Joined: 21 Feb 2011 Age: 58 Gender: Male Posts: 36,036
15 Feb 2020, 4:01 am
As the media now propel Greta Thunberg to dizzying heights there was another autistic trailblazer who very few knew pioneered the electro-pop era in music.
His name is Gary Numan and in 1979 as teenage boy he was my musical obsession and my first vinyl record I ever purchased was Tubeway Army, he influenced many generations of musicians using the electric synthesizer which became the primary identifying feature of 1980s music. But little credit was ever payed to Numan for his contributions to modern music.
One particular track prophesised the loneliness of humans and the rise of AI as our "electric friends", something I related to when I was going through a lonely patch in early highschool.
It's weird because I knew nothing about autism in 1979 and had no idea why I liked Numan. But it was only many years later I found out that he's autistic.
Joined: 25 Aug 2013 Age: 68 Gender: Male Posts: 39,637 Location: Long Island, New York
15 Feb 2020, 6:44 am
Definitely a pioneer of the 1980s synthpop boom and EDM later on. I think a lot of New Wave artists were undiagnosed autistics. They had the nerdy persona, jerky stimmy, robotic motions, blank facial expressions. The songs reflected that. I related a lot and still do.
_________________ “Self Acceptance is a process not a performance” “You are autistic enough. And you always have been”
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013 DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity.
Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 15 Feb 2020, 6:53 am, edited 2 times in total.
Joined: 14 Jan 2018 Gender: Male Posts: 5,504 Location: UK
15 Feb 2020, 6:48 am
Quote:
Launched the same year as the first fully programmable polysynths, it was inevitable that the Polymoog Keyboard would not be widely adopted. Nonetheless, it offered one unique sound that has since became part of synthesizer folklore, not least for being used extensively by Gary Numan on his seminal album The Pleasure Principle. This was the first preset, called Vox Humana, and it has subsequently proved almost impossible to recreate on much more powerful instruments, resulting in the Polymoog Keyboard being far more respected and sought-after than its meagre facilities might have suggested. Together with the Polymoog Synthesizer, it was discontinued in 1980.
Numan told Mojo magazine March 2008 about the original inspiration for this song: "A couple of blokes started peering in the window and for whatever reason took a dislike to me, so I had to take evasive action. I swerved up the pavement, scattering pedestrians everywhere. After that, I began to see the car as the tank of modern society."
Joined: 26 Jul 2019 Age: 54 Gender: Male Posts: 955 Location: Australia
27 Feb 2020, 9:26 am
I think Gary Numan contributed a lot to that "I'm too cool to show any facial expressions, except mild boredom" style that was popular among pop stars of the early 80's.
Good on him, like his music both then when i was a kid and now.
Very talented
_________________ "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends upon the unreasonable man."
Joined: 6 May 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 60,952 Location:
27 Feb 2020, 10:29 am
"Cars" is my favorite Gary Numan song -- mostly for the instrumentation and musical style.
_________________ The mere fact that science may not yet adequately explain an object, event, or experience does not mean the immediate explanation should automatically default to a conspiratorial, extraterrestrial, paranormal, or supernatural cause.
15 Feb 2020, 4:01 am
