"Aestheticized the Pomp of Politics into Song"

"Its stars were gangly and unmuscled, but they could pass as debonair in the right suit, a good coif and a close-up. They adored soul music, high-hold mousse and shared the energy of yupped-up slicksters or corner office-contenders, but were too naturally pasty and left-leaning to be real proto-Patrick Bateman-types. Patently nouveau-riche, white-collared to the point of costume, and obsessed with the unctuous cream of a saxophone solo, this was a breed of artists of a new caliber, as conspicuous in their consumption as they were tethered to the contradictions of class. They shared some of the resentments and furies of punk, ska and hip-hop—politicized genres by nature—but in their cashmere sweaters and emphatically new-moneyed glamour, they broadcast mixed signals to a mass audience."

Mina Tavakoli at The Washington Post looks back to the Style Council and 1980s' sophisti-pop.