Arthur Baker

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

Arthur Baker is an American producer and DJ, born in 1955 in Boston. In the 1970s he played soul and Philly soul in Boston clubs. He learned to record in a studio and, with borrowed money, made a disco album full of strings, in the style of Gamble and Huff. In 1981 he moved to New York, where as North End he had his first hit with Happy Days.

Music and breakthrough

For the hip hop label Tommy Boy he produced Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force in 1982. The track combined melodies from Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express and Numbers. These were not sampled but replayed by studio musicians. After that Baker made dance remixes of rock and pop hits, such as Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper and Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen. He wrote Confusion together with New Order, gave Hall & Oates a more electronic sound on Big Bam Boom and helped Bob Dylan with Empire Burlesque. In 1985 he organised, with Steven Van Zandt, the anti-apartheid song Sun City.

Influence

Baker worked at a time when remixes were still made with tape and scissors. He built bridges between hip hop, disco, electronic music and rock. Planet Rock thus became the basis of electro: cool drum machines and synthesizers from Europe, combined with the breakbeats and raps of the Bronx.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1991Give In to the Rhythm
• 2017Raise
• 2018Into the Groove
• 2018On a Mission
• 2024GET DOWN

In School of Rock

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

• Mixtape 8: Electronic Music^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Electro GenreIn 1982 he recorded Planet Rock with Arthur Baker and John Robie: the melody from Trans-Europe Express and a rhythm modelled on Kraftwerk's Numbers, programmed on the Roland TR-808.