Wham! we’re a pop duo in 1980’s consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. The Duo became friends in high school when Andrew befriended an incredibly shy Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (George Michael) and the shared the same love for Music. Formed in Bushey in 1981 the Duo released numerous iconic pop songs throughout 1982 to 1986 and only 2 albums, but managed to sell more than 30 million records in just that period with Columbia, Innervision, Epic and Sony records. The 2 genres the Duo promoted were Pop and Dance-Pop, especially Dance Pop as the majority of their Music Videos consists of original and iconic dance moves.
Even though Wham! only made 2 albums during their brief stint in the Music business, they managed to clinch 6 UK number 1’s; all of them within a 2 year period between 1984 and 1986, with the first being ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” and the last one being “The Edge of Heaven”. The majority of these were on Wham!’s second and final album ‘Make It Big’ and one of those being the fifth track “Freedom” (not to be confused with George Michael’s “Freedom 90”). Completely written by George Michael, the iconic single became important for Western Culture as the Music Video shows Wham! travelling around Communist China.
Freedom Music Video (1985):
The reason the Music Video is iconic is because Wham! were the first Western European band to perform in Communist China during the Cold War. The Communist government at the time (led by Li Xiannian) were incredibly strict on choosing a band/artist to perform there. The conditions not allowed were: Women artists, Black artists, Must have a friendly image, and plenty other tiny nitpicks. So Wham! were the safest bet and their Music Video for it shows as the MV consists of footage shot by the band almost like a family holiday film, footage of the everyday people of China looking amused by Whams appearance, and footage of one of the 2 concerts Wham! performed during their historical visit. Their representation in the MV video had to be positive and happy in order to maintain a positive outlook from the Chinese government as both George and Andrew called themselves “unofficial ambassadors”. It clearly shows in the MV as when they are at iconic Chinese landmarks like the Great Wall of China and the Workers Indoor Arena they are clearly interactive and respectful to the Chinese locals.
However, their representations of the Chinese locals could be entirely fraudulent as they could’ve been told who to film and what to film throughout their trip. However, even though it is disputed, there is also no concrete evidence that any Chinese officials forced Wham! to do this so when I’m talking about the Chinese people in the video, it is an unofficial of official representation of them. The reason I give this statement is because in the MV, the Chinese people seem at the same time, both welcoming yet want nothing to do with the Westerners. An example of the welcomeness is the footage film by Andrew/George filming the Chinese martial artists. They clearly seem to be fine with them getting close ups of their combat moves and seem to be completely relaxed when they have “Western technology” (cameras) in their faces. On the other hand, the other example which shows the Chinese people on the Great Wall of China seems as if the people want nothing to do with the Pop duo; there are even instances when Chinese citizens walk between the duo and the photographers as they either want nothing to do with them, or don’t understand why they’re in their country. The only time they do interact with a Chinese citizen is when both Andrew and George say hello to a Chinese boy, who they interacted with first.
This edition of Smash Hits released in late September 1984 shows both Andrew and George wearing matching white shirts. The context behind this is that this is the month before the release of their 2nd album ‘Make it big’ and during their incredible streak in 1984 were they got 3 UK number ones in the same year.
The reason behind the pink background is that the magazine is attempting to appeal to Wham!’s target audience young girls. Another appeal is the white shirts that Andrew and George. They both have their collars up in order to appear young and relatable to the audience that they are selling their audience to. Both the boys are presented in a Medium close up to the camera so that they’re not too far away so that their fans can notice them when they see the magazines on the shelf, and not too close so that it doesn’t appear uncomfortable. The Magazine doesn’t just appeal to one artist on the cover, it appeals to multiple as at the bottom of the Magazine, there are little sections teasing both Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Boy George. The reason both were presented was because FGTH were releasing their first official Album in October ‘Welcome to the Pleasuredome’ and Culture Club (the band that Boy George was a member of) won numerous awards for their work the previous including 2 Brit Awards and a Grammy for Best New Artist.
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