Thursday, May 28, 2015

#TBT: Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy"

In the wake of Ireland's recent political decisions, I feel like it's important to bring up this great jam of a #TBT.

Are you like me and thoroughly enjoying Brandon Flowers' new solo album, The Desired Effect?

His song "I Can Change" is lyrically about standing up and being supportive toward someone you love, even if it means changing your current mindset. Apropos then that he would heavily lace the song with a poignant synth sample of "Smalltown Boy", a dance hit by British group Bronski Beat back in 1984 (it sat just outside the Top 40 here in the US).


"Smalltown Boy" has endured through the pop rank largely due to the fact that's lyrics deal with surviving bullying. The music video details a young boy being ostracized from his family for being gay. That was in 1984 and its still relevant.

The song has been properly covered by a multitude of artists through the years from all over the world and was also sampled in Supermode's "Tell Me Why" and Swedish dance pop chanteuse September's "Cry For You"

1 comment:

John said...

I LOVE that you went with this song. I remember being a teenager and actually being afraid to watch the whole video if anyone else was around for fear they would think I was "one of them." Totally irrational, but the song and the video spoke to EXACTLY where I was at the time. One of my all-time favorite songs, and the amazing thing is that Jimmy still sounds amazing.

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