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a-ha

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

a-ha was formed in Oslo in 1982 by guitarist Pål Waaktaar, keyboard player Magne Furuholmen and singer Morten Harket. Waaktaar and Furuholmen had previously played together in the band Bridges. The trio moved to London to look for a record deal. a-ha shows how in the 1980s the synthesizer took the place of the guitar, and how a music video could make a hit.

Music and breakthrough

Take On Me had a long run-up. An early version was called Lesson One. The first single, produced by Tony Mansfield in 1984, failed to catch on. In 1985 the band recorded the song again with producer Alan Tarney. On the record you hear synthesizers such as the Roland Juno-60, the PPG Wave and the Yamaha DX7, with a LinnDrum as the drum machine. The breakthrough came with the video by director Steve Barron, in which drawn and filmed images flow into one another thanks to rotoscoping. In October 1985 Take On Me went to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; in England it reached number 2. The debut album Hunting High and Low (1985) reached number 1 in Norway.

Influence

At the MTV Video Music Awards of 1986 the video won six awards. The Sun Always Shines on T.V. became the band's only British number 1. In 1987 a-ha made The Living Daylights, the title song of the James Bond film of the same name. The group split in 2010 and returned in 2015 with the album Cast in Steel. In 2020 the Take On Me video passed a billion views on YouTube, more than thirty years after it was made.

Listening

Listening tip. Take On Me (1985): listen to the riff in the intro, a fierce synthesizer sound above a drum machine. At the end of the chorus, notice Morten Harket, who climbs on in falsetto to the highest note of the song, an E5.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): A-ha
  2. articles.roland.com
  3. Wikipedia (en): Take On Me
  4. Wikipedia (en): The Living Daylights
Categories: ArtistsSynthpop