Suicide

Although they barely received credit, Suicide (singer <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Alan Vega</a> and keyboardist <a href="spotify:artist:4zDG2kkm3SmF383uO3Hgo8">Martin Rev</a>) were the source point for virtually every synth pop duo that glutted the pop marketplace (especially in England) in the early '80s. Without the trailblazing <a href="spotify:artist:4zDG2kkm3SmF383uO3Hgo8">Rev</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a>, there would have been no <a href="spotify:artist:6aq8T2RcspxVOGgMrTzjWc">Soft Cell</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0z5DFXmhT4ZNzWElsM7V89">Erasure</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2wpWOzQE5TpA0dVnh5YD08">Bronski Beat</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1G1mX30GpUJqOr1QU2eBSs">Yaz</a>, you name 'em, and while many would tell you that that's nothing to crow about, the aforementioned synth poppers merely appropriated Suicide's keyboards/singer look and none of <a href="spotify:artist:4zDG2kkm3SmF383uO3Hgo8">Rev</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a>'s extremely confrontational performance style and love of dissonance. The few who did (<a href="spotify:artist:1UYhxPY1oqFUg1HfF8nV3k">Throbbing Gristle</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2kS4yz85MaZlxp2VaS3BEe">Cabaret Voltaire</a>) were considered too extreme for most tastes.

Suicide had been a part of the performing arts scene in New York City's Lower East Side in the early/mid-'70s <a href="spotify:artist:0WhGV9lzljq2QKJ8ipw6jx">New York Dolls</a> era. Their approach to music was simple: <a href="spotify:artist:4zDG2kkm3SmF383uO3Hgo8">Rev</a> would create minimalistic, spooky, hypnotic washes of dissonant keyboards and synthesizers, while <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a> sang, ranted, and spat neo-Beat lyrics in a jumpy, disjointed fashion. On-stage, <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a> became confrontational, often baiting the crowd into a riotous frenzy that occasionally led to full-blown violence, usually with the crowd attacking <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a>. With their reputation as controversial performers solidified, what was lost was that Suicide recorded some amazingly seductive and terrifying music. A relationship with <a href="spotify:artist:6DCIj8jNaNpBz8e5oKFPtp">Cars</a> mastermind <a href="spotify:artist:1iTrwmoisuv7HbdY5tTVUt">Ric Ocasek</a> proved successful, bringing their music to a wider audience and developing unlikely fans (<a href="spotify:artist:3eqjTLE0HfPfh78zjh6TqT">Bruce Springsteen</a> went on record as loving Suicide's Vietnam-vet saga "Frankie Teardrop"), but after numerous breakups and reconciliations, <a href="spotify:artist:4zDG2kkm3SmF383uO3Hgo8">Rev</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a> settled for being more influential than commercially successful.

Ironically, the '90s proved to be a decade of vindication for Suicide with the rise of industrial dance music, Chicago's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Wax+Trax%21%22">Wax Trax!</a> label, and the bands associated with it (<a href="spotify:artist:7vCJSBATlld5vDKTH87tpG">Revolting Cocks</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:1DXylZlWbVvlckNqwvjTEt">Ministry</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:62G7ybeJSN91TgfsWsdDOb">1000 Homo DJs</a>, etc.). Although not a big part of the scene after the late '90s, the profound influence of Suicide on a generation of younger bands was readily apparent. When Suicide returned in 2002 with American Supreme, their first studio release in ten years, much fanfare resulted, no doubt considerably furthered by <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a>'s presence around this time as a heavily profiled exhibitor of art in New York, where he had presented a show at the Jeffrey Dietch Gallery in New York earlier in the year. <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a> also continued to appear on collaborative and solo recordings, including his album Station, which arrived in 2007, five years after Suicide's American Supreme. <a href="spotify:artist:2jlt5Z6VojDVMzSj1JHkcd">Vega</a> died in 2016 in New York City at the age of 78. ~ John Dougan, Rovi