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Dead or Alive

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Dead or Alive was an English pop group from Liverpool, centred on the singer Pete Burns. The group grew out of the gothic post-punk band Nightmares in Wax, which Burns gave a new name in 1980. Dead or Alive is important because it delivered the first number 1 hit for the production trio Stock Aitken Waterman, the beginning of the British hit factory of the late 1980s.

Music and breakthrough

Burns worked for years in the Liverpool record shop Probe Records and stood out for his androgynous appearance, which led to frequent comparisons with Boy George. For the single You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) the band worked with Stock Aitken Waterman. The record company Epic saw little in it; Burns, by his own account, borrowed 2,500 pounds to pay for the recording. The single appeared in November 1984 and took seventeen weeks to reach number 1 in England in March 1985. In America it reached number 11. The producers were aiming for Hi-NRG, the fast club music with a pumping bass in eighth notes. Burns himself simply called it disco. The album Youthquake (1985) reached the English top ten.

Influence

The sound of You Spin Me Round became a model for other SAW records. In 1986 Bananarama asked for Venus to be made to sound just like it. In Japan the group spent seventeen weeks at number 1 in 1988 with Turn Around and Count 2 Ten. In 2009 Flo Rida used parts of the song in Right Round. Burns died of cardiac arrest in 2016, and with that the group ceased to exist.

Listening

Listening tip. In You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) (1984) the synth bass pumps non-stop eighth notes beneath the whole song, at Hi-NRG tempo. Notice how Burns, with his low, theatrical voice, stands on top of that, against the mechanical rhythm.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Pete Burns
  2. Wikipedia (en): Dead or Alive (band
  3. Wikipedia (en): You Spin Me Round (Like a Record
  4. Wikipedia (en): Venus (Shocking Blue song
Categories: ArtistsBritish Eurobeat (Stock Aitken Waterman)Synth disco and Hi-NRG