synth-pop
Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...
group
Art of Noise
Art of Noise (also The Art of Noise) were an English avant-garde synth-pop group formed in early 1983 by engineer/producer Gary Langan and programmer J. J. Jeczalik, along with keyboardist/arranger Anne Dudley, producer Trevor Horn, and mu ...
released in April 1986, from their second studio album ''
In Visible Silence
''In Visible Silence'' is the second full-length release by avant-garde pop group Art of Noise in April 1986, and the first created by members Anne Dudley, J. J. Jeczalik and Gary Langan in the wake of their departure from the ZTT record labe ...
'' (1986). The song's better-known version was a version released as a single, featuring television character Max Headroom on vocals. This version was first featured on the 1986 album ''Re-Works of Art of Noise''.
The 7-inch single features a monologue about Max Headroom being scared and unable to sleep (hence "Paranoimia", a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsmaster of ceremonies, talking about the music and making a pun-laden introduction of the alleged band members:
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vi ...
on trumpet (the absence of a trumpet in the song explained by O'Toole, notorious at one time for his drinking, "just having a rest between
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (un ...
Cher
Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industr ...
the Pope
The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...
on drums.
Track listing
The 12-inch single was also available on a one-sided cassette tape with the following track listing:
# "Paranoimia" (extended version) – 6:40
# "Paranoimia" (7” version) – 3:18
# "Why Me?" – 2:56
# "A Nation Rejects" – 2:57
Some later issues of the CD ''In Visible Silence'', most notably the US version, include the single version in place of the original version, which did not include the Max Headroom vocals.
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
"Paranoimia '89"
In 1989, a remix by
Ben Liebrand
Ben Liebrand () (born 27 September 1960 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch dance music DJ and remixer. He has produced for artists such as Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Alexander O'Neal, Salt-N ...