Line #16 Music/GaryNuman


1	[[quoteright:297:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gary_Numan_122.jpg]]
2	->''You know I hate to ask,\
3	But are 'friends' electric?\
4	Only mine's broke down,\
5	And now I've no-one to love.''
6	-->"Are 'Friends' Electric?"
7
8	Gary Anthony James Webb (born 8 March 1958), known professionally as '''Gary Numan''' is one of the founding fathers of SynthPop, best known, at least in the U.S., for his song "Cars".
9
10	He began his career under the [[IAmTheBand band moniker]] Tubeway Army, their early PunkRock singles recorded with the sole intent of becoming famous. He discovered a Moog synthesizer in the studio, and he was so impressed by the sound that he incorporated synths into his music with their first SelfTitledAlbum, slowly transitioning his style to that with which he ''did'' become famous. Their second album, ''Replicas'', broke them into the mainstream in the U.K., aided by Gary's striking RobotOrSpacemanAlterEgo; "Are 'Friends' Electric?" went to number one on the UK Singles Chart and was one of the first SynthPop singles on ''Series/TopOfThePops'', pissing off some other synth-based bands that were well established before him. He dropped the Tubeway Army name for his third album, ''The Pleasure Principle'', which gave his sole U.S. hit "Cars".
11
12	Following his fourth album, ''Telekon'', Gary began incorporating {{Jazz}} and accessible pop sounds into his albums, and his chart success waned. He hit his personal nadir with 1992's ''Machine and Soul'', after which he dropped the feeble attempts at chart success and transitioned to a DarkWave / [[{{Industrial}} Industrial Rock]] sound with ''Sacrifice'', which persists to this day.
13
14	Numan also contributed the theme song to the 2014 video game ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'', titled "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8iZA9gTvV8 Long Way Down]]."
15
16	!!Studio Discography
17	!!!As Tubeway Army
18	* 1978 - ''Tubeway Army''
19	* 1979 - ''Replicas''
20	!!!As Gary Numan
21	* 1979 - ''The Pleasure Principle''
22	* 1980 - ''Telekon''
23	* 1981 - ''Dance''
24	* 1982 - ''I, Assassin''
25	* 1983 - ''Warriors''
26	* 1984 - ''Berserker''
27	* 1985 - ''The Fury''
28	* 1986 - ''Strange Charm''
29	* 1988 - ''Metal Rhythm''
30	* 1991 - ''Outland''
31	* 1992 - ''Machine and Soul''
32	* 1994 - ''Sacrifice''
33	* 1997 - ''Exile''
34	* 2000 - ''Pure''
35	* 2006 - ''Jagged''
36	* 2011 - ''Dead Son Rising''
37	* 2013 - ''Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)''
38	* 2017 - ''Savage (Songs from a Broken World)''
39	* 2021 - ''Intruder''
40
41	-----
42
43	!! "It's the only way to live in tropes":
44	* AfterTheEnd: ''Savage'' is set in a world where runaway climate change has led to the collapse of civilization.
45	* TheCameo: In ''Series/TheMightyBoosh''
46	* CarSong: Well, duh. It's his most famous song.
47	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Got pegged as one early in his career for being perceived as standoffish and arrogant. He was later diagnosed with UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome.
48	* DarkerAndEdgier: His career went through peaks and valleys of darkness. His original albums (especially ''Replicas'') were dark before he went for much LighterAndSofter pop to try and court the market. After that failed he went darker again in the 90's with Music/NineInchNails-inspired {{Industrial}} and has been that way ever since.
49	* DarkWave: While some of his earlier work has hints of this, he went into it fully starting with ''Sacrifice''.
50	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first two Tubeway Army singles, "That's Too Bad" and "Bombers", are standard punk rock songs. Their following SelfTitledAlbum, while still rooted in punk, incorporated electronic influences that would go on to dominate Numan's subsequent work.
51	** His first solo album, ''The Pleasure Principle'', is the only one in his discography to not have any guitars.
52	* EpicRocking: ''Berserker'', ''The Fury'', ''Machine + Soul'', ''Sacrifice'' and ''Exile'' were released in two forms: one with the original song lengths and one with extended mixes of pretty much every song. Several of these added up to ''30 minutes'' to the run time of the record. Reissues of these albums put out in 1999 would contain the original songs, with only a couple of the extended mixes as bonus tracks.
53	* GodIsEvil: A recurring theme in his work since his GenreShift to industrial.
54	* ICommaNoun: ''I, Assassin''
55	* IAmTheBand: Tubeway Army was Numan's vehicle well before he started to appear under his own name instead.
56	* IAmSong: "I'm An Agent", as well as "I Am Dust".
57	* {{Industrial}}: He dove into this genre starting with ''Sacrifice'' and hasn't looked back. Some of his heavier songs border on IndustrialMetal.
58	* NewSoundAlbum:
59	** Averted slightly, While his albums after ''Telekon'' were different from his original sound, they used the same 'style' of instrumentation and were all made by ex-Tubeway Army members of his backing band.
60	** ''Replicas'' expanded on the electronic elements present in the previous album, beginning his synth-pop phase in earnest.
61	** ''The Pleasure Principle'' removed guitars briefly from his work, but remains a powerful example of Synthpop.
62	** ''Dance'' is an art rock album inspired by {{Music/Japan}} and its lead singer, David Sylvian. The album is loaded with minimalist arrangements, jazz inflections, fretless bass lead lines and many guest performers.
63	** ''Berserker'' is Numan's first jump into sampler-heavy synthpop that screams "EIGHTIES" to the average listener. Though previous albums ''I, Assassin'' and ''Warriors'' incorporated female backup singers and saxophone solos, this one kicked off the run from 1984-1992 where Numan was really trying to find commercial success by being a full-fledged pop artist. Later albums of this period were highly influenced by Music/{{Prince}} and the production team of Jam & Lewis (famous for producing all of Music/JanetJackson's work.) ''Machine + Soul'' even included a CoverVersion of Prince's "U Got The Look" (And a 1999 reissue fittingly included a version of "1999" as one of its bonus tracks)
64	** ''Sacrifice'' is a sharp turn into industrial rock, with Numan dropping all pretenses of being a pop star again and returning to brooding synthpop.
65	* {{New Wave\|Music}}: A pioneer of the genre.
66	* NonIndicativeName: ''Dance'' is likely his ''least'' danceable album.
67	* PostPunk: ''Tubeway Army'' through ''Replicas'', which still prominently featured guitar but incorporated the synths and robotic rhythms that he would become known for when moving to full SynthPop.
68	* PunkRock: His early singles. "Bombers" managed to stay in his oeuvre past the 70s while the rest faded into obscurity.
69	* QuestioningTitle: "Are 'Friends' Electric?"
70	* ReligionRantSong: A good chunk of his work since the 90s is devoted to attacking religion and the idea of a benevolent God. As "Prayer for the Unborn" off of ''Pure'' puts it:
71	-->So, I prayed\
72	But you weren't listening\
73	Making miracles?
74	* RobotOrSpacemanAlterEgo
75	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Pulled a real one in 2012, moving to UsefulNotes/{{California}} after having lived in Essex his whole life. Mostly inspired by widespread riots in 2011.
76	* ShoutOut:
77	** The name and iconic album cover for ''The Pleasure Principle'', as well as the picture above, are based on [[http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/rene-magritte/the-pleasure-principle-portrait-of-edward-james-1937 the painting of the same name]] by Creator/ReneMagritte.
78	** ''Berserker'' is named after [[Literature/{{Berserker}} the book series]] by Creator/FredSaberhagen.
79	** "I am Render" from ''Warriors'' is based on the sci-fi novel ''The Dream Master'' by Creator/RogerZelazny, while the album's cover art is inspired by ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior''.
80	* SynthPop
81	* TakeThatCritics: "I Die, You Die" off of ''Telekon''. The lyrics were aimed at what Numan saw as an increasingly vitriolic music press.
82	-->They crawl out\
83	Of their holes for me\
84	And I die, you die\
85	Hear them laugh\
86	Watch them turn on me\
87	And I die, you die\
88	See my scars\
89	They call me such things\
90	Tear me, tear me, tear me

Context Music / GaryNuman