Chartography - Yello

So, finally, something not out of the UK😀 Yello are probably the biggest Swiss musical export, and rightly so - they are legitimate pioneers of electronic music who also managed to fuse their experimental leanings with commercial pop aspirations into one intriguing mix. And not only they got overground rather quickly, their music managed to travel all over the world, giving them hits in nearly all important countries on all continents! Truly a wondrous journey with a distinctive brand of pop. They are very deservedly revered now and their releases still attract attention so this list goes right up to the present decade! Let's see how they went about here, there and everywhere.

Yello

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Chartography - Heaven 17

Having featured The Human League, it's only natural to represent the successes of their friends/rivals Heaven 17. Those are nowhere near the peaks of The League, of course, but the trio managed to reach a respectable level of chart recognition around the world. Given their long-time aversion for touring it's a small miracle they did, but wonders of the new technology (primarily video) aided them quite a bit. But perhaps more important is the fact that they managed to create an album that has as much of a "classic" status as that of The League, and that ensures their place in the history of pop music. To me they are all about the first two albums, after which something went wrong and there's little of interest on later offerings, sadly. The general public seems to agree, judging by the charts, but they still had enough ammunition to go on for quite a while, and since they started touring in the late 1990s they never had trouble attracting audiences. Today they are respected elders in the field of electronic music and hopefully new "stuff" is in the pipeline.

Heaven 17

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Chartography - Thomas Dolby

Thomas Dolby is another curious success story of the early 1980s. Initially a session player, he quickly established himself as a songwriter of note and even managed to get a bit of commercial attention in UK. But it was the US and MTV that catapulted him to his breakthrough and created an audience for him across the ocean that he never could reach in his homeland. Unlike most UK performers that had their greatest success in the US, he managed to break the home market too - not as spectacularly but enough to have chart entries well into the 1990s. Of course hits dried up but he stiff retains his cult popularity and a level of respect and attention. He also worked with other artists (with varying degrees of success) and had an outstanding carrier in hi-tech.

His autobiography "The speed of sound" is well worth a read, not least because of his various run-ins with chart compilers in various countries over the years, so the mechanics of the music industry are covered in nice detail. And what a fascinating life he had!

Thomas Dolby

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