It's widely accepted that MTV by virtue of the video clip becoming a very powerful promotional tool, rendered obsolete "faceless" artists and those who the camera was not fond of, so to speak. Yet, by late 1982 this venerable trio of non-matinee idols managed to reach Billboard's Top 10 and sell a million copies of Signals [Mercury-1982], their most recent album. More importantly, it's one of those rare examples of an artist modernizing their sound--the influence of another trio with a singing bassist was keenly felt: the middle section in "Digital Man" is reminiscent of "Walking on the Moon"; and there are some other "new wave" flourishes throughout the album--without becoming dated and stale over the years.Unfortunately, this was unacceptable for the band's long-time producer Terry Brown who resisted the band's departure from the more prog-rock inclined material of the band's past, a move championed in particular by vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee. The shift in direction paid off both artistically and commercially and paved the way for Rush enjoying a successful run on both fronts that stretched thru the first half of the '80s.
