Culture Club – Colour by Numbers

What do maketh a queer icon? Pop princess blighted by tragedy – tick. Indie darlings, misunderstood by their contemporaries but retrospectively lauded – check. Alexandra Burke – say no more, dot com.
 
How about an effeminate, sexually ambiguous teenager pulled from small town 70s England to front a reggae-influenced pop rock band who would go on to sell 150 million albums, and soundtrack wedding dance floors for decades to come? Boy George confused and bewitched men, women and everything in between, and in some ways, continues to do so.
 
Colour by Numbers is Aural Fixation's look at a fully-formed body of work, released at the height of Culture Club's success and reach, as we delve into what made the band resonate with so many mainstream listeners while impacting young and old queers alike. Boy George is a gay icon, a music icon, and a British icon, and we want to know why. Just don't call him gender fluid. Also, what does Dannii Minogue have to do any of this?

For further reading, check out “Back in bloom: How queer male pop reclaimed its star status” from The Guardian, and “Learning to love Boy George” from The Stranger.

Don’t miss this episode's companion playlist on Spotify and please feel free to slide into our DMs on Instagram at @auralfixationpodcast. Your hosts are @drew_down_under and @andrewdoyouthinkyouare.