Irish Times article/interview about Gary Numan (British electropop pioneer, with AS)...
http://www.ireland.com/theticket/article...68928.html
"I used to think I was a really sociable person, but other people then pointed out to me that this wasn't the case at all," he says. "When I was younger, I wasn't fully aware of Asperger's or what it meant. All the time, though, I was annoying people and offending people without realising it. I had strange obsessions and fixations, but then I thought everyone did. ..."
He talks about coming to terms with the AS and modifying his behaviour, but it seems the pro-cure journalist has bamboozled him a bit. The journalist skews it so that it seems that "Gary found his diagnosis helpful, and it helped him modify some of his behaviour" = "Gary is pro-cure".
Thanks for posting that.
I am sure Gary would not have been the success he was without being an aspie, he had a very unique style at the height of his fame.
It would be interesting to speculate on how 'aspie' the roots of electropop are. Certainly the lads of Kraftwerk (90 percent of the German influence on the UK between 1974 and 82), with their bicycle obsessions and fear of phones are prime candidates.
Of the earliest pre-1980 British pioneers... who knows? Brian Eno (possibly, a bit) / John Foxx of early Ultravox (probably not; really an art school showman, I'd say) / Daniel Miller (don't know) / Throbbing Gristle circa '79 (definitely from another planet) / Frank Tovey (there's a documentary about him out soon, so we may know then) / very very early Human League (who knows) / Gary Numan (yes) / Bill Nelson (more of an art rocker, who made one awesome alienated electropop track, 'Furniture Music').
However, these all had the "alienated sci-fi landscapes" mood/lyrics thing, which (after 1982) was swept away in a wave of chart-topping "girl meets boy" synthpop.
If the members of Kraftwerk don't have at least a majority of members on the spectrum, I'll eat my computer! Only an autistic would think to create a song with the words "I'm zee operator off my pocket calculator". Kraftwerk are far, far from normal. :lol:
I do wonder about Brian Eno too, but I haven't found anything that resembles evidence.
Two words: David Bowie.
Alison
David Bowie very convincingly played the role of the misfit but brilliant alien pretending to be human in the movie "The man who fell to earth".