History Music / TheHumanLeague

-->-- "Jason Taverner, from 'Dance like a Star'"

* NewSoundAlbum: Several, though "Dare" (with the addition of female vocals and poppier structures) and "Crash" (A US-oriented pop album produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) are most notable.

** The songs "Darkness", "Get Carter", "I am the Law", and "Seconds", are all homage tracks to the MkI phase of the band (I am the Law was actually predates Dare)

* {{Expy}}: Martyn and Ware asked Glenn Gregory to 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 Heaven17, and this time he agreed.

* TheRival: MK2 to Heaven17 .

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* CanonDiscontinuity : 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 Synthesiser Group" box set, but has never been on a Greatest Hits release.

** A medley of "Rock n Roll" (by Gary Glitter) / Nightclubbing (by Iggy Pop) on Holiday '80.

-->-- "Jason Taverner"

->''"Hi, I'm Jason Taverner, and I'm here to introduce this\\
third demonstration tape by a great group of guys, the Human League.\\
I first met the Human League when they appeared on my network TV show last year,\\
Then, and a couple of times since that they've played a song for us, I was impressed that here\\
was a bunch of lads who were doing something new and melodic in music, when the majority of\\
bands were just trying to shock people."''

* Eldritch Abomination: Blank Hit of Space implies this.

* Narm: Lyrically, some of their songs like "Dance Like a Star", "Blank Hit of Space", and "Blind Youth" tend to exhibit this

* NightmareFuel: Much of their earlier experimental songs are very depressing, cynical, and nightmarish due to the very stark and troublesome synthesizers used at the time (After all, this was before MIDI was even a thing).

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "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.
** The original demo song that "The Word Before Last" was based on was heavily inspired by the political conflict in Zaire.

[[http://www.blindyouth.co.uk/index.htm There's a fan website dedicated to preserving the content of MkI Human League]]

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* The Rival: MK2 to Heaven17 .

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. Kraftwerk, Vangelis) or in the disco vein (e.g. Giorgio Moroder), but the group took note of the DIY punk aesthetic to create their own dark style of synth music with poppy structures.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Two in their Mark 1 era - "The Dignity Of Labour EP", which is an entirely instrumental release of four uncommercial ambient tracks, and "I Don't Depend On You", a single released under the name The Men.

* 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.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness : The early Human League is quite dark and lacks the female vocals and the rhythms.
* ExecutiveMeddling : A fair few across the group's career,though it was also why "Don't You Want Me" was a single despite Phil Oakey's dislike of it.
* TheExpy : Martyn and Ware asked Glenn Gregory to 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 Heaven17, and this time he agreed.

* 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".
* 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.
* 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.
* NewSoundAlbum : Several, though "Dare" (with the addition of female vocals and poppier structures) and "Crash" (A US-oriented pop album produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) are most notable.
* NoExportForYou : The US & Canada got an EP called "Fascination!" that rounded up a few tracks that were released in the UK, though contains an early version of "I Love You Too Much" that is arranged differently to the one that would appear on "Hysteria". This was this trope for around 30 years until it was eventually released on a special edition of Dare! in the 2000s.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot : "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.
* RecycledTheme: "Introduction" is one of the demo "Overkill Disaster Crash". "Don't You Know I Want You" is a reworking of the instrumental "Total Panic". "Rebound" samples "I Am The Law".
* RevivalByCommercialisation : "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" appears in GrandTheftAutoViceCity and raised the track's popularity after languishing as an obscure non-LP single for years.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny : The group 's early dark synth sound was hugely influential on groups such as Music/DepecheMode and Music/NewOrder, though the general public often sees them as that pop group of their latter era.

* ShoutOut: "Tom Baker" is heavily inspired by the DoctorWho theme song.
* SignatureSong : "Don't You Want Me". Whilst they've had a fair few hits, it remains their most popular song worldwide.

* Synthpop / NewWave : One of the trope codifiers.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks : The reaction to the female vocals from older fans. Some people didn't like the use of guitar in The Lebanon either

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny : The group 's early dark synth sound was hugely influential on groups such as DepecheMode and NewOrder, though the general public often sees them as that pop group of their latter era.