Line #62 Music/TheHumanLeague


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f_6.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The best known post-1980 lineup of the group. From left to right: '''Philip Oakey''' (singer), '''Susanne Sulley''' (vocalist), '''Joanne Catherall''' (vocalist).]]
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4
5	->''"Since I was very young I realized, I never wanted to be human size, So I avoid the crowds and traffic jams, They just remind me of how small I am"''
6	-->-- "Empire State Human"
7
8	The Human League are a SynthPop band from Sheffield, England. They formed in 1978 when the experimental synth duo the Future (consisting of Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh) teamed up with singer Phil Oakey to write pop tunes. At the point they formed, synth music was often in the proggy vein (e.g. Music/{{Kraftwerk}}, Music/{{Vangelis}}) or in the disco vein (e.g. Music/GiorgioMoroder), but the group took note of the DIY punk aesthetic to create their own dark style of synth music with poppy structures. Unlike many other SynthPop bands of the era, they completely used electronic instrumentation (Including a full Roland System 100) with no guitars or drums, with their debut Single ''Being Boiled'' cited as one of the first examples of popular electronic music in the UK. This led to their signature electronic sound as noted by fans, which helped them gain popularity throughout the late 70s.
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10	Releasing two albums, an EP and several singles, the original lineup split in late 1980 due to CreativeDifferences, with Ware & Marsh walking out and going on to form BEF, and soon after, Music/Heaven17. Oakey and their visual director Philip Adrian Wright had to honour touring agreements so added Jo Callis and Ian Burden to the lineup. Additionally, Oakey hired female vocalists Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley initially as backing vocalists though the songs got written around their vocals later. This lineup of the group recorded their album ''Dare'', which made them a household name with several singles, most notably "Don't You Want Me".
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12	While the success of ''Dare'' would be something of a miracle for the band at the time, it would later become an albatross around their necks, as each following album [[ToughActToFollow failed to meet the expectations]] their 1981 album established. By 1990, the group were generally regarded as has-beens among the general public, something the band themselves [[{{Lampshading}} lampshaded]] with their song "The Stars Are Going Out". Their 1995 album ''Octopus'' would be seen as [[WinBackTheCrowd a return to form]], and their following album, 2001's ''Secrets'', was praised by fans and critics to almost ''Dare''-levels, [[AcclaimedFlop but it flopped on store shelves]]. Their next album, 2011's ''Credo'', would receive middling reception from fans and critics. Since then, the band have focused solely on touring and performing.
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14	Despite their rocky history, the Human League are generally considered to be one of the most influential bands of the synthpop era, often being considered a TropeCodifier for the genre alongside Music/{{Kraftwerk}}. ''Dare'' and its associated singles are still fairly well-remembered as high points of 1980's pop music, and several of their songs have continued to find new audiences through inclusion in movies, TV shows, commercials, and video games. ''Reproduction'' and ''Travelogue'', despite underselling when released, gained a cult following in the following decades and has been continuously reappraised by critics as being ahead of their time.
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16	[[http://www.blindyouth.co.uk/index.htm There's a fan website dedicated to preserving the content of Mk. I Human League, as linked here]]
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18	----
19	!!Discography (studio albums in bold)
20	!!!MK I Era
21	* '''''Music/{{Reproduction}}''''' (1979)
22	* ''The Dignity of Labour'' EP (1979)
23	* ''Holiday '80'' EP (1980)
24	* '''''Music/{{Travelogue}}''''' (1980)
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26	!!!MK II Era
27	* '''''Music/{{Dare}}''''' (1981)
28	* ''Love and Dancing'' remix album (1982)
29	* ''Fascination!'' EP (1983)
30	* '''''Hysteria''''' (1984)
31	* '''''Crash''''' (1986)
32	* '''''Romantic?''''' (1990)
33	* ''[[Music/YellowMagicOrchestra YMO]] Versus The Human League'' EP (1993)
34	* '''''Octopus''''' (1995)
35	* '''''Secrets''''' (2001)
36	* '''''Credo''''' (2011)
37
38	!!The Human League provides examples of:
39	* AfterTheEnd: The music video for "Life On Your Own" has Phil Oakey play the last surviving person in a desolate London.
40	* BoxedSet: 2022's ''The Virgin Years'' is a five-LP set containing all of the Mark II lineup's studio albums on Creator/VirginRecords plus the EP ''Fascination!'', each on color-coded vinyl (the two Mark I albums, ''Reproduction'' and ''Music/{{Travelogue}}'', are omitted). Consequently, the set marks the first time ''Romantic?'' was reissued outside of Japan since its original 1990 release, having previously been thrown into CanonDiscontinuity by Virgin on account of its critical and commercial underperformance.
41	* CallBack: On the "Love Action" 12", the song is preceded by "Hard Times" which segues into it-- hence the line "I've had some hard times in the past" (which also samples that song).
42	** ''Hysteria'' has three songs that are this to previous hit "Don't You Want Me"-- these being "Louise" (in which the ex-lovers meet again several years later), "Life On Your Own" (which derives its theme from Don't You Want Me's line "Now I think it's time I lived my life on my own") and "Don't You Know I Want You" which is obviously a tongue-in-cheek rewrite.
43	* CanonDiscontinuity:
44	** The single "Boys And Girls" was an unfinished song rush-recorded and released to fulfil record company demand, and has never been performed live after the tour it was released during. It is available as a bonus track on the ''Travelogue'' CD and the ''A Very British Synthesizer Group'' box set, but has never been on a Greatest Hits release.
45	** The 4-track EP "Dignity of Labour", an instrumental [[ConceptAlbum concept album]] about Yuri Gagarin, has never been played live and has been rarely mentioned by the band overall, besides being included on ''A Very British Synthesizer Group'' and the ''Reproduction'' CD. The flexi disc included with it, however is notable enough as a piece of Meta-Fiction.
46	** The single "I Don't Depend On You", by a re-naming of the Human League known as 'The Men', has been mostly forgotten as a {{Disco}} track which is rarely mentioned by the band outside of its inclusion on the ''Travelogue'' CD.
47	** ''Romantic?'' is notably the only one of the Virgin-era albums to be excluded from the band's remastering campaign in the early 2000s. The album represented the band's career at its nadir (which the band themselves commented on in "The Stars Are Going Out?"), generated only a modest UK hit in "Heart Like a Wheel", and undersold, leading both the band and Virgin to ignore its existence (outside a couple Japanese reissues) until its inclusion in the 2022 BoxedSet ''The Virgin Years''.
48	* CanonImmigrant: After the "Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder" project fell apart, Oakey repurposed their hit "Together in Electric Dreams" as a Human League song, with it being on compilations and performed live.
49	* CircusOfFear: "Circus of Death" depicts a monstrous EldritchAbomination that takes the form of a constantly-growing circus led by a MonsterClown, who placates the circus' victims with the FantasticDrug "dominion" before annihilating all of humanity.
50	* ClipShow: The music video for "Love is All That Matters" consists almost entirely of reused clips from older music videos, both due to Creator/VirginRecords' declining faith in the band by 1988 and as a way of promoting the band's first GreatestHitsAlbum, on which it was included (the single was originally the closing track on ''Crash'', but was released two years later to coincide with the compilation).
51	* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: During the '80s, the Mk. II incarnation frequently denoted their singles as "red" or "blue," be it through the color of the logotype or a worded label; red singles denoted dance tracks, while blue singles were pop.
52	* CoverVersion: A few:
53	** Prior to recruiting Phil Oakey (and back when they were known as the Dead Daughters), renditions of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme (composed by Ron Grainer and arranged by Delia Derbyshire) were a staple of the group's live performances.
54	** "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (by the Righteous Brothers) on ''Reproduction''.
55	** A medley of "Rock and Roll Part 1" (by Music/GaryGlitter) and [[Music/TheIdiot "Nightclubbing"]] (by Music/IggyPop) on ''Holiday '80'' (which also made for the League's first ''Series/TopOfThePops'' appearance); the medley was later included on all CD releases of ''Travelogue'' as a bonus track, even ones issued well after Glitter's convictions for multiple sex offenses against minors.
56	** "Only After Dark" (by Music/DavidBowie sideman Mick Ronson) and "Gordon's Gin" (by Music/JeffWayne) on ''Travelogue''.
57	** "River Deep Mountain High" (by Ike and Music/TinaTurner) on their 1980 tour.
58	** "Rock Me Again And Again" (by Music/JamesBrown and Lyn Collins) on ''Hysteria''.
59	** "King of Kings" and "Reach Out I'll Be there" from their ''Golden Hour of the Future'' demo as the Future.
60	** They also covered the ''Film/{{Get Carter\|1971}}'' theme.
61	** The general point of ''YMO Versus The Human League'', which features the band covering [[Music/SolidStateSurvivor "Behind the Mask"]], [[Music/NaughtyBoys "Kimi Ni, Mune Kyun"]], and [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestraAlbum "Tong Poo"]] by Music/YellowMagicOrchestra[[note]]"Behind the Mask" specifically uses the Music/MichaelJackson version, which was unreleased at the time but was still the go-to basis for most other covers of the song[[/note]]. The latter is also conjoined with a performance of "Firecracker" by Martin Denny, which YMO famously covered on [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestraAlbum their own debut album]] (which "Tong Poo" also hails from).
62	* DudeLooksLikeALady: Philip Oakey in the early years of the band with his asymmetrical haircut and makeup. Oakey based the look on an advertisement from that era.
63	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Their early work is quite dark and minimalistic and lacks the female vocals and the disco-style rhythms that would go on to define their sound.
64	* EldritchAbomination: The titular song from "The Black Hit of Space" is implied to be this.
65	* EpicRocking: "Rock 'N' Roll/Night Clubbing", "Austerity/Girl One", and "Fascination (Improvisation)" all surpass the 6-minute mark. The former sees this mainly thanks to it being two different songs glued together.
66	* {{Expy}}: Martyn and Ware asked Glenn Gregory to [[WhatCouldHaveBeen join the original lineup]], though he declined, so they asked Phil Oakey (who had a similar voice) instead. After the [=MK1=] group split, Martyn and Ware asked Gregory to join their new group Music/Heaven17, and this time he agreed.
67	* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
68	** Done on the band's 12"s of "Hard Times/Love Action" and "Open Your Heart/Non-Stop", which feature the listed songs mixed into medleys rather than having dedicated 12" mixes for the single track. The "Love And Dancing" remix album mimics the flow of the former 12", although with largely instrumental mixes.
69	** This was soon after done on the album ''Dare'', in which the minute long "Get Carter" serves as a prelude to "I Am The Law", leading to many not even noticing they're separate tracks. This then fades into "Seconds".
70	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Tell Me When", which then jumps into a reprise of the chorus before fading out for real.
71	* GreatestHitsAlbum:
72	** ''The Human League Greatest Hits'' was released in 1988, partly as a way of recouping the costs of the critical and commercial underperformances of both ''Hysteria'' and ''Crash''. Following the band's UK comeback in 1995, Creator/VirginRecords reissued the album with a reordered tracklist, adding a Eurodance remix of [[Music/{{Dare}} "Don't You Want Me"]], the ''Octopus'' track "Tell Me When", and the newly-recorded "Stay With Me Tonight" (which was released as a single to promote the compilation); the latter two tracks were licensed from [=EastWest=] Records, onto whom the band were signed. This version would be released in the US in 1998 as ''The Very Best of the Human League''. A separate compilation, ''Soundtrack to a Generation'', was also released in continental Europe by Virgin associate Disky Records in 1996 to further cash in on the band's renewed popularity.
73	** In 2003, Virgin put out ''The Very Best of the Human League'' (unrelated to the identically-named 1998 compilation) to coincide with the remasters of the band's first five albums. This compilation focused mostly on songs from those albums, plus the ''Romantic?'' track "Heart Like a Wheel", two songs from ''Octopus'', and the ''Secrets'' track "All I Ever Wanted". Some versions also tossed in a bonus CD containing various remixes.
74	** In 2016, Virgin released ''A Very British Synthesizer Group'', a two-CD retrospective compilation spanning material from the band's debut single in 1978 to their most recent album in 2011.
75	* HeightAngst: "Empire State Human" is about a guy who loathes his short height and desires to be as tall as a skyscraper.
76	* HonorThyAbuser: In "Louise", a SequelSong to "Don't You Want Me", the narrator reconnects with the title character, a cocktail waitress-turned-actress who he previously and predatorily mentored, and tries to apologize for how awful he had been to her in the past. Louise immediately understands, embraces him, and patches things up before the two part again on much happier terms.
77	* IAmTheBand: This was more or less Phil Oakey's stance after the musicians Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left. The two did however continue to receive royalties from ''Dare!''.
78	* {{Leitmotif}}: The Dominion Jingle appears between every track on their demo album ''The Taverner Tape'', and also at the start of "Circus Of Death" on ''Reproduction''.
79	* LeftHanging: The song "Human" is all about a guy who cheated on his lover and is remorseful and asking her forgiveness. At the end she does forgive him, then admits she cheated too and asks for the same charity from him. The song ends without saying whether he did or not, although one would certainly hope so, as he'd be a world class hypocrite otherwise.
80	* LighterAndSofter: ''Dare!'' abandoned the ominous, borderline {{Industrial}} sound of their previous works for a radio-friendly electronic pop sound.
81	* LineOfSightName: The group took its name from a faction in the SciFi TabletopGame ''Starforce: Alpha Centauri''.
82	* MetaFiction: Some copies of "The Dignity Of Labour" included a bonus Flexidisc featuring a track called "Flexidisc", which is a conversation between the group members about what to include on the Flexidisc.
83	* NewSoundAlbum: Several.
84	** ''Music/{{Dare}}'' incorporated female vocals and moved away from the doomy, avant-garde pseudo-{{industrial}} sound of the Mk. I era in favor of a more pop-oriented sound.
85	** ''Crash'' was a US-oriented R&B album produced by [[Music/TheTime Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis]].
86	** ''Romantic?'' moved to a middle ground between the styles of ''Dare''/''Hysteria'' and ''Crash'', keeping the digital synths and some of the funk elements while moving back towards the sound of their early Mk. II output.
87	** ''Octopus'' moved back to analog synths and took prominent influence from newer developments in electronic dance music (particularly HouseMusic and Eurodance), with both ''Secrets'' and ''Credo'' continuing and further modernizing the style.
88	* ProtestSong:
89	** "Being Boiled"... sorta. Read literally, the song is a condemnation of the silk industry, which involves boiling silkworms to death to harvest their cocoons (hence the song title), though it can just as easily be read as metaphorical in a number of other ways, from the perils of capitalist exploitation as a whole to general abuse.
90	** "Dreams of Leaving" attacks both UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra and the more subtle racism in western society that manifests in xenophobic resentment (particularly the "they're taking our jobs" mindset).
91	* RealLifeWritesThePlot:
92	** "Seconds" deals with the tragedy of the death of John F. Kennedy. On the other hand, "The Lebanon" deals with the war in Lebanon at the time. And from their earlier line up, "Dreams of Leaving" deals with a refugee wanting to escape Apartheid in his home country.
93	** "The Stars Are Going Out" from ''Romantic'' is a more personal example, being about the band's fall from critical and commercial popularity following the unexpectedly gargantuan success of ''Dare!''
94	* RearrangeTheSong:
95	** Both sides of the band's debut single were re-recorded on their Mk. I studio albums, with "Circus of Death" being redone for ''Reproduction'' and "Being Boiled" being redone for ''Holiday '80'' and ''Music/{{Travelogue}}''. The latter song is faster and more aggressive in its re-recorded iteration.
96	** CD editions of ''Reproduction'' change the intro on "The Path of Least Resistance", replacing the spoken-word knitting tutorial with a synth bass riff, and add distortion effects to the vocals on verse two. A Japanese CD reissue in 2017 restores the LP mix.
97	** ''Hysteria'' includes a re-recording of "I Love You Too Much" from ''Fascination!'', featuring a less aggressive electro sound.
98	** The 1995 version of the band's first GreatestHitsAlbum includes a Eurodance remix of "Don't You Want Me" as a bonus track.
99	* RereleaseTheSong: After the group's rise to popularity with ''Dare!'', their debut single "Being Boiled" was re-released and went to Number Six.
100	* TheRival: [=MK2=] to Music/{{Heaven 17}}. The two sides ultimately patched things up, and even toured together in 2008.
101	* SequelSong: "Louise" is one to "Don't You Want Me", depicting the narrator and his muse reuniting and reconciling several years later.
102	* RevolvingDoorBand: Phil Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley have been the only constant members of the band since the mid-1980s, and Oakey himself has been the only consistent member since 1978.
103	* ShoutOut:
104	** "Creator/TomBaker" is heavily inspired by the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme song, with a zoomed-in promotional photo for the show (edited to look like an actual screencap) being used as its official artwork on the back of the "Boys and Girls" sleeve.
105	** The Music/CabaretVoltaire track "Eastern Mantra" has the phrase "Human League" backwards said throughout the entire track.
106	** The songs "Darkness", "Get Carter", "I am the Law", and "Seconds", are all homage tracks to the [=Mk1=] phase of the band ("I am the Law" actually predates ''Dare!'') Then there's what "Film/{{Get Carter\|1971}}" and "[[ComicBook/JudgeDredd I am the Law]]" are named after.
107	** As a more obscure example; there's the demo track "4JG", which is supposed to be a stand in for "For J.G. Ballard". The naming convention was most likely a reference to "2HB" (To Humphrey Bogart) from the debut album of Roxy Music.
108	* SiameseTwinSongs: The Mk. I incarnation's covers of "Rock 'n' Roll, Part 1" by Music/GaryGlitter and [[Music/TheIdiot "Nightclubbing"]] by Music/IggyPop, largely thanks to CD re-releases of ''Travelogue'' packaging the two together as a single track (which became something of a necessity for the 2003 remaster in light of Glitter's conviction for possession of child pornography).
109	* SpokenWordInMusic : The original single version of "Circus Of Death" in which Oakey explains the premise of the song at the start. Whilst the LP lacks this part, he does speak some of the lines towards the end of the song.
110	** Also used at 3:16 of "Louise" where Oakey comes to terms with the relationship being a moment in time.
111	** In earlier Versions of "Marianne", Phil would speak some lines after his singing parts.
112	* StealthParody: Most of their older pop songs tend to be parodies of then current trends, like some of the songs on ''Reproduction'' and ''Travelogue''.
113	* StylisticSuck: Susan and Joanne were initially drafted into the band as dancers, and to perform backing vocals. They were atrocious singers with no concept of key, pitch or timing. Whilst some bands might have searched for professionals, Phil decided to keep them and just use them sparingly on Dare itself, with only "Don't You Want Me" featuring an entire verse sung by one of them. However, due to this turning out to be a BlackSheepHit, they became lead vocalists on more songs later on. They certainly improved, but Phil was always a demonstrably better singer.
114	* TheSvengali: "Don't You Want Me" is a duet between a Svengali and his increasingly-rebellious protegee.
115	* TropeCodifier: One of the first electronic bands to hit the UK Sheffield scene, in fact. Also a Ur-Example of UK Synthpop.
116	* UpdatedRerelease: CD and digital reissues of ''Reproduction'' and ''Travelogue'' both include various rarities from the pre-''Dare'' era of the band as bonus tracks[[note]]''Reproduction'' has the "Empire State Human" BSide "Introducing" and the Fast Product material, while ''Travelogue'' has the rest of the non-album Virgin material up through the Mk. II lineup's debut single "Boys and Girls"/"Tom Baker", which continues the DarkWave approach of the Mk. I stuff[[/note]], with both discs adding up to a complete collection of the 1978-1981 material. Since this early period of the band was never commercially successful in its lifetime, this was likely considered more economical than a dedicated rarities compilation like what the ''Dare''-onwards material would eventually get.
117	* WhamLine: "Human" is sung from the viewpoint of a man apologizing to his lover for being unfaithful, stating "I'm only human". She responds to him in the song's bridge:
118	-->''The tears I cry aren't tears of pain''
119	-->''They're only to hide my guilt and shame''
120	-->''I forgive you, now I ask the same of you''
121	-->''[[NotSoDifferentRemark While we were apart, I was human too]]''

Context Music / TheHumanLeague