Bronski Beat

United Kingdom, 1983–1995

London trio of Jimmy Somerville, Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek. 'Smalltown Boy' (1984) put a gay teenager leaving home on Top of the Pops without a word of euphemism, carried by Somerville's falsetto over a hi-NRG sequencer. The Age of Consent printed the age of consent for gay men in each country on its sleeve.

MusicRoots documents 3 artists who influenced Bronski Beat and 0 artists Bronski Beat influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Bronski Beat?

• Sylvester — Somerville's falsetto is Sylvester's, taken out of the San Francisco disco and put on Top of the Pops. He later covered 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' outright.
• Donna Summer — The Age of Consent closes on a medley built around 'I Feel Love' — the record that showed a disco track could be made entirely of sequencer, which is what Bronski Beat then did with a political lyric on top.
• Village People — Somerville names them as one of the first disco records he remembers, well before 'Y.M.C.A.' — the point at which disco became something a gay teenager in Glasgow could hear himself in.