Although I'm in South Beach doing the art thing, I'm also feelin real 80's this week. Keep ya eyes open for a series of 80's artists and 80's inspired videos. Here's the first hot entry and a full profile on Blondie.

This term I came up with "Urban Pop" is clearly not a black thing. It's more of a way to describe the kind of pop culture contributions born or nurtured in an urban landscape, particularly New York the Greatest City on Earth. The profile today definitely qualifies as an Urban Pop Icon, the band called Blondie. Deborah Harry and crew made amazing contributions to American music. As their Wikipedia bio and the attached videos will show, they were creative, funky and cutting edge. Check out one of my favorite artists Jean Michel Basquiat in the video for Rapture.

Enjoy.

Blondie is an American rock band that first gained fame in the late 1970s and has so far sold over 60 million records. The band was a pioneer in the early American new wave and punk rock scenes. Its first two albums contained strong elements of these genres, and although successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next three years, the band achieved several hit singles and was noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco, pop and reggae, while retaining a basic style as a new wave band.

Parallel Lines, Blondie's third album, was produced by Mike Chapman. Its first two singles were "Picture This" and "Hanging on the Telephone". "Heart of Glass" was their first U.S. hit. It was a reworking of a rock song that the group had performed since its formation, but updated with strong elements of disco music. Clem Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive", whose drum beat Burke tried to emulate. He and Stein gave Jimmy Destri much of the credit for the final result, noting that Destri's appreciation of technology had led him to introduce synthesizers and to rework the keyboard sections.

Although some members of the British music press condemned Blondie for "selling out", the song became a popular worldwide success. Selling more than one million copies and garnering major airplay, the single reached number one in many countries including the U.S., where, for the most part, Blondie had previously been considered an "underground" band. The song was accompanied by a music video that showcased Deborah Harry's hard-edged and playfully sexual persona, and she began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members, who were largely ignored by the media.

Blondie's next single in the U.S. was a more aggressive rock song, "One Way or Another", and became their second hit single in the United States. Meanwhile in the UK, an alternate single choice, "Sunday Girl", became another number one smash.

Their fourth album, Eat to the Beat, was well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, but in the U.S. it failed to achieve the same level of success.[3] In the UK, the single "Atomic" reached number one, "Dreaming" number two, and "Union City Blue" was another top 20 hit, while in the U.S. their singles did not chart as strongly.

Deborah Harry worked with the Italian songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder, who had been responsible for Donna Summer's biggest hits, and they composed the song "Call Me" for the soundtrack of the film American Gigolo. The song spent six weeks at number one in the U.S. and became a hit throughout the world. Their album Autoamerican was released later that year and contained two more worldwide hits, the reggae-styled "The Tide Is High" and the rap-flavored "Rapture", which was the first song containing elements of hip-hop and rap vocals to reach number one in the U.S. and helped introduce the then-underground rap genre to a larger audience. "Rapture" would be the band's only single to achieve a higher chart position on the U.S. charts than in the UK, where it peaked at number five. By the end 1980, Blondie was one of the hottest bands in the country and were international sensations.

Lead singer Deborah Harry achieved a level of celebrity that eclipsed other band members, leading to tension within the group. Following a poorly received album and with core member Chris Stein diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease, the group disbanded in 1982. As members pursued other projects, Blondie's reputation grew over the following decade and the group reformed in 1997, achieving renewed success and a number one single in the United Kingdom with "Maria" in 1999. The group toured and performed throughout the world over the following years, and was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the RockWalk of Fame in 2006.