Genesis

When the three bandmates came back together to begin recording their next album from October to December 1979, Duke (1980), the product was much more the result of all three working together equally. Duke was the real transition from their 1970s progressive rock sound to the 1980s pop era.[18] The use of a drum machine became a consistent element on subsequent Genesis albums, as well as on Collins's solo releases. The first Genesis song to feature a drum machine was the Duke track "Duchess". The more commercial Duke was well received by the mainstream media, and was the band's first UK number one album, while the tracks "Misunderstanding" and "Turn It On Again" became live performance favourites.

Duke was followed by Abacab (1981), which features a collaboration with the Earth, Wind & Fire horn section on the track "No Reply at All". Much of the album's rehearsals took place at The Farm, the band's newly-built studio in Surrey, and the site where all of their subsequent albums were recorded. The album used a forceful drum sound which used an effect called gated reverb, which uses a live—or artificially reverberated—sound relayed through a noise gate set, which rapidly cuts off when a particular volume threshold is reached. This results in a powerful "live" sounding, yet controlled, drum ambiance. The distinctive sound was first developed by Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, and their co-producer/engineer Hugh Padgham, when Collins was recording the backing track for "Intruder", the first song on Gabriel's 1980 solo album. The technique, in addition to Padgham's production, had been apparent on Phil Collins's first solo album Face Value (1981). The "gated" drum sound would become an audio trademark of future Genesis and Collins albums.[36]

The Abacab tour also marked the first public appearances of the Vari-Lite automated moving light system, the development of which had been paid for by the band and their management.