Biography
Information Society started in Minneapolis as a synth-pop act led by Kurt Harland Larson, Paul Robb, and James Cassidy. “Running,” released in 1985, found its real audience 1,200 miles away: New York’s freestyle DJs and Latin dance radio adopted the track, and it became a permanent fixture of the city’s club sound. The band has said the song’s New York Latin following surprised and delighted them.
Tommy Boy Records signed the group, and “What’s on Your Mind (Pure Energy)” reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988, carrying samples of Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek dialogue into the Top 40. The debut album went platinum.
“Running” remains the freestyle connection. It is one of the few records by a non-freestyle act that the genre’s audience claims completely as its own, and it still fills floors at freestyle reunion shows where most of the crowd knows every synth line.
Songs
- Running, #19 on the Top 100