George Michael is a singer singer born in the South of the U.K. in 1963. He started his career off in the Pop Duo Wham! with his childhood best friend Andrew Ridgeley. He would be active with Wham! from 1981 up until 1986 with Innervision and Columbia records until George perused a solo career from 1987 onwards (still with Columbia and Innervision). Like Michael Jackson, it was George’s solo career that defined him as an artist, selling between 100 and 125 million records (along with the 30+ million he sold with Wham!) He is mostly well known for his music spanning multiple genres and defining a generation of music with his ‘different and expressive’ styles of music throughout the 1980’s.
His Solo career began in 1984 whilst he was still with Wham! When on Wham!’s 2nd album he wrote probably his most iconic song ‘Careless Whisper’. This influenced him a lot, as once Wham! was disbanded he immediately got to work and released his first solo album Faith in the U.K. in 1987. Not only did this cement himself as a capable solo artist, but the album sold 25 million copies, won Grammy of the year in 1989 (1989 because of 1988 U.S. release date) and most importantly, he was able to produce some iconic MV’s to promote Faith to the top. Like MJ’s Bad, I’m gonna highlight the MV of the song named after the album, Faith (I swear I’m not copying myself, even though the 2 artists I have talked about I am talking about a song of there’s from 1987).
Faith Music Video (1987):
The Music Video for Faith was released in October of 1987 to coincide with the Faith single which released on October 12th. As a result of this, the Album went on to sell 25 million copies worldwide. The song is a mix of Pop, Rock & Roll, and R&B which at the time was stereotyped with being associated with black artists. Fun fact; This is the exact reason why Stevie Wonder for years thought George was black. The Music Video begins with a JukeBox playing one of George’s other tracks on Faith ‘I want your Sex’ until it switches to the actual song ‘Faith’. One thing I found out researching the MV is that the organ section in the song is playing the Wham! hit ‘Freedom’ whilst panning up from the “new and improved” George Michael. Its a great use of Juxtaposition in how his time with Wham! is in the background behind him, whilst his new and improved look is put on display for all to see. Near the end we see George and a Woman standing beside the Jukebox with only the colour blue being shown as the start of the MV is nearly Al in Black and White. The reason for the Blue could also have to do with ‘Freedom’ and how he is able to craft and create any songs he wants. This shows with the production of the album as George wrote and produced every song and experiment with genres outside of Pop like R&B and Funk.
On the other hand, the way George Michael represents himself in the MV helps understand the “transition” he was going through at that point in his career. From what I understand (please take what I say here with a grain of salt) some of the imagery in the narrative of the MV could be George secretly telling to audience that he is gay. The Jukebox dividing the Woman and George throughout the music video hinting that George isn’t interested in the unknown Woman whatsoever. Another hidden message in the MV is that George and the music business are willing to change in order to make their way to the top. The reason I say this is because of a selection of reasons. The first is the fact that George is for the first time ever shown playing an instrument in the MV, in order to appeal to a wider audience then just teenagers. The second is the constant change to black and white to colour throughout the video because every Wham! MV was either a black or white or colour. This is another example of George experimenting by simply doing his own thing. The third is the look, in order to appeal to a much wider audience instead of Wham!’s average audience of teenage girls. By having both him and a woman in the MV instead of him and Andrew allowed a wider audience to appeal to his music.
This edition of the men of the year issue released in 2004 shows George posing confidently in a dark black suit. The context behind this is that this is George after he came out as Gay in 1998 and the same year in which he released his 5th Studio album ‘Patience’.
The context behind the colour pallet is that it is the exact same colour pallet of the album that George was promoting at that time. He is seen smiling and as I just mentioned before, posing confidently showing that after coming out as gay he is more willing to put himself in the limelight. His whole body is taking up the whole of the magazine cover which is could be interpreted as him taking up the whole music business with his new album, and the “appropriate” choice of clothing he is wearing is a clear indication that he is targeting himself to a much more older audience. The reason I say this is because back when he was with Wham!, him and Andrew constantly wore sportswear like sports shirts and tennis pants, in order to appeal to their younger audience at the time.
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