Frankie’s Greatest Hits. There weren’t many, but they left a mark, so to speak.

Something happened in the 80′s. I’m not sure what, but it hasn’t happened much since then. As easy as it is to make fun of the hair, fashion, and music of the era, the simple fact is that pop music hasn’t changed much since then. I present as evidence Exhibit A, the 2009 25th anniversary remix of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Relax. 25 years later, the song is still marketable, and still gets heavy exposure in movies, ads, and clubs. The remix? They raised the tempo about 20 BPM, and electronified the bassline a bit. The casual listener might not notice the difference, except that it feels even less soulful than the original. Even the visuals look 80′s. If you were doing a 60′s tribute in the 80′s it would’ve been obvious from the fashion, but the fact is that frankly, clubbers look the same in 2009 as they did back then. One thing that I think made a big difference is that a lot of genres that popped up in the 80′s (and have been remixed and recombined repeatedly since then) were actually the calculated results of just a few British production teams, specifically Trevor Horn’s label ZTT Records, Factory Records, and 4AD. Almost every pop music trend since then can be traced directly to a band produced by these labels. Frankie Goes To Hollywood, for instance, was a rather hollow-sounding Liverpool club band that Trevor Horn elevated to epic and orchestral levels with an elaborate production method and provocative, politically-driven marketing. Their couple of hits launched an entire movement of gay pride, and a musical style to go with it. Watch this interview (also below) to see FGTH performing Relax prior to Trevor Horn. You’ll also get some background on the controversy about the song’s sexual content, which got them banned from the BBC. Which in turn allowed them to chart in the top 20 on the recording’s release date. They also briefly discuss the Reagan vs Chernenko wrestling match in the song Two Tribes. For those of you who don’t recall, it was a commonly held belief at the time that the nuclear apocalypse would be caused by one of these two doddering old eccentric leaders simply losing it one day. Little did we suspect we’d be watching an aging, Liberace-like Holly Johnson reliving it all 25 years later. Sometimes I wish my 80′s nihilism had been a little  more effective

Interviews with Holly Johnson and Trevor Horn:

The 2009 Relax Remix (I call it the Liberace Mix)

A short list of bands that came from just the three labels mentioned above:

Trevor Horn/ZTT-

Art of Noise
Belle & Sebastian
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Grace Jones
Pet Shop Boys
Propaganda
Seal
Shane MacGowan
Simple Minds
Soft Cell (Marc Almond)
The Frames
t.A.T.u.

The Factory-

Joy Division
New Order
Electronic
Happy Mondays
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

4AD-

Bauhaus
Beirut
Belly
The Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir
Cocteau Twins
Colourbox
Dead Can Dance
Lydia Lunch
M/A/R/R/S
Modern English
Pixies
Stereolab
The The
This Mortal Coil
Throwing Muses
Tones on Tail

And it’s rather telling somehow that there are “Relax” T-shirts for toddlers on Amazon: