Bronski Beat — It Ain't necessarily so

JUL 01 1984 · 12:00

Bronski Beat — It Ain't necessarily so (1984) Director: Simon Milne Era: New Wave / Synth-Pop Peak Era (1984) - British synth-pop at its commercial and political zenith, coinciding with a surge in overtly queer pop art and gay rights activism in the UK High curatorial value as one of the most explicit and unambiguous examples of LGBT+ political music video production in UK mainstream pop during the mid-1980s. The video's confirmed use of a real LGBT+ choir (The Pink Singers), its Gershwin source material recontextualised as a queer anthem, and its release within a broader activist album campaign make it an irreplaceable primary document of pre-Section 28 British queer culture. Its warm, community-centred aesthetic and fast-paced editorial construction distinguish it from contemporaneous depoliticised synth-pop visuals, offering researchers a rich comparative text. Context: Released November 1984, this video arrives at a moment of intense political tension surrounding LGBT+ rights in the United Kingdom, where the age of consent for homosexual acts remained at 21 — five years higher than the heterosexual equivalent — a disparity that Bronski Beat's parent album *The Age of Consent* explicitly confronted. The song itself is a cover of a Gershwin standard from *Porgy and Bess* (1935), reframed by Bronski Beat as a challenge to biblical and moral orthodoxy directed at a queer audience facing state-sanctioned discrimination. The inclusion of The Pink Singers — a recognised London LGBT+ choir — grounds the video in an authentic community of resistance rather than a purely commercial pop context. The video's warm, intimate register and ensemble staging amplify the sense of collective solidarity central to the track's cultural message. Director notes: Confirmed via IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11574676/) and IMVDb (https://imvdb.com/video/bronski-beat/it-aint-necessarily-so) as directed by Simon Milne, released 1984. The video features Bronski Beat alongside The Pink Singers, a prominent London LGBT+ choir, underscoring the record's overt political and community-oriented intent. The IMDb cast listing confirms the band members' on-screen presence as themselves. Milne was an active and prolific UK-based music video director throughout 1982–1985, working across synth-pop, new wave, and mainstream pop acts.