Social Networking and Synth-Pop Questions

Things like this are why I love Facebook (and am still coming around to Twitter) (yes, that’s my profile pic). I got curious after yesterday’s post, wondered the below question aloud, and was hit with a barrage of great responses from a welter of smart music pals (I was half-drunk at a bar watching the Colts beat up on the Titans, so I didn’t chime in as much as I could have). What they helped me realize was something I should have probably realized earlier: “synth-pop” as it were, is a purely British genre, despite Americans happening to use similar instrumentation. Over here, it seems, the synth was initially used–as in the UK–by super-arties (Wendy Carlos, Suicide, Devo et al), and worked into tons of other milieux (Prince! Electro!), without forming a full-fledged, stand-alone genre as it did in the UK (this is far from surprising, or isolated in its happening, of course). Except for Ministry’s 1983 secret With Sympathy, which didn’t exactly burn up the charts (but which provided this great little ditty–appropriate for the season), I can’t think of too many other artists who tried for UK-synth on a biggish scale. I’ve broken out the Black Box to help jog my memory, though. Help?