Pet Shop Boys (without the definite article) are a highly influential UK electronic music act. Founded in the early 1980s, the duo (Neil Tennant, Chris Lowe) had immense commercial success, starting with their first single "West End Girls" in 1985. They are one of the most consistently successful duos in pop music.

Their music's trademark sound is a combination of pure synthesised pop, with sometimes slightly over-the-top instrumentation, contrasting with Tennant's laconic vocals. Strong studio production values mark out their work.

Visually the group have always mixed the avant garde with tailored fashions and were frequently accused of lacking stage presence, presenting Lowe in the background hitting the occasional note on a Fairlight synthesizer keyboard and Tennant singing but otherwise unanimated in the foreground.

Pet Shop Boys are significant figures in Queer culture for such songs as "West End Girls", their cover of The Village People's "Go West," "Can You Forgive Her?", and "It's A Sin". Neil Tennant came out around the time of their album Very (supposedly his answer to the question, "Are you gay?", although another story says that the band chose album titles based on words they've been using a lot during the album's production - such as Actually, Please and Disco).

Neil Tennant also is involved as producer and singer with Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr's Electronic project.

Table of contents
1 Discography
2 Filmography
3 Bibliography
4 External links

Discography

  • Please (1985) - Rereleased (2001)
  • Disco (1986)
  • Actually (1987) - Rereleased (2001)
  • Introspective (1988) - Rereleased (2001)
  • Behaviour (1990) - Rereleased (2001)
  • Discography: The complete singles collection (1991)
  • Very (1993) - Rereleased (2001)
  • Very Relentless (1993) - Limited two-disc edition of Very
  • Disco 2 (1994)
  • Alternative (1995)
  • Bilingual (1996) - Rereleased (2001)
  • Nightlife (1999)
  • Release (2002)
  • Disco 3 (2003)
  • Pop Art: Pet Shop Boys - The Hits (2003)

Filmography

  • It Couldn't Happen Here

Bibliography

  • Pet Shop Boys, Literally, by Chris Heath, ISBN 0306804948
  • Pet Shop Boys versus America, by Chris Heath, ISBN 1886894310
  • Pet Shop Boys, annually, by Chris Heath, ISBN 0723568421

External links

Compare To