1984: The Year Pop Went Queer

(Paperback)

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Description

In 1984, pop came out of the closet - even if not all of the artists felt that they could - and, in the process, charted the course of the rest of the decade.

In 1984: The Year Pop Went Queer, writer and musician Ian Wade charts where these artists, including Queen, George Michael, David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Madonna - who all enjoyed chart success in 1984 - were during that epoch-making year. It studies the impact these groundbreaking musicians had before, during and after on the gay community and popular culture, and it demonstrates how they were able to break down barriers, raise consciousness and set in motion the first nascent ripples in a pond that are still being felt today.

As a backdrop, it explores the strides made in the name of the cause and how the wider surrounding culture reacted with equal parts glee, bafflement and disgust.

Reviews

'A flamboyant take on the 1980s. Everything you wanted to know about the 'Relax' video but were afraid to ask. It shows how Bronski Beat, Dead or Alive, Madonna et al. threw open music's closet on Top of the Pops, shifting society's attitudes to a disco beat. Excellent' * The Times *
'A loving compendium of what happened during the pinkest 12-month patch of pop history' * Observer *
'MAGNIFICENT! A Poppers O'Clock ode to one of pop's most pivotal and best dressed year' -- Caitlin Moran
'A riveting read about a pop revolution hiding in plain sight' -- Pete Paphides
'Plenty of predictions were made about 1984, but one thing no one foresaw was that it would turn out to be the year of British pop's coming-out party. Ian Wade is the perfect guide to a lost pop world more complex and fraught than nostalgia allows, an era simultaneously more exciting and more depressing than our own' -- Alexis Petridis
'Very funny and very moving, a whirlwind tour around a remarkable year by the lovely Ian - a guide alive with the spirit of Smash Hits, and lashings of LGBTQ+ pride and rage' -- Jude Rogers
'Highly energetic, well-informed, opinionated in all the right places and always exciting, this is a rush down memory lane.' -- David Quantick
'A refreshing take on the "year in pop" format' -- Simon Price
'[A] brilliantly written book' * Louder Than War *
'A tender and considered exploration and examination of how underground gay culture became subsumed into the official chart' -- Official Charts Company

Author Bio

Ian Wade is a writer, DJ and pop fanatic. He has written for Classic Pop, Record Collector, The Quietus, MusicOMH, Official Charts, Sunday Times Culture as well as doing time for Smash Hits and The Face many years ago. He has worked as a PR on BBC's Later... with Jools Holland and occasionally DJs at Spiritland, Duckie and Soho Radio.