham’s new book, Shepherds For Sale, has made a big splash in evangelical Christian circles with its accusations of prominent leaders “selling out” their orthodox Christian principles. I’m a lifelong United Methodist, and in my denomination that battle was lost decades ago. (As an aside, the only reason I still attend my UMC is because I have many dear friends there.) However, I have read and appreciated evangelical authors such as Timothy Keller (The Reason for God), Russell Moore (Onward), and Eric Metaxas (Miracles). Basham has compiled a convincing case that on a variety of hot button issues, quite a few well-respected pastors – “Big Eva” – have attempted to use their influence to convince evangelical congregations and organizations to lobby for progressive legislation that they normally would oppose.

For example, in Chapter 1, she writes how leftwing environmentalism was rebranded as “creation care” by an organization called the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN). This group received a lot of funding from a Soros-funded think tank, New America, as well as the Clinton Global Initiative. The EEN pushed for cap-and-trade legislation to curb carbon emissions. Meanwhile, evangelical workers in underdeveloped countries were seeing firsthand the incredible damage “green” policies were wreaking. Sri Lanka was, in 2019, improving from a lower-middle-income economy to an upper-middle-income one. Three years later, it was on the verge of collapse, as food shortages became widespread. Rice yields dropped 30%. By joining the fight against climate change, the Sri Lankan government was starving its citizens to death.

Other chapters cover immigration, the pro-life movement, Christian media, Covid-19 policies, critical race theory, the #MeToo movement, and LGBTQ rights. Obviously, Basham is not one to shy away from contentious topics!

So why would Big Eva go left, when its laity are overwhelmingly on the right? Basham makes a convincing case that it’s all about the money. Secular progressive foundations have given millions of dollars to evangelical groups in an attempt to create a wedge between evangelicals and the Republican Party.

If any one person comes off as especially hypocritical in Shepherds For Sale, it’s Russell Moore, the former director of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and current editor-in-chief of the flagship evangelical magazine, Christianity Today. On issue after issue, Moore took positions that were diametrically opposed to those held by the majority evangelical Christians. He promoted radical environmental policies under the guise of “creation care”, he pushed for open borders, and he uncritically agreed with Francis Collins of the NIH when Collins denied that Covid-19 could have been the result of a virology lab leak. According to Basham, Christianity Today now receives most of its funding from secular organizations like the Lilly Endowment. “Between 2015 and 2022, the outlet’s [Christianity Today’s] staff and board made seventy-four political donations. Every single one went to Democrats.” (page 75) Setting aside the poor ethics of a news organization making political donations, it is not a good sign of intellectual health when everyone in the organization is supporting the same party.

Eric Metaxas, on the other hand, quickly withdrew his support from a petition he signed, once he discovered that it was being used disingenuously to promote a progressive lobbying effort.

The longest chapter is #MeToo, #ChurchToo, and an Apocalypse, which chronicles the sex scandal that roiled the Southern Baptist Convention in 2020/2021. Once again, Russell Moore comes across in a very negative light, opportunistically leaking letters and secretly recorded audio clips to burnish his anti-harassment credibility. As  expected, the mainstream media were more than happy to amplify his accusations against fellow SBC members.

As Basham tells it, the whole scandal boiled down to two adults who engaged in an extramarital affair for twelve years. Instead of holding both parties accountable, the SBC adopted the same approach as many colleges and universities did in the wake of the Obama administrations reworking of Title IX. Under the new policies, due process was thrown out, and many men were accused, tried, and convicted by the same investigator. Also, the burden of proof was reduced from “clear and convincing evidence of wrongdoing” to a simple “preponderance of evidence” – a bare majority. The accused had no right to question their accuser, and the whole process could be carried out in private.

So, the SBC launched an extensive investigation, and ended up considering the woman involved in the twelve-year affair as a victim of abuse inflicted by her male partner. A group of activists used the scandal to replace the conservative members of the SBC Executive Committee.

A thread running through all of the chapters is how secular and political organizations appropriate religious language to promote their causes. Pretty much anything is justified by simply invoking Jesus’ command to “Love your neighbor” – green policies, masking and social distancing, “anti-racism” struggle sessions, allowing unlimited migrants into the country, supporting “gender-affirming care” for minors, etc.

Basham closes Shepherds For Sale with a very moving personal testimony of how she came to faith in Christ. She is now a happily married mother, but when she was in her early twenties there certainly wasn’t any indication that was the way she would end up. She credits a book by John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience, for getting her on the right path, and a church community that included her future husband.

The reaction to Shepherds For Sale has been swift. A quick look at Ms. Basham’s X feed shows how many times she has been attacked. Some reviews have been very negative. One at The Dispatch even tried to make the case that Basham’s book was about Trump!

For me, the larger question Basham’s book raises is, “What is the proper role of politics for persons of faith?” The common failing of all the evangelical leaders named in Shepherds For Sale is a loss of perspective. They all subordinated their faith to a pursuit of political and social prestige. If you care about what the New York Times and NPR think of you, then you’re doing something wrong.

Conservatives have no reason to feel superior, either. Tim Alberta has just published The Kingdom, The Power, And The Glory, which documents how that side of the political spectrum is tempted toward “Christian Nationalism”. The older I get, the more I realize that no matter what ideology is dominant, Christianity is going to be countercultural. That is the role of a vibrant and faithful church – it should always hold those in power accountable.

It looks like Christianity in America is in a time of tremendous upheaval, when established policies and procedures are no longer effective. Old assumptions have to be let go, and new ways of evangelizing adopted. These are exciting times, as the Church once again undergoes transformation. The old mainline Protestant denominations are withering away, and new forms of Christian community and worship are being created. The challenge for today’s Christians is to maintain the orthodox beliefs that they have held since the days of the early Church, while engaging a world that is increasingly consumed with superficial and easily obtained entertainment. Basham’s final message to readers is: Don’t give in to despair! One person can make a big difference.