![]() ![]() I know it’s not the most artistically authentic music in the world, and I know I’m only buying into the product they’re selling, but I do still think there’s something great, and even valuable, about this music. But instead of “Frankie Says Relax” t-shirts, artists are selling clothing lines at Kohl’s and signature perfumes. Like “Relax,” most pop songs of today are carefully crafted by big producers to become Top 40s hits. Synthesizers have been replaced by auto-tune, but the choruses are still simple enough to memorize after one listen. Maybe it’s because our generation has become pretty superficial too, whether we want to admit it or not. Nevertheless, in spite of everything, I still love 80s pop. It was an age of indulgence and immediate gratifications, and although the world was in a state of political unrest, people in “Frankie Says Relax” t-shirts danced next to people in “Choose Life” t-shirts with fingers in their ears. Banks were on the brink of failing, but people kept maxing out their credit cards buying “Frankie Says Relax” t-shirts and whatever else MTV told them they needed. With the deregulation of the banks, they lent out money like crazy, expecting people could somehow pay them back. They used the same promotional techniques, but maybe if they sold “One Is All That You Can Score” shirts, more people would have remembered it.īut can you blame them? They were living in a world where the president lagged his feet when thousands of people were dying of AIDS and deregulated the economy. It turned the very real political climate into an entertainment show as fake as wrestling. Instead, it was made into multiple remixes to sell as many records as possible, and just like “Relax,” the video played on shock value and indulgence. ![]() But what did “Two Tribes” do? It could have been a message about the ridiculousness of the Cold War and unnecessary violence, just like Bob Dylan’s protest songs of the 60s or the Dixie Chicks’s “Not Ready To Make Nice.” But it wasn’t. The video stages a violent wrestling match between President Reagan and Soviet leader Konstantin Cherneko, and if someone made a video with prominent political leaders in such a controversial way today, it would without a doubt be considered a radical political statement. The video depicts the band in both American and Soviet army uniforms, so it seems they went for the shock-factor approach again. ![]() The Cold War was an unavoidable topic at that point, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood took the marketing bait. Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s next single, “Two Tribes,” was another #1 hit in 1984, but it’s not nearly as memorable as “Relax.” Sensationalizing politics this time instead of sexuality, the lyrics allude to nuclear war and include numerous references to Reagan and the Soviets. When you create a song specifically to become a hit and it’s successful, it’s hard not to try to recreate the same thing that worked before. ![]()
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