"Smalltown Boy" | ||||
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Single by Bronski Beat | ||||
from the album The Age of Consent | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 25 May 1984 (UK)[1] | |||
Studio | The Garden (London) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | London | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Mike Thorne | |||
Bronski Beat singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Smalltown Boy" on YouTube |
"Smalltown Boy" is the debut single by the British synth-pop band Bronski Beat, released in May 1984. It was included on their debut album, The Age of Consent. The lyrics describe a young man who is forced to leave home. "Smalltown Boy" is a gay anthem and is associated with the rise of British gay culture in the 1980s. In 2022, Rolling Stone named it the 163rd-greatest dance song.
As Bronski Beat's falsetto leader, Somerville made gay politics a hot pop topic with such hi-NRG dance floor staples as "Why?" and "Smalltown Boy"
The trio had met as friends and performed as a hoot, but their first single, "Smalltown Boy" (an autobiographical tale of a gay youth fleeing homophobia for the tolerance of the big city), became a Hi-NRG disco fave on both sides of the Atlantic.