Wham and the 80's

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Scrawler

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In the USA, "choose life" would be an anti-abortion bumpersticker.
That was my first thought (anti-abortion). I'd forgotten the Wham t-shirts until you mentioned it. Go Go would make me think Wham. The line "wake me up..." makes me think Wham.
 

PhoenixSaga

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Choose life brings to me only current politic issues. I had my Jr. High and Highschool years in the 80's and liked Wham along with other bands mentioned here. However, I really dont think the T-shirts were as popular in the US as other countries. I can't remember having ever seen anyone wear them here.
 
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Soccer Mom

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I remember Wham and the T's---but my first thought was the anti-abortion slogan.
 

A.M. Wildman

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here is the sentance I have used choose life in. Does it still make you think of anti abortion?

The last time I actually dressed to impress was during the days of big hair, blue eye shadow and t-shirts inviting me to choose life.

For me the big hair, blue-eye shadow would clue me into the time frame. If you lived during the 80's and were older than 12 you couldn't mistake it.
 

eldragon

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I also think of the anti-abortion bumper stickers.

"Choose life, your mama did, darlin." I hate that sticker.

Maybe she didn't choose life, but had no other choice.

When I think of the WHAM video, I think of SNL's Jimmy Fallon doing a hilarious parody of George Michael jumping around in his white shirt and weird hair.
 

Bubastes

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How can anyone forget the day-glo fingerless gloves George Michael wore in that video?

So the "Choose Life" t-shirts in the Wham video did NOT have anything to do with abortion?

IIRC, it was a designed as an anti-drug and anti-suicide slogan. But I agree, my first thought when I saw the phrase (out of context) was anti-abortion.
 
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JoniBGoode

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here is the sentance I have used choose life in. Does it still make you think of anti abortion?

The last time I actually dressed to impress was during the days of big hair, blue eye shadow and t-shirts inviting me to choose life.

Sorry, but it still makes me think "anti-abortion." Abortion has been a controversial topic at least since the 1980's. Maybe if it was a Wham t-shirt instead?
 

Bubastes

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Sorry, but it still makes me think "anti-abortion." Abortion has been a controversial topic at least since the 1980's. Maybe if it was a Wham t-shirt instead?

Or maybe use a "Frankie Say Relax" T-shirt instead?
 

underthecity

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Yeah, I have to agree. If I saw that passage with "choose life" in a novel, I would think of anti-abortion slogans and probably wonder what that had to do with the story.

Plus, I didn't have MTV. I saw videos at a friend's house, or I watched Friday Night Videos on tv.

However, I very much recall seeing girls wearing the giant-sized "Frankie says Relax" t shirts.

allen
 

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Just so you know, some trivia. If anyone can find out why George had choose life as oposed to go go on his t-shirt, i'd be interested to know. perhaps it was in support of anti abortion. Who knows.

[SIZE=-1]“Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” is a song by sang by the English pop duo Wham!. This was a 1984 release and it became their first UK number one hit.[/SIZE]

Frankie Goes to Hollywood (FGTH) was a UK dance-pop band that was popular in the mid 1980s.
The group's debut single "Relax" was famously banned by the BBC while at number six in the charts, and subsequently topped the UK singles chart for five consecutive weeks, going on to enjoy prolonged chart success throughout 1984 and ultimately becoming the seventh best-selling UK single of all time.


"Choose life" is a phrase which has been used in a variety of ways, including:
 

Unique

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I don't know anything about the pro life stuff but I sure loved Wham!

I think I still have some vinyl around here somewhere ... yes... the 80's. Big hair, night life, and a whole lotta ... going on.

What else do ya know about Wham!? Enquiring minds want to know ...
 

mum23

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Okay, so here's the paragraph with the discussed issue inserted.


I practically fell upstairs to get changed, but was unsure whether to go for the hello boys look or something a little more housewife. I plucked out my favourite bias-cut dress and teamed it with summer sandals. I wanted something alluring, not sleazy as I didn't want to give the impression of being a complete walkover, but hey he’d already seen my underwear today. Pulling the cool summer dress over my head the fabric clung to my curves in all the right places, and caressing the contours with my hands, I could feel it’s silky fabric against my palms. The only lip-moistening agent I had to hand was a chap stick, not exactly Miss Glamour puss but it’ll do. The last time I actually dressed to impress was during the days of big hair, blue eye shadow and over-sized t-shirts telling me to Relax.
 

underthecity

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Mum, that's a great paragraph . . . . except for the "it's" in "I could feel it's silky fabric." It's should be its. No apostrophe, but I'm sure that was just an oversight.

Can't wait to read more.

allen
 

Unique

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mum?
23?

what? no spandex?:e2brows:

Just one question tho-
You're getting ready to go see Wham! in concert? I musta missed a page.
 

PhoenixSaga

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Fabulous Idea... i definately get that. Frankie and Relax was big in the 80's. spandex, double belts and black rubber bracelets... wow, what a trip... sounds like my wardrobe back then. ::blushes:: I probably shouldn't have admitted that. ;)
 

ideagirl

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I was just wondering if Wham were as big in America as they were in the UK. The reason I ask is because I want to use the line; T-shirts inviting folk to choose life. Obviously to me that instantly means Wham and the 80's but I don't know about everyone else.

Wham were known, but not huge--and I'm speaking as someone who bought British music magazines (I was 13 in 1984); I knew about them, and my half-British friend discovered them when she visited London in 84, but they barely registered in our junior high school. George Michael made a much bigger impression when he went solo. I remembered the Choose Life shirts when you mentioned them, but just barely; they don't scream "Wham" to me, and I'm speaking as someone with a vivid memory of the 80s (and everything else). Like, I remember the first article I ever read on Culture Club, in the local paper when they were playing at a local nightclub (in the midwest) in 1983; the first frames of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" video are permanently engraved in my memory (and I didn't even like the video); I remember the first time I saw "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" on MTV, when they were still so unknown that I thought Boy George was a girl. But I only just barely remembered the "Choose Life" shirts, and only because you mentioned them.

Adam Ant was big among the girls. Then Culture Club was big. Throughout this time, Duran Duran was also huge. All of them were bigger by far than Wham. The only Wham song I can even remember off the top of my head was that "Jitterbug" one, and again, I'm speaking as someone who can sing from memory the chorus of two Howard Jones songs, and even one Nick Kershaw song ("wouldn't it be gooood to beee in your shoes/even if it was for just one day..."). Big Country were one-hit wonders (I do still like that song, though). If you're wanting a t-shirt, I agree that "Frankie Say Relax" is much more likely to trigger flashbacks in people of our generation than the "Choose Life" ones.
 
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Carrie in PA

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Oooooooooooh Relax! I had one of those. It was neon pink with neon green lettering. I promptly ripped off the neckline and sleeves to I could wear it with one shoulder exposed, over my skiiiiiiiiiiin tight jeans with a big honkin' wide white belt and lots of tacky HUGE plastic jewelry. Topping off the look was my 3-foot high bangs and super-teased hair. :D

Ahhh, memories...
 

ideagirl

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For me the big hair, blue-eye shadow would clue me into the time frame. If you lived during the 80's and were older than 12 you couldn't mistake it.

That strikes me as slightly wrong, though. Big hair was not "big" in any of the schools I went to then (I went to four different schools between ages 12 and 17); the 80's was the age of big hair, but not among the people that listened to British pop in the early/mid 80s. Big hair was much more mainstream, like for people who watched "Dynasty" and/or listened to Madonna. I mean, remember Annie Lennox? Alison Moyet? There was lots of short hair on girls, and poofy (but still not long) hair on boys--like Prince's hairdo circa "Purple Rain," or the singer of the Thompson Twins. Some attempts at Boy George-like braids, too, though only among girls. Boys and girls alike also would wear their hair short with one extremely thin lock, a ponytail no wider than a pencil, hanging 4 to 8 inches down their backs. You also saw lots of short hair with big poofy bangs, and asymmetrical haircuts (remember Cyndi Lauper's 1984-85 hair: short on one side, quite long on the other). Big hair strikes me as something you'd see on girls who were older and more mainstream than the junior-high kids listening to British pop in the early 80s.
 
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