Future Shock (album)

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Future Shock
Studio album by Herbie Hancock
Released	1983
Recorded	1983
Genre	Jazz fusion, R&B
Label	Columbia Records
Herbie Hancock chronology
Quartet (1982)	Future Shock (1983)	Sound-System (1984)

Future Shock is the thirty-fifth album (and the first with the Rockit Band) by Herbie Hancock.

[edit] About the Album

Composed in 1983, Future Shock was a marvel in electric jazz and synthesizers. Hancock, who had been working on his vision of a Funk album, went back to straight-ahead Jazz but decided to go towards Post-Modern.

Hancock enlisted Bill Laswell to help him create a hip-hop like album. With this album (according to the liner notes), Laswell went to buy speakers at a music equipment store and wanted to hear the demos of "Rockit" and "Earth Beat" through the speakers. While those songs were playing through the speakers some young children liked what they heard and danced to the beat of the music. Laswell then informed Hancock and told him, "We got something good here."

"Rockit", the big hit from the album was made into one of the most successful music videos ever. It featured dancing robots, moving around to the beat of the music and the turntable scratching. Hancock won several MTV Music Video awards in 1983, as well as the Grammy award for best R&B performance.

Unlike "Rockit", the track "Future Shock" (a song originally written and performed by Curtis Mayfield) was greatly underappreciated.

[edit] Trivia

Hancock performed the song "Rockit", in 1985 at the Grammy awards in the infamous synthesizer jam with fellow synthesizer masters Howard Jones, Stevie Wonder and Thomas Dolby.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Rockit"
2. "Future Shock"
3. "T.F.S."
4. "Earth Beat"
5. "Autodrive"
6. "Rough"