Sound Screen: Billy Bell, 80s New York, and the Power of Pop

Billy Bell and his album 80s NY Power Pop

Musical revolutions are often hatched in incubators teeming with a mix of talent, luck, and a whole lot of crazies. Consider the late 1970s and early 1980s scene that gave rise to punk and, subsequently, post-punk. A group of renegade artists, fed up with the status quo of stadium rock full of glitter and spandex, decided to tear everything up. Visionary entrepreneurs opened tiny venues on the Lower East Side to host these misfits in the hope of finding an unpolished musical gem hidden in the chaos, something that could offer an alternative to a music scene that had become self-absorbed and disconnected. And then there were the kids who believed, deep in their hearts, that whatever rock ’n’ roll was, it wasn’t what they were hearing on the radio. Billy Bell, an aspiring singer-songwriter, was in the midst of it all. 

Inspired by the Beatles and Todd Rundgren, Bell pursued a path paved with possibilities that only New York City at that time could offer. He became a sought-after “studio mercenary” and hired gun for many bands and artists who frequented legendary joints like CBGB and Kenny’s Castaways. 

Naturally, being a session musician, he eventually became a recording engineer—and later worked with the great Nile Rodgers for decades. Today, he owns and operates GameBridge Mastering, a studio that specializes in video game music. But a chance conversation with another gifted songwriter and musician, Steve Ouimette, led to the unearthing of precious archival recordings made during the days of Blondie, the Ramones, and Television. Those songs are now packaged into a new compilation album, 80s New York Power Pop, available for licensing through APM Music. 

Find out more about Billy’s journey in this episode of Sound Screen, and enjoy an album that will immediately take you back to a special time and place when a musical revolution changed the world. 

Listen to 80's NY Power Pop