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Posted by: The Diplomat 2nd January 2018, 02:14 PM

I don't think I have seen a thread on this theme before, if there is I apologize.

For me, this is the song that sounds the most ahead of its time. From early 1985 and while it isn't quite house, it really does sound in terms of style rather like a deep house track from this decade especially Disciples - Daylight.



Also this from 1982 which does sound a bit like a precursor to the 90s eurodance style (the likes of the instrumental of Maxx - Get A Way), especially with the synths.



And outside dance this 1984 one which was still relevant in the 90s to make #1 after being on an advert. I put that down to it having a 60s inspired happy jangle pop sound that was popular in alternative music in the 90s, eg. Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something.



Are there any other songs you think that sounded 'ahead of their time'?

Posted by: Suedehead2 2nd January 2018, 06:12 PM

There are a number of songs that were released just a little too early to catch the Britpop boom. This is one of the most obvious (and one of the very best).



It was originally released in 1987 before becoming a minor hit in 1990.

Posted by: Brett-Butler 2nd January 2018, 06:26 PM

I mention this song every time it comes up, but "E.V.A" by Jean Jacques Perrey doesn't sound like it came from 1970 -



Similarly, "Magic Fly" by Space (not the Britpop one, a French band) doesn't sound like it came from 1978, it sounds like it would have been right at home in the 90s. It was a #2 hit, although it doesn't seem to have pierced the public consciousness as other electronic instrumentals of the same period like "Oxygene Part IV" have.

Posted by: Suedehead2 2nd January 2018, 06:29 PM

I was a big fan of Magic Fly at the time and it still sounds good today. What is it with these French bands and space suits?

Posted by: The Diplomat 2nd January 2018, 06:32 PM

I suppose this one too sounds ahead of its time. From 1985.

Sounds like a 90s house influenced pop song with the piano and synths. I actually thought it was early 90s until recently

Posted by: Chez Wombat 2nd January 2018, 06:41 PM

Kraftwerk are always my default answer to this. I still find it stunning to think things like this came from the early 1980s, it sounds so more innovative than modern electronic music.



The early 80s also had this () certainly an innovative time.

Posted by: The Diplomat 2nd January 2018, 06:51 PM

Visage's Fade To Grey almost sounds early precursor to ambient trance. Just needs more of a beat.

This one too from 1980. Especially the last buildup and drop sounds a bit like euphoric progressive house, albeit with less of a beat.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 3rd January 2018, 07:49 PM

Records that sounded like nothing else on Earth ever created, and blew my mind at the time, and all topped my charts:

Jeepster - T.Rex
Popcorn - Hot Butter
I Feel Love - Donna Summer
Magic Fly - Space
Party Fears Two - Associates
E=MC2 - Big Audio Dynamite
Relax - FGTH
West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
The Sun Always Shines On TV - aha


just off the top of me head...loads more though

Posted by: The Snake 6th January 2018, 01:32 AM

This well known 1983 track doesn't sound too dissimilar to the style of some of Clean Bandits songs this decade (Disconnect particularly)

Posted by: The Snake 10th January 2018, 12:08 AM

This 1983 track does sound a bit 90s eurodance especially with the synths (until the guitar comes in) and I found out it uses electronic drums too so it is defintely ahead of its time for me.

Posted by: The Snake 30th January 2018, 12:47 AM

Two more that sound a bit ahead of their time:



This made #9 in the UK chart in September 1984. The instrumental of this sounds quite modern, dancey and even has a sort of dance drop to it.



Also made #9 in the UK chart. Didn't peak in the charts until February 1985 but was made and released in 1984. The second half in particular sounds ahead of its time for 1984 I think.

Posted by: BillyH 30th January 2018, 01:38 AM

Close To The Edit still sounds ahead of its time now, absolutely brilliant track. God knows what the Top of the Pops audience of 1985 were thinking when they first saw it - must have been pretty inspirational for a whole future generation of producers.

Here's a track that sounds all the world like 1990s Eurodance that's actually from 1989, Mysterious Art's 'Das Omen' - a huge #1 in Germany but not released in the UK.


The same act later released the very-much-1990s-Eurodance-anthem 'Omen III' under the name Magic Affair, and bass-player Tillman Urmacher later became a successful DJ, charting high with 'On The Run' in the UK in 2002. Sadly he died a few years back.

Posted by: The Snake 30th January 2018, 11:36 AM

That track Das Omen sounds great! Never heard it before.

Also from 1989's Erasure's Drama, which kind of has the 1993-1994 eurodance-esque sounding synths in it!



This one from 1988 also sounds a bit early eurodance

Posted by: King Rollo 30th January 2018, 12:03 PM

Here is the best version of Close (To The Edit). Extraordinary.

Posted by: The Snake 30th January 2018, 12:15 PM

This one from 1989, that instrumental sounds like a Fatboy Slim-esque big beat instrumental from the late 90s.

Posted by: mdh 30th January 2018, 05:02 PM

surprised 'Sunchyme' by Dario G hasn't been mentioned yet!

Posted by: The Snake 31st January 2018, 04:26 PM

Good suggestion actually, Sunchyme is tropical house ahead of its time.

Also this later in 1985, not quite house but really sounds like a precursor to the likes of Coldcut, Yazz and The Plastic Population - Doctorin' The House two years later.

Posted by: The Snake 2nd February 2018, 03:58 PM

Found this low top 40 hit in the UK from 1984, amazing for the time!

Posted by: Shia LeMuffQueef 2nd February 2018, 04:59 PM

Has anyone mentioned Get Your Freak On yet? It was probably 10 years ahead of its time!

Also Independent Women by DC featuring Beyoncè still sounds fresh.

Posted by: The Snake 2nd February 2018, 09:34 PM

The 1989 Time Warp cover by Damian http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2dj1f sounds quite 90s eurodancey I think, with a harder, more eurodancey sounding beat than most 80s Hi-NRG songs.

Posted by: The Snake 6th February 2018, 05:27 PM

This song from late 1982, has that sort of anthemic alternative pop sound that sounds more like it is from the late 80s I think! Reminds me of the style of the likes of Deacon Blue - Real Gone Kid from 1988.

Posted by: dandy* 6th February 2018, 06:34 PM

This is always the first one that springs to mind... unbelievable that it was released in 1966. I know the fact that it clearly influenced Chemical Brothers makes it sound more like a 90s track but, even with that in mind, it still feels very ahead of its time.

Posted by: The Snake 6th February 2018, 06:45 PM

What about this extremely influential track from 1969?

Posted by: The Hissmobile 13th March 2018, 03:40 PM

Here's one I found which made #8 in 1984 which also sounds a bit early house-esque.

Posted by: King Rollo 13th March 2018, 08:43 PM

I love that video for Rockit,directed by Godley & Crème.

Posted by: DalekTurret32 14th March 2018, 10:38 PM

I'm studying that song for Music A Level

Posted by: The Hissmobile 15th March 2018, 02:28 PM

ANOTHER song from 1984 (this seems to have been a big year for ahead of their time dance sounding songs making the chart) that sounds more like a late 80s dance track, this sounds even more ahead of its time than Let The Music Play.

Posted by: Cucumberella 15th March 2018, 07:46 PM

Windowlicker!

Posted by: Tawdry Hepburn 24th March 2018, 10:58 PM

'Pump Up The Volume' is definitely the one which immediately springs to mind for me.

Posted by: taragilesbie 2nd July 2018, 10:12 AM

KyGwVicyZAE


From 1991, sounds like it's from 1996-1998.

Posted by: gavindeejay 6th July 2018, 09:09 PM

Great dance track from the late 70’s

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2018, 07:22 PM

going deep archive here to show that I was listening to (and enjoying) rap before anybody else was born (bar a couple...



50 years old!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2018, 07:25 PM

...and just come across this obscure disco track also from 1968. This is utterly disco years ahead of it's break-out...

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2018, 07:32 PM

..and another 50-year-old track that features both a moog synth and what sounds like a vocoder/autotune, written by Carole King & Gerry Goffin and performed by.....The Monkees! Not just a Boy Band. Not even a Boy Band, actually as they wrote their own songs too. Risky lyrics too about a serial star shagger

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2018, 07:38 PM

..and if you want electronic experimental music then this 55 year-old BBC Radiophonic workshop creation can't be beaten:

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2018, 07:39 PM

except by this one....

Posted by: Steve201 7th July 2018, 07:44 PM

I always thought Temptation by Heaven 17 sounded very 90s when I first heard it on totp due to the female vocalist!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 7th July 2018, 07:50 PM

In a way it was (it was a remixed hit again that decade), and the fab Carol Kenyan vocal is awesome - the song sounded both retro soulgospel and future-dance in it's production. Total classic!

Posted by: The Snake 7th July 2018, 07:55 PM

Yep 90s dance acts loved using a soulful female backing vocal, so Temptation indeed sounds a bit 90s!

The late 1982 rereleased remix version of Talk Talk's Talk Talk, with its energetic danciness, anthemic synthy chorus (which reminds me a bit of the likes of Haddaway's 'Life') and piano part does sound a bit 90s dance too I think!

Posted by: The Snake 8th July 2018, 11:21 AM

There is this synth-heavy song I recently discovered from 1972 by Giorgio Moroder which unfortunately was overshadowed by a more successful soundalike version.

Posted by: Popchartfreak 9th July 2018, 08:20 AM

Yes, that's a great original version of a great record that I hadn't heard before ! Ta for the link. Chicory Tip got permission to cover it after they heard a pre-release version - and their following singles were also Moroder/Bellotte songs, so the band gave Giorgio a foothold in the biz as writer/producer. I can't understate the impact Son Of My Father had on teens in 1972 - it sounded like nothing before, the sound of the future - at the end of year final lesson in Music at school for the summer break we were allowed to take in our fave singles to play to the whole class. One girl brought in Son Of My Father and it felt cool. I took in the 10-year-old Nut Rocker because it was a classical cover and I loved it, and the reaction was less cool. Moral: current is always more cool to 14-year-olds than old stuff

Posted by: vidcapper 9th July 2018, 08:42 AM

Oxygen Pt4 was the one I was going to mention!

Posted by: Popchartfreak 9th July 2018, 01:49 PM

Continuing with my theory that all genres of popular music had been invented by 1968...

50-year-old trip hop house 90's a quarter of a century early....

Posted by: taragilesbie 20th July 2018, 03:59 PM

AaaHcb_SIrE

Funnily enough, I used to think in 2006 that this song sounded like it was from 1999, but if anything, it sounds like it should be from 2008-2010.

Posted by: The Hiss. 19th August 2018, 11:51 AM

This too sounds rather 90s dance I think, for similar reasons!

Posted by: SnowflakeSnake❄️ 5th December 2018, 09:18 PM

This song from 1979 almost sounds like it could be an early-00s pop punk song!

Posted by: Jade 6th September 2021, 12:39 PM

I can't believe this was recorded in 1959 sounds very advanced/eclectic compared to what I know of 50s music.

"this is animal collective 40+ years before animal collective"

(The Beatles - 'Tomorrow Never Knows' is always the first example that comes to my head with this question but I see that was already mentioned <3)

Posted by: Colm 6th September 2021, 02:12 PM

Holly Valance - State Of Mind

Posted by: Colm 6th August 2022, 08:16 AM

Just putting this here. I know I mentioned it somewhere else but this is sounds so much like a Fatboy Slim song half a decade before he sounded like this.

Posted by: Bjork 6th August 2022, 08:54 AM

gotta love Betty Boo <3

I just randomly heard St Etienne - Nothing can stop us, and to me it also sounds more modern for their time (1991 I think)