Meaning of Two Tribes by Frankie goes to Hollywood

Around the time that Frankie goes to Hollywood “Two Tribes” came out on June 4, 1984, the world was in the middle of the Cold War. With its pulsing beat and thought-provoking words, the song became a musical symbol of a time when nukes were talked about every day.

With its catchy tune and political message, “Two Tribes” was more than just a song. The band looked at the pointlessness of war and the damage it does to people through the lens of a made-up World War III situation. “When two tribes go to war, a point is all you can score” is a cynical reference to how war is a game where no one wins.

People who watched “Two Tribes” were given a stark warning of how dangerous things were around the world at the time. Thanks to the upbeat but ominous beats, many people could feel the stress of the time. This made the song not only a musical hit but also a geopolitical conversation starter.

Conflicts during the Cold War had a big impact on the story of “Two Tribes.” The gap between East and West and the constant danger of nuclear war were everyday things, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood didn’t hide this. The music video, which had people who looked like Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko fighting, was both satirical and sad about the state of politics. The connection to Ronald Reagan in “On the air America/I modelled shirts by Van Heusen” is unmistakable. In 1953, Reagan ran an ad for Phillips Van Heusen, a relationship he temporarily revived in the early 1980s. Love Is in the Air was the title of his debut feature.

The Godley & Creme-directed video depicted a wrestling match between then-US President Ronald Reagan and Konstantin Chernenko, then Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in front of group members and an assembly of representatives from the world’s nations. The match eventually degenerates into global destruction. Certain violent moments (“Reagan” is seen, for example, biting “Chernenko’s” ear) were edited from the version shown on MTV.

Many other artists and reviewers have praised “Two Tribes” for its brave way of showing how tense things are in the world’s politics. So, the song is a reminder of how music can reflect the feelings of an age and start conversations about important issues that affect people around the world.

In a world that often feels like it’s about to fall apart, “Two Tribes” shows what can happen when people disagree politically and how terrible war could be. This song from Frankie Goes to Hollywood created a place for critical discussion, which makes it more than just a song but also a piece of history that shows how paranoid people were during the Cold War.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood made a classic work that, even though it was set in the Cold War in the 1980s, still has relevance in today’s world. “Two Tribes” is a call to think about the terrible things that happen in war and to always ask for peace in a world that is split.