The release of Rockit

June 1983: Number 40 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of dance musicMiles Davis boasted he had changed music five times. Herbie Hancock looks set to beat his old boss's record: every time he buys a new piece of equipment, he invents a new genre. As Hancock wound down the Afro-electrocentric adventures of the Mwandishi band, he predicted bleepy electro with the sequencers of Rain Dance (from 1973's Sextant). Grasping the polyphonic synth with both hands, he masterminded a hugely ...

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