Kevin Boone writes about the Yamaha DX7, which changed everything when it turned up in the mid-1980s: "the 'Electric Piano 1' preset alone appeared in over 60% of album releases of 1986." It was ...

As the 1970s turned into the 1980s, a significant change was taking hold in the music world in the form of the adoption of electronic instruments, namely synthesizers. Progressive rock bands like ...

The Yamaha DX7 didn’t just join the sound of the '80s, it became it. Its metallic, glassy tones were everywhere, from chart-topping pop to moody ballads and genre-defining soundtracks. As one of the ...

THE 1980s was, by any measure, an eclectic musical decade. It was a time for kohl-eyed kids to strike poses to electro-pop and for the mullet-haired to raise a clenched fist while listening to glam ...

For better or worse, this synthesizer was king in the 1980s music scene. Sure, there had been synthesizers before, but none acheived the sudden popularity of Yamaha’s DX7. “Take on Me?” “Highway to ...