Sweet Dreams

From Club Culture to Style Culture, the Story of the New Romantics

Dylan Jones

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571353453
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

David Bowie. Culture Club. Wham!. Soft Cell. Duran Duran. Sade. Adam Ant. Spandau Ballet. The Eurythmics.


' Excellent' Guardian ' Hugely enjoyable' Irish Times ' Dazzling' LRB 'Fascinating' New Statesman 'An absolute must-read' GQ

One of the most creative entrepreneurial periods since the Sixties, the era of the New Romantics grew out of the remnants of post-punk and developed quickly alongside club culture, ska, electronica, and goth. The scene had a huge influence on the growth of print and broadcast media, and was arguably one of the most bohemian environments of the late twentieth century. Not only did it visually define the decade, it was the catalyst for the Second British Invasion, when the US charts would be colonised by British pop music - making it one of the most powerful cultural exports since the Beatles.

In Sweet Dreams, Dylan Jones charts the rise of the New Romantics through testimony from the people who lived it.

For a while, Sweet Dreams were made of this.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Preface: Plato’s Cave
• Introduction: La Vie en Rose
• 1975: Fed Up with Fandango
• 1976: Fireworks
• 1977: England’s Screaming
• 1978: Transition
• 1979: The Blitz
• 1980: The Charms, Such as They Were
• 1981: Video Killed the Radio Star
• 1982: Wake Me Up Before You Whiskey-A-Go-Go
• 1983: The Cradle of Choruses
• 1984: The Pleasuredome
• 1985: Like Punk Never Happened
• Dramatis Personae
• Discography
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography
• Index
• Plates
• About the Author
• Also by the Author
• Copyright