Neil Young has always been open to music and the ever-changing landscape, which has regenerated numerous times in front of his eyes. There would be no advancement in the art form if there was no innovation. Young has been at the forefront of breaking down barriers, most notably in the early 1980s. It was when electronic music was gaining traction.
Bob Dylan was a major inspiration for Young two decades before, inspiring him to pursue a career as a folk artist. Dylan’s influence was revolutionary, altering how musicians approached lyricism and permanently altering the course of popular culture. Similarly, while The Beatles did not invent rock ‘n’ roll, they did help elevate its status in the public consciousness. It resulted in the formation of new bands all over the world.
Rock took on many new faces over the next decade and never stopped. However, while bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath sounded very different from The Beatles. They used the same set of instruments to capture their work.
However, the development of synthesizers changed everything. Acts such as Kraftwerk demonstrated in the 1970s that bands no longer needed to conform to standardized ideals. With each passing year, technology advanced further, and Neil Young was fascinated by the developments, playing in the water for his 1982 album Trans.
Young’s first for Geffen, who was dissatisfied with his decision to go down the electronic route for the release. They expected the Canadian singer-songwriter’s traditional folk rock when they signed him. He purposefully irritated them by following up the LP with a rockabilly album, which flopped, much to his delight.
His decision to enter the world of electronica, on the other hand, was entirely genuine and motivated by the right reasons. Young said of the genre in an interview on television in 1982. “Electronic music is a lot like folk music to me… It’s a new kind of rock ‘n’ roll. It’s so synthetic and anti-feeling that it has a lot of feeling... So, because it’s so cold, I believe this new music is emotional — very emotional… I’m not lonely because I have my synthesizers and computers.”
Furthermore, an extremely personal factor influenced Young’s decision to pursue this path. Ben, his son who was born with cerebral palsy, needed the help of technology to communicate. “You’ll hear a lot of references to my son and people trying to live a life by pressing buttons, trying to control the things around them and talking with people who can’t talk, using computer voices and things like that”. The musician explained to Rolling Stone in 1988. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s there.”
“But it has to do with a part of my life that almost no one can relate to,” he continued. As a result, my music, which is a reflection of my inner self, became something to which no one could relate. Then I started hiding in styles, just dropping hints about what was really on my mind. I just didn’t want to openly share all of this in songs that said exactly what I wanted to say in such a loud voice that everyone could hear it.”
Using electronic music elements allowed Young to explain his situation to listeners without spelling it out in black and white, giving him a curtain to hide behind. It would have been impossible for him to communicate these feelings in the nuanced way he desired if he had made a typical Neil Young record.
