Thomas Dolby - Episode 1,013

Thomas Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including “She Blinded Me with Science” (1982) and “Hyperactive!” (1984). He has also worked as a producer and as a session musician. He is associated with the new wave movement of the early 1980s, a form of pop music incorporating electronic instruments, but Dolby’s work covers a wide range of musical styles and moods distinct from the high-energy pop sound of his few, better-known commercial successes. In the 1990s, he founded Beatnik, a Silicon Valley software company which developed the polyphonic ringtone software and created the Nokia tune. Its technology was used in more than half a billion cell phones. He was also the music director for TED Conferences. On the faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University since 2014, he leads Peabody’s Music for New Media program, which enrolled its first students in the fall of 2018. He has received four Grammy nominations, two each in 1984 and 1988 and recently published his first novel, "Prevailing Wind."