Anti Marketing: Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
George Michael told Los Angeles Times, "It's quite simple, really, I decided that the thing I really enjoy… the thing I really needed was my songwriting. I didn't need the celebrity."
The promotional machine to support George Michael's legendary debut solo album Faith (1987) coupled with the extensive tour would lead him to what he described as "the brink of insanity" and would have a significant impact on where he would go next musically, as well as with his public image.
After the release of Faith, George would continue to push himself as a musician and writer, exploring new territory and genres as his musical influences continued to evolve, away from the pop and dance heavy elements of Faith and more into acoustic sounds, Brazilian influenced sounds, and even further more into jazz. He notes for the New York Times, "I decided to listen a bit more closely to the music that had happened just before I began. I went back and analysed a lot of 60's stuff that was popular before the advent of the synthesiser : The Beatles, the [Rolling] Stones, Joni Mitchell and Brazilian music. It made me decide to strip everything down."
With this evolution, George would then look outward to the public persona he had created with Faith and look to dismantle this image as a way to bring focus back to the most important element, the music. He told Los Angeles Times, "It's quite simple, really, I decided that the thing I really enjoy… the thing I really needed was my songwriting. I didn't need the celebrity."
George Michael would explain further in an interview with Q in 1990, “I’m moving out of the promotional, selling myself side of things. Because that’s what interviews always are. It’s pure sell. I’m stopping because I just realised that it makes me unhappy. The person that I think I was when I started is not the same person as I am now. It’s a difficult thing to explain… but the period when most people grow up, I didn’t. I went from school to being a pop star, which isn’t real, life and my growing up period happened quite late — in the last three years. Now I’ve realised that I don’t want to sell myself anymore and not just that, I don’t really want to be visible any more. I still really love making music and I still really want people to like my music. But I want them to like it for what it is. I’m not overly concerned about selling millions and millions of records.”
The follow-up album to Faith, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 was finally released on 3 September 1990. This album was initially shrouded in mystery, especially when George revealed he would not be promoting the album and would not be appearing on its cover / sleeve or in its promotional music videos. Similarly, the press release distributed by Sony Music (record label) to various publications just before the album’s release was strikingly sparse and direct. As for press, George only gave interviews to three US publications: the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and USA Today. No tour was scheduled to promote this album.
While the first single to be released off Faith would be the funk / dance anthem I Want Your Sex, complimented by a shirtless George Michael in the video, Praying For Time would be the first taste the public would get of Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 with a video without a face, simply a text of the lyrics over a blank black background.
The most iconic video from Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, Freedom!‘90, however, is filled with supermodels directed by future Oscar nominee David Fincher. Inspired by Peter Lindbergh’s iconic portrait of Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford for the January 1990 cover of the British Vogue, George himself asked the five models to appear in the video. While models appearing in music videos was then commonplace, usually such models played the singer’s love interest, for Freedom!‘90, the five models would lip sync the song in George Michael’s place. The video also included male models John Pearson, Scott Benoit, Peter Formby, Todo Segalla, and fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti. The critically lauded video would feature items tied to Michael’s previous image, including the Faith jacket and guitar literally burning and exploding.
Despite its unusual marketing, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 proved another smash for George — hitting the top of the charts in the UK and the US, and selling more than eight million copies around the world.