Human League

The Human League is a British synth-pop group formed in Sheffield in 1977 by Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh, Philip Oakey, and Adrian Wright. Their early recordings explored a cold, angular electronic sound informed by Kraftwerk, releasing Reproduction (1979) and Travelogue (1980) before Ware and Marsh departed to form Heaven 17. The reconstituted group produced Dare (1981), one of the most commercially successful and enduring albums of the new wave era. Its single Don't You Want Me defined synthesiser-based pop. The group's influence on subsequent electronic pop, from the Pet Shop Boys to later synth revivalists, secured Sheffield's place in British electronic music history.