Justin Lewis: Into the Groove review - fun and fact-filled trip through Eighties pop

Into the Groove is Justin Lewis’s follow-up to 2023’s Don’t Stop the Music, in which he traced 40 years of pop history by offering bite-sized facts for every day from January 1^st to December 31^st, jumping randomly from year to year.

I noted in my review for theartsdesk that Lewis was particularly strong on the Eighties, so I was pleased this sequel focuses on that decade, with a similar format, this time going month-by-month through the years that were perhaps the very peak of pop.

I am firmly in the ideal demographic for Into the Groove: the 1980s: the Ultimate Decade in Music, having grown up in the 80s, and paid attention to chart music in a way I haven’t since. So it was a pleasure to see many names hiding in the back of my consciousness brought forward, as well as lots I didn’t know. But it’s also a great way in for people born later, throwing open many ripe avenues of exploration. Into the Groove provides less extreme juxtapositions than Lewis’s first, as the bite-sized entries work chronologically through the decade, lacking those previous striking temporal disjunctures. But this is made up for by an eclectic approach that looks not just at the UK and US charts, but also Germany and France, and takes in not just western European and American scenes but also the music of Jamaica, India, China, various African countries and even the late spread of pop into the USSR. This breadth – and Lewis’s even-handed approach to it – are a central delight of the book.

Another is the musical and political narrative that emerges between the lines. The period covers most of the Thatcher and Reagan governments; AIDS appears from nowhere and is suddenly everywhere; the advent of MTV and of the CD changes how ordinary people experience pop music; Live Aid sees pop musicians entering the political fray; and rap emerges slowly but, by the end of the decade, is starting to reign supreme.

But as with Don’t Stop the Music, the biggest pleasure of all is in the serendipity, the little nuggets, the random intersections and unlikely coincidences. Who knew what connects Jon Bon Jovi with the novelty song “What Can You Get a Wookie for Christmas?”? Or who was the bestselling artist on CBS Records in 1981, ahead of Billy Joel, Michael Jackson and ABBA? Or what links the Eurythmics with Trumpton? Or the unlikely first rock band to tour China (in 1984)? Or which later superstar sang first with The Frantic Elevators, perhaps the worst band name in the history of pop? There are joyful discoveries on virtually every page.

Lewis narrates it all with a neutral tone, only occasionally letting his own taste into the discussion. (For example, he throws out the idea that the top 5 in June 1982 was the best of all time.) He dedicates the book to Janice Long, and it is clear her programmes on Radio 1 (brutally curtailed when she was demoted during her maternity leave) had a big impact on his listening. This kind of curation, like an honorary older sibling opening doors and making recommendations, is very much missing from today’s world of the Spotify algorithm, which just gives you more of what you’ve already had. 

Into the Groove is beautifully researched and scrupulously presented – but Lewis’s undoubted expertise is worn lightly, and this very much isn’t a list of number 1s, or who was awarded what type of metallic disc. It’s a human story of how pop music changed over the course of a decade, more important in the everyday lives of normal people than the comings-and-goings of governments and politicians. It's not just music history, it’s history history, light of touch and all the better for it.

• Into the Groove: the 1980s: the Ultimate Decade in Music by Justin Lewis (Elliott & Thompson, £16.99)
• More book reviews on theartsdesk