The Beat Interface

It’s not quite right to say that the Go-Go’s' 1981 debut, Beauty and the Beat, is where new wave caught hold in the U.S., but it’s not quite wrong, either. Prior to this, there had certainly been new wave hits – Blondie had been reaching the Top Ten for two years running – but the Go-Go’s ushered in the era of big, bright stylish pop, spending six weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and generating two singles that defined the era: the cool groove of “Our Lips Are Sealed” and the exuberant “We Got the Beat.” So big were these two hits that they sometimes suggested that Beauty and the Beat was a hits-and-filler record, an impression escalated by the boost the Go-Go’s received from the just-launched MTV, yet that’s hardly the case. Beauty and the Beat is sharp, clever, and catchy, explicitly drawing from the well of pre-Beatles ‘60s pop – girl group harmonies, to be sure, but surf-rock echoes throughout – but filtering it through the nervy energy of punk.

Rare 1993 UK 68-track 4-CD collection including The Specials, Madness, The Selecter, The Beat, The Bodysnatchers, Rico, Elvis Costello and many more. This 4 CD box set collects the A-side and B-side of every single released on the label. Both sides of the Dutch Concrete Jungle single plus both tracks from the free single which accompanied initial copies of More Specials are also included. The Bodysnatchers live version of 007 is the only unreleased track in the set, however it did previously appear in the film Dance Craze but failed to make it on to the films soundtrack album. Jerry Dammers was less than impressed with its release and had this to say about it: "It's real train spotters stuff with every B-side from every free single and I wasn't even consulted about it. In some ways that (The Compact 2 Tone Story) is the worst." (Uncut Magazine interview 1998).

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) is considered a literary iconoclast and a pioneer of the Beat Generation (along with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg) who is recognized for his method of spontaneous prose. He became an underground celebrity and, with other beats, a progenitor of the hippie movement.

If Guetta’s fifth album doesn't convince you that he's the Bono of the four-on-the-floor beat, it does show how good he is at making Eurohouse's thumping trounce and jet-engine synth whoosh feel like natural elements in the hip-hop, R&B and even rock continuum…

Lian Ross is a German Hi-NRG/Euro disco singer. She has recorded successful covers such as Sylvester's "Do You Wanna Funk" and Modern Talking's "You're My Heart, You're My Soul." Her original hit songs include, "Say You'll Never", "Fantasy", and "Scratch My Name" among others. A compilation of her hit singles and choice tracks, "The Best of and More" was released in 2005. One of her recent successful hit singles is, "Never Gonna Lose" released on ZYX Records in Germany on December 27, 2005 and her number one hit "Young Hearts Run Free" was released on Blanco y Negro Music in Spain on September 9, 2009. Her 2013 album ”I Got The Beat” comprised a variety of musical styles including Tribal House with the song ”Around The World”, Electropop with the song ”Shake Your Booty” and a new version of Lians ”Say You’ll Never”.