ABSTRACT
The sense of 'bad times' in Wales in the 1980s was embodied in the music of Datblygu. The 1980s were the decade of the independent label in Wales. The desire to establish an 'alternative scene' to the mainstream Welsh pop fare recorded on the Sain label, gave rise to the creation of independent labels such as Recordiau Fflach, Recordiau Anhrefn, Recordiau Ofn, and Ankst. The anger palpable in much Welsh pop of the mid-1980s is evidence of the younger generation of musicians trying to understand the future being created for them, while attempting at some level to change their present. This 1980s Welsh pop could be summarized as an inward-looking music, addressing the shifting fortunes of Wales, exploring a sense of subjective self in terms of a larger sense of Welshness. The 'new wave' of Welsh popular music captured a contemporaneity which had not hitherto been a consistent feature of Welsh pop.
