Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTOQUnvI3CA

Introduction
"Two Tribes" is the second single by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, released in the UK by ZTT Records in May 1984. It was the longest running number-one single in the UK between 1978 and 1991.

Genre And Type Of Music

This music video is made for the new wave, synthpop and dance-pop genres, which targeted a massive mainstream audience at the time. This music video features strong political themes. It is a mixture of live performance and narrative.

The Lyrics
Released during the high-time of the cold war, the lyrics had strong political themes that suggested world nuclear destruction would happen if peace between the US and USSR wasnt made The song is about the fight between the two superpowers. There can be only one alpha country in charge. When there are two or more alpha countries, there is bound to be a fight or Cold War. The lyrics were also inspired by US president Ronald Reagans belief that Christ would return after a nuclear war

Mid-Shot Opening Monologue

The video starts with a mid-shot monologue by US president Richard Nixon, which immediately suggests that this song has political elements.

Longshot of Boxing Arena

The boxing match represents a clash between the two titans (US and USSR) while the audience represent all the other countries in the world

Mid-shot of Holly Johnson (vocals)

This feeds into Andrew Goodwins theories about music videos. Goodwin states that the artist will always have at least a cameo in their music video. Holly Johnson plays a reporter for the wrestling match, representing the band. The other band members are seen amongst the audience.

The Action
Throughout most of the video, we see mid-shots and close-ups of the wrestling match between then-President Ronald Reagan then-Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko the benefit of group members and an eagerly belligerent assembly of representatives from the world's nations.

The End
The event ultimately degenerates into all the audience members fighting with each other and then complete global destruction, suggesting that the cold war tension will eventually lead to global nuclear destruction. The cold war tension was in the news everyday and everyone was concerned about it. This helped create word-of-mouth for this music video because of the political elements it featured. This added to the already anti-image of the band, such as the previous music video Relax showing working class homosexuals mingling in a bar. The anti-image feel of the band got them more and more attention and increased word of mouth.