Emerging out of the late-1970s new-wave scene in the English industrial town of Sheffield alongside fellow electronic and synthpop luminaries such as ABC, Cabaret Voltaire and Heaven 17, The Human League was one of the bands that defined the sound of the '80s, with their distinctive plastic-glamour fashion sense and icy, synth-led sound.
The origins of the band lie in The Future, a group formed by eventual Heaven 17 members Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, who did minimalist, avant-garde synth-based pieces with titles such as "Dada Dada Duchamp Vortex." The Human League came into being after the duo recruited vocalist Philip Oakey, who wrote the lyrics for the band's first single, the industrial-tinged "Being Boiled."
The Human League peaked in the 1980s with the departure of Marsh and Ware and the arrival of vocalists Susan Ann Sulley and Joanne Catherall.