page_title: 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?)
section_title: Background and recording
hierarchical_section_title: 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) / Background and recording
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Zelf gemaakte foto
context_page_description: 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) is the debut studio album by British electronic band The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, later known as the KLF. 1987 was produced using extensive unauthorised samples that plagiarized a wide range of musical works, continuing a theme begun in the JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love". These samples provided a deliberately provocative backdrop for beatbox rhythms and cryptic, political raps.
  Shortly after independent release in June 1987, the JAMs were ordered by the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society to destroy all unsold copies of the album, following a complaint from ABBA. In response, the JAMs disposed of many copies of 1987 in unorthodox, publicised ways. They also released a version of the album titled 1987, stripped of all unauthorised samples to leave periods of protracted silence and so little audible content that it was formally classed as a 12-inch single.
  A limited edition release subjected to recall and a destruction order, 1987 became something of a rarity and by 2000, mint condition copies were trading for £60.
context_section_description: On New Year's Day 1987, Bill Drummond decided to make a hip hop record under the pseudonym "the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu". Knowing little about modern music technology, he invited Jimmy Cauty, a former member of the band Brilliant, to join him. Cauty agreed, and the JAMs' debut single "All You Need Is Love" was independently released on 9 March 1987 as a limited-edition one-sided white label 12-inch. Cauty became "Rockman Rock", and Drummond used the nickname "King Boy D".
  The reaction to "All You Need Is Love" was positive; the British music newspaper Sounds listed it as the single of the week, and lauded The JAMs as "the hottest, most exhilarating band this year". "All You Need Is Love"'s reliance on uncleared, often illegal samples made commercial release impossible. In response, the JAMs re-edited the single, removing or doctoring the most antagonistic samples, and re-released it as "All You Need Is Love (106 bpm)" in May 1987. According to Drummond, profits from this re-release funded the recording of their first album. The JAMs had completed and pressed copies of the album by early May 1987, but did not have a distributor.
  Like "All You Need Is Love", the album was made using an Apple II computer, a Greengate DS3 digital sampler peripheral card, and a Roland TR-808 drum machine. Using portions from existing works and pasting them into new contexts, with the duo stealing "everything" and "taking... plagiarism to its absurd conclusion," several songs were liberally plagiarised. This mashup of samples was underpinned by rudimentary beatbox rhythms and overlaid with Drummond's raps of social commentary, esoteric metaphors and mockery. Drummond would later say in an interview that:
caption: The basic track for "All You Need Is Love" was written in part on a Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer
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