Review
Genre and Mood
Bronski Beat followed their debut with Why ?, released in September 1984 under the title “Why?”. Where the first single was a lament, this one is a confrontation: synth-pop pushed to the speed and force of hi-NRG, intense and defiant, with an empowering pulse under a lyric about being hated for who you love.
Song Summary
The lyric is about anti-gay prejudice. Melody Maker reported that the song was dedicated to the playwright Drew Griffiths, murdered in 1984, while Smash Hits said it was written for a friend of the band who was forced out of the country by his boyfriend’s violent parents. Musically it is the band’s more energetic side: it opens on a questioning vocal and the sound of breaking glass, then becomes a dance record. Record Mirror said it “sounds something akin to Sylvester meets Pigbag in a battle for dancefloor supremacy”.
Musical Breakdown
Intro
The song starts with Jimmy Somerville’s voice asking its question and the sound of glass breaking, an alarm before the beat arrives.
Main Section
From there the track runs at dance tempo, the synthesizers and keyboards of Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek driving it while Somerville sings high and hard over them. Melody Maker’s Adam Sweeting called the result “all rather twisted and tragic” and praised the “painfully keening vocals”.
Climax
Sweeting heard the song build “towards a tense and involving climax”. No source we found describes the arrangement in more detail, so we leave it there.
Concepts in Focus
Why? belongs to gay club culture as much as to the pop charts. Hi-NRG was the dance music of the clubs, and the band, unhappy with the inoffensive gay performers of the time, chose to put an openly political lyric into exactly that format. Today the song is counted among the gay anthems; the British electronic musician Andi Fraggs has called it his “favourite gay anthem”.
The single came in several lengths: 4:04 on the album, 3:55 on the 7-inch, and a 7:46 extended mix on the 12-inch, plus remixes. The longer cut was made for DJs and dancers rather than for radio.
The music video was directed by Bernard Rose, who also made the video for Bronski Beat – Small Town Boy.
Artistic Context
Bronski Beat formed in London in 1983: Somerville and Bronski from Glasgow, Steinbachek from Southend, sharing a flat in Brixton. The three wrote Why? together; Mike Thorne produced it, recording at RPM Studio in New York and mixing at Townhouse in London. It opens their album The Age of Consent, released by London Records in October 1984, whose inner sleeve listed the age of consent for sex between men across Europe.
Impact and Reception
Why? reached No. 6 in the UK, No. 1 on UK airplay and the Top 10 across much of Europe. Smash Hits called it “a worthy follow-up”, and Spin named Bronski Beat, with Sade, the most important new act in dance music. In 2006 Supermode built Tell Me Why from its lyric and from melodies of Smalltown Boy. Play it loud, and listen to the question in the first seconds.
