Pet Shop Boys

In defiance of the manic, sugar-rush dance pop that ruled the ’80s, England’s Pet Shop Boys created cutting-edge synth pop with an almost postmodern edge, with singer Neil Tennant’s bored, disaffected vocals replacing the usual dance-music perk. The iconic cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ 1987 album, Actually, even featured a photograph of Tennant mid-yawn. In an era when critics still dismissed dance music as a disposable genre, Pet Shop Boys were among the genre’s first widely acclaimed stars, and they’ve carried that cachet with them for decades. The duo’s latest album, Yes, features orchestral accompaniments from Final Fantasy violinist and sometimes Arcade Fire collaborator Owen Pallett.