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PRESENT TENSE:AN ICON OF the 1980s music world was widely remembered this week, though the praise was bittersweet, the nostalgia tempered by ambivalence. What was achieved in the 1980s, everyone agreed, revolutionised the music industry, and people’s relationship to music. The name was everywhere back then, quickly becoming a byword for cool.

The pop-cultural giant revolutionised at least two industries, probably more, but by this week the heady days of global dominance were long gone, merely a pathetic memory in light of what came after. For the icon’s reputation was greatly diminished in recent years, damaged by bad management, disastrous decisions and erratic behaviour. It was remembered for what it once was, rather than what it had become.