I don’t know, man. These guys are pretty fucking cool.

Years ago I found one of their one-inch buttons at a garage sale. It was black and white, and I think I thought they were on some 2 tone ska shit, but I bought the button because it was cool looking and I knew Bronski Beat meant a lot to a lot of people.

A little while later I saw the video for “Smalltown Boy” and was blown away by the pathos of the damned thing. It’s a song with a strong message that’s not super played up for drama. I think that’s what makes it such an enabling piece of pop history. “Smalltown Boy” — and Bronski Beat themselves — helped embolden a generation of young homosexual men to go to where they’d be understood.

Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy

I started really listening to Bronski Beat’s first album, The Age of Consent (1984), a couple of months ago. There are some slow songs, but also a few incredible stand-outs. “Smalltown Boy” and “Why?” were the singles, and I guess “Ain’t Necessarily So” was a big deal too because it was a Gershwin classic.

Bronski Beat – Why?

But my favorite song on the album is “Junk”, and it doesn’t get much mention when people talk about the album. I think that’s because the song doesn’t fit as neatly into the themes of the album (fighting stereotypes, resisting homophobes, carving out space in the world, etc), but I think it succeeds because it’s the darkest song in the mix. They never made a video for it, either, so I decided to do so. It’s short and rough because it was made as an accompaniment to a performance at a party, and wasn’t really meant to stand alone.

I think it turned out nicely, though.

Bronski Beat – Junk

Fun Fact: BB didn’t clear the Kibbles ‘n Bits sample in this song (because sampling wasn’t a big deal in ‘84, really), and were approached first not by the dog food people, but by the annoying voice actor who did the commercial. Once that dude sued the band, the Kibbles people came to town too, and some loot got handed out.

I’ve got more to learn about these guys yet (still haven’t even heard Truthdare Doubledare), but I’ve got time. And anyway I sort of like keeping the guys frozen in my brain, at their beginning, when their presence as synthpop stars mattered so much to a community that deserved far more respect and acknowledgment than it got.