It's FANTASTIC!
Not that I was eager to watch it. The e-mail started to come in last week, absolute raves. So I read the reviews and said...maybe, but not right now. But watching a disappointing comedy special tonight Felice suggested it, and WOW!
Started off cheesy. I mean the titles. Like the Motley Crue movie. A wink, a fabrication, a step away from the real nitty-gritty. But momentarily thereafter...
This is a document of an era. The MTV era.
But even more it's a document of the post-punk world of Britain.
It's a smaller country than the U.S. And therefore there's more of a feeling of being in it together. Music is followed like sports, like horse racing. Everybody reads the charts. Which are a mash-up of all kinds of genres. And stuff that is gigantic over there never makes it here, frequently unjustifiably, like Rag'n'Bone Man's "Human."
The label screwed that one up.
Used to be the label was everything. Wham!'s breakthrough was an appearance on "Top of the Pops." The doc says it was a phone call out of the blue, but anybody on the inside knows it never works that way, that the label worked the TV show until the opportunity arrived.
And then Wham! delivered.
Times were different. The sixties were about revolution. The seventies, licking our wounds and cynicism. And the eighties were about hedonism.
Then again, Margaret Thatcher ruled from '79-'90. Not that the average person in Americas knows much about her and her conservative government, how she broke the backs of unions and musicians and the underclass resented her, to this day. Today politics is everything. You might be misinformed, but you're aware of the players. Ergo, Brexit. The perpetrators are out of government, the country is suffering economically compared to the EU and the musical touring business has been hindered in both directions, Britain to the EU and EU to Britain. But the nationalism of the ignorant drove Brexit. And the same uninformed wanting no part of the EU were supported by the EU and didn't even know it, kinda like the Republicans who bitch about the government and social programs when they're the beneficiaries thereof. Voting against your interests, it's the twenty first century way.
So Wham! was huge in England.
But it took a while for them to cross over to America and MTV. This was before the channel was a worldwide phenomenon. Today you can make it from anywhere. Who knew Latin was gonna be this big? Other genres from other countries will come down the pike. Back then, especially as the eighties played out, you were either on MTV or you weren't, you were either a hit act or marginal. That was the power of MTV. Nobody has that power today.
Nor do the labels.
Sure, the labels rejected Wham! at first, but Wham! needed a label to make it. And the band signed an horrific deal. Sure, people will sign anything to make it, but today musicians are much better informed, they know you need an attorney, and the royalty standards have improved. 2%? Nothing on twelve inches? Today an act can get 50% after expenses, or release the music themselves and make even more. And although terrestrial radio is not yet dead, it's less powerful than ever before. It was the bastion of the major labels, still is, it's where hits were solidified. Now active customers don't listen and acts are broken online in ways the major labels do not control. It's very different from yesterday, even though the oldsters like to tell us it's just the same.
And speaking of different...
I'm not sure you can find an American or Briton conscious in the eighties who does not know "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." Nothing is that ubiquitous today, NOTHING! Everybody aware back then could sing the chorus and still can, that's how catchy the number was and still is.
And that's a point of the film, what a great songwriter and producer George Michael was.
And his father didn't believe in his career and he was gay and closeted...
The people who make it need it. They're not normal, they're flawed. They believe the success, the adulation, will fulfill them, cover up that hole inside, and when they finally realize it can't, they stop being able to deliver. But before that, they're DRIVEN!
Like George Michael.
He needed it. He reveled in it. He wanted four number ones in one year. And the power of the audience, of being on stage, is evident time and again in this movie.
So the film is a time capsule. But in this case, there's footage and photos. Yes, the eighties were documented. This separates the Wham! movie from the documentaries from earlier eras. It's all right there to see, no imagination is needed, you're just overwhelmed.
And China is still backward.
And publicity is everything. Press, TV news... They're nearly powerless today, especially for developing acts. You put it out there and try to engage your fans.
But a difference between yesterday and today is in the old days you had to build your career over time. Today, one album and you can be playing arenas. The road work was important for Wham!, as it is for developing acts today, but George Michael lived for the studio, for the hit records. Today live is everything. It's the visceral experience everybody desires in a digitized world. It's unique, you can own it.
And to see Wham!'s contemporaries... Especially recording the Band Aid single. Everybody is so young. Sting is somewhat dorky. Bono is wearing that ridiculous hat. Phil Collins can still play the drums. It's a window into what once was, and now no longer exists.
You watch the Wham! movie and remember why you wanted to be in the music business, why you NEEDED to be in the music business! Music was everything, all wrapped into one. The music, the look, the money, the meaning, the edginess... Music was pushing the envelope in ways no other art form was. And if you made it, you were more famous than anybody in the world, politicians, never mind business people.
This is not "Behind the Music." This is not a false arc. This is the story of two guys who wanted to make it, and worked hard to do so. That's the power of youth, the ignorance and the lack of experience. You believe in your talent and push on. And back then there wasn't the constant sour grapes. Most people couldn't even get a record deal, whereas today everybody can be on Spotify. And Wham! had number ones and was still broke. And then they hired Simon Napier-Bell.
A good manager is crucial.
And I love "Father Figure" from George Michael's solo career, but I can't say I was a big fan of Wham! I go for something more meaningful. But what is clear here is that George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were incredibly self-aware, they knew what they were selling. There were no false airs. Ultimately it was good time music, for partying. And the eighties were all about partying.
You've got to see this movie, even if you hate George Michael and Wham! It's a window into what once was, which you didn't know everything about. It puts the act and the eighties in context. If this were still the eighties...
MTV would make the Wham! movie an event. Everybody would know about it. It would be the talk of the youth.
But we haven't had that spirit here...for decades.
And the Eagles are a good analogy to Wham! Don Henley never would have made it if it weren't for Glenn Frey. And as the act evolved, it was clear that Henley was the superior talent, and Frey was down with that. Ridgeley is self-aware. He went for a ride with one of the greatest songwriter/performers of the era, and he's thrilled about it, anything but bitter.
Of course Glenn Frey was much more talented than Andrew Ridgeley, but the bottom line is it's very hard to keep an act together. They break up even if their fans want them to stay together. You see it's not a business venture, but an artistic quest. Artists don't play it safe, they evolve. They're willing to change, to put it all on the line, risking everything for their vision.
Today hits require more money than ever before. As a result, there are cowriters and remixers and everybody's trying to buy insurance. But the moment in the Chateau, when George Michael is talking about pulling the line from deep within, being amazed at what comes out, unaware it was there and stunned that he's got it in him...that's the essence of creativity. You've either got it or you don't. Andrew Ridgeley didn't have that, so he had to retire.
As for George Michael, he became one of the biggest stars in the world, but that was not enough. He stopped making records on principle, wanted off Columbia, and the label broke him, he never recaptured his glory. And then he died at a young age.
You think you want what George Michael got. But almost nobody really does. It requires an incredible amount of hard work. The aforementioned drive. It's not for the well-adjusted. You must sacrifice so much. And when it's all over everybody knows your name yet you still might feel hollow inside.
Watch the movie.
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