Synthpop, while electrifying in the audio alone, is often amplified with bold visuals. In their video for “Would You Like Me If I Played A Guitar,” Information Society reveals the heart of the genre through new-wave visual effects. As the video begins, you feel as if lead singer Kurt Larson is moving through a video game: turquoise lights and lightning bolts move across the screen, and the background alternates between neon-colored Greek statues and geometric mountains on a magenta sea.
During the instrumental section, cartoon silhouettes dance through a comic book-like world of music, perhaps evocative of the group’s late ‘80s beginnings. In a press release with Reybee Inc., producer and keyboardist Paul Robb said, “This song is new, but the sentiment goes all the way back to our early days in Minneapolis, when we felt ignored because we were a synthpop band and everyone getting traction in town was playing grungy guitar music (or Prince).”
The song is from their eighth and most recent album, Oddfellows. The album also features the driving “Room 1904,” which similar to the aforementioned video, is also about gaining unrequited love. (It is funny, though, that Larson seems to be wearing a wedding ring in a video about convincing a woman to love him.)
The video was directed by “unofficial” band member Zeke Prebluda, who also directed the retro-futuristic lyric video for “World Enough,” not to mention the visuals for over the past 10 years. As hyperpop grows — such as the viral TikTok sound from “SugarCrash!” and the widely popular 1000 gecs — the synthpop that Information Society has been creating for decades may see a resurgence.
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