The 1980s have been said to be the pinnacle of pop music. But for one part of society 1984 was the beginning of a cultural revolution that would change society. I am going to look at ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH), the story of how it became a hit, and how it helped to usher in a willingness by public figures in the music industry to come out of the closet. The willingness of these performers has had a significant positive impact on the general public’s attitude to homosexuality even at the time the AIDS epidemic was just beginning. And while this was happening Holly Johnson (lead singer) and Paul Rutherford (backing singer) were openly gay in contrast to many others (except Bronski Beat) within the music industry at the time.
You cannot bring up Relax without also talking about it being banned by the BBC. Here I will look at the positive impact of the ban and how, as Oscar Wilde once said, ‘There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.’
Also central to this is the story is Trevor Horn, the producer on Relax, and the co-owner of ZTT records. It was his vision and production that created a track that was reported to have sold over two million copies in the UK alone. Paul Morley, co-owner of ZTT, who handled the marketing and promotion of the single, was also key to its success. He was one of the first in the industry to combine marketing with merchandising in a way that filtered into the visual vernacular in such a way that ‘Frankie Say Relax’ t-shirts are still used as a shortcut in film and TV to elicit the 80s.
I will also go into the technologies used on the track. This part will be focused on 1984 as a time that included digital technologies, including the Fairlight CMI, but was still a largely analogue process.
For me this track still stands up as an example of incredible production (while maybe not from a song writing point of view) that while timeless, that sits larger than life in my memory of growing up in the 80s.
Bibliography to use for the proposal
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Buskin, R. (2021) Frankie goes to hollywood ‘relax’: Classic Tracks, Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Relax’ | Classic Tracks. Sound on Sound. Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/frankie-goes-hollywood-relax-classic-tracks (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
Clews, C. (2017). Gay in the 80s: From Fighting for Our Rights to Fighting for Our Lives. United Kingdom: Matador.
Electronic Cafe (2022) JJ Jeczalik: Interview 2022 (part 1) – ZTT fairlight pioneer, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NY2dm6Xags (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
Gilbert, B. (2021) How we made: Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2021/aug/02/how-we-made-relax-by-frankie-goes-to-hollywood-sex-mix-gay-clubs (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
Horn, T. (2022) “’Relax’/’Two Tribes’, Frankie Goes to Hollywood (1983/1984),” in Adventures in modern recording. London, UK: BONNIER BOOKS LTD, pp. 166–205.
Lacedelli, S. (2021) The Fairlight CMI: The secret composer of the music you love, National Science and Media Museum blog. Available at: https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/fairlight-cmi-playlist/ (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
London Recordings (2018) Bronski beat – smalltown boy (official video), YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/88sARuFu-tc (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
Nord (2014) Fairlight history, Nord Keyboards. Nord. Available at: https://www.nordkeyboards.com/sound-libraries/nord-sample-library-archive/fairlight-history (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
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Storm, R. (2021) The story of ‘relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, YouTube. Hits of the 80s, Channel 5. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgksUyHeqlU (Accessed: October 23, 2022).
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zttrecords (2007) Frankie goes to hollywood – relax (ZTAS 1), YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN2tHv8gPm8 (Accessed: October 23, 2022).