Music Bloodline

Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Liverpool, England-based band that achieved huge success for a short period in the mid-'80s with their sensational and blatantly gay disco pop.

Biography

Frankie Goes to Hollywood was one of the most notorious acts of the 1980s U.K. New Wave scene. With help from producer Trevor Horn, the openly gay synth-pop group mixed together the sounds of Hi-NRG club music with infectious dance-pop melodies, and an outrageous sense of promotion and marketing, to create a charting juggernaut. The band's unabashed homoerotic aesthetic didn't hurt sales a bit, nor did the BBC's decision to ban their smash debut single "Relax." Though the single and its follow-up, "Two Tribes," were huge successes, the band's popularity peaked almost instantaneously, and they were essentially finished by 1986, a mere two years after "Relax." Nonetheless, the impact they made on dance and pop music--both musically and socially--continues to be felt decades later.