Wiki
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Release Date
August 1983
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Length
6 tracks
Future Shock is Herbie Hancock's thirty-fifth album.
Composed in 1983, Hancock enlisted avant-garde bassist and record producer Bill Laswell to record an album that would go towards a postmodern direction, instead of his usual straight-ahead jazz. The result was a hip-hop influenced album, which combined Hancock's keyboard mastery with Laswell's innovative arrangements and Grand Mixer DXT's turntablism. According to 1999 re-issue's liner notes, when Laswell went to buy speakers at a music equipment store he would insist on testing them by playing the demos of "Rockit" and "Earth Beat". While those songs were played through the speakers, passing by customers apparently liked what they heard and danced to the music. Soon after Laswell let Hancock know about the incident, eventually telling him: "We got something good here."
"Rockit", the album's big hit, was accompanied by one of the most successful music videos ever. The video, directed by Godley and Creme, featured dancing robots made by , moving around to the beat of the music and the turntable scratching. Hancock won several MTV Music Video awards in 1984, as well as the Grammy award for best R&B performance.
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