Starship

Starship is an American rock band that emerged from San Francisco in the mid-1980s as the direct successor to Jefferson Starship, itself a descendant of the pioneering psychedelic group Jefferson Airplane. Fronted by vocalist Mickey Thomas alongside Grace Slick, the band shifted decisively away from its progressive-rock roots toward a polished, arena-friendly pop-rock sound built for radio and the MTV era.

The group reached the peak of its commercial success with the 1985 album Knee Deep in the Hoopla, which produced the chart-topping singles «We Built This City» and «Sara». Two years later, No Protection delivered another number-one hit, «Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now», featured in the film Mannequin. These songs, with their layered synthesizers and anthemic choruses, became defining artifacts of mid-1980s pop-rock.

After Grace Slick’s departure and a subsequent hiatus, Mickey Thomas continued performing and recording under the Starship name, keeping the band’s catalog alive on tour for decades. Despite mixed critical reception for its later, more commercial direction, Starship’s run of hits cemented its place in the story of American rock’s evolution from the psychedelic sixties to the glossy eighties.