[Pop Music Analysis x Peace Studies No.071] Breakout / Swing Out Sister ~ A song of liberation to 'reclaim one's potential,' written on the brink of a near-death experience
🎸Song Introduction
Title: Breakout
Artist: Swing Out Sister
Issued in: October 1986 (Included on the album 'It's Better to Travel' (1987). Reached #4 in the UK and #6 in the US)
Lyrics & Music: Andy Connell, Corinne Drewery, Martin Jackson
Produced by: Paul Staveley O'Duffy
July 15th, the day this article is published, is right in the middle of the FIFA World Cup North and Central America tournament. This morning in Japan time, it was France vs. Spain, and tomorrow morning it will be England vs. Argentina. I imagine many of you are feeling a bit sleep-deprived.
The reason I started with the World Cup is that today's song was actually born from the World Cup. Specifically, the 1986 tournament held in Mexico, which is also one of the host countries for this year's tournament, 40 years ago. The frustration of one keyboardist, who thought 'the theme song for the TV broadcast was absolutely terrible,' gave birth to the bassline of this masterpiece. More on that in the second half.
Glittering horn sections, a bouncing bassline, and a soaring female vocal. 'Breakout' is a song that is synonymous with the 'Sophisti-pop' born in the UK in the mid-80s. It is pop music that sounds completely carefree, the pinnacle of sophistication.
However, when you learn where these lyrics were born, the way you hear the song changes completely. It was on a hospital bed, in a hazy state of consciousness immediately after hovering between life and death. Today, I will talk about an incredibly earnest story of 'liberation' set to an incredibly lighthearted sound.
1. Background: A fractured skull and a Monday morning demo tape
Swing Out Sister originally began as an instrumental duo featuring keyboardist Andy Connell and drummer Martin Jackson. Corinne Drewery joined as the vocalist. At the time, she was not a singer, but a fashion designer who had just launched her own label.
In an interview with a British songwriting magazine years later, she spoke about the origin of the song's lyrics. She had fallen off a horse, hit her head on a wall, and fractured her skull. She was unconscious for a week and spent the next three months recuperating. During that time, in a hazy state of consciousness, she wrote down words as they flowed through her mind. 'I don't know why I was writing. Maybe I wanted to make sure I would regain my sanity.' The lyrics for 'Breakout' were born from the words on those scraps of paper.
The production process was just as precarious. The record contract at the time was conditional on only two singles, and the first, 'Blue Mood,' went nowhere. The record company's ultimatum was, 'Submit a demo by first thing Monday morning, or the contract is over.' However, Andy was on tour in Europe with the band, and Martin was in Manchester; in 1986, without mobile phones or the internet, there was no way to contact them. Corinne, who was living in a squat in London, recorded the demo alone using only the Walkman and boombox she had on hand after waiting for her roommate to leave for work, and sent it to the record company via motorcycle courier. It was liked in the meeting, and that is how the song was released to the world.
Even after its release, the company's assessment was, 'This song won't sell.' However, a few-minute appearance on a children's program triggered a climb from the 90s on the charts to the 40s, and eventually to #4 in the UK. It also reached #6 in the US and was nominated for a Grammy Award. A song that wasn't supposed to sell kicked down a door that was supposed to be closed, from the inside.
2. Lyrics: A prescription to 'say what you want to say'
The lyrics begin with a description of being at a dead end. When explanations don't make sense. When every answer seems wrong. When things just don't click. Then, the chorus gives instructions in a rapid-fire manner. 'Don't stop to ask. It's a breakthrough you've finally grasped. Find a way, say what you want to say. Breakout.'
Here, I bring in the most fundamental definition of peace studies. Galtung defined violence as 'the cause of the gap between the potential realization of human beings and their reality.' It is not just war or physical assault that is violence. Any state where 'what could have actually been done' is 'left undone,' and everything that creates that difference, is violence in a broad sense.
In light of this definition, what 'Breakout' is singing about is precisely the resolution of that gap within oneself. Corinne wanted to be a singer. But she had a stable, well-paying job as a designer, and those around her expected that of her. It wasn't that someone beat her into giving up her dream. The common sense that 'it's ridiculous to throw away stability,' a value system like the air we breathe, was quietly fixing the gap between her potential and her reality. She herself said she realized this after the accident. Only after standing on the brink of death did she think, 'I don't want to go back to being a designer. I have to do what I want to do.' The reaction of her bandmates is funny: 'Don't quit, you're the only one with any money!'
The line 'say what you want to say' is therefore not just a spirited shout. It is a prescription for liberation, the flip side of the definition of violence, telling you to reclaim the potential that had been suppressed.
3. Music: A bassline born from frustration with the World Cup theme song
Now, about the World Cup story I promised at the beginning. According to Andy Connell, that bouncing bassline started because the theme song for the 1986 Mexico tournament TV broadcast was 'the most terrible thing I'd ever heard,' so he turned down the TV volume and played the 'sound he wanted to hear' along with the screen. In his own words, 'I was secretly trying to be Joe Zawinul of Weather Report.' The DNA of jazz fusion is mixed in, disguised as pop music. As a bassist myself, I can say that at least half of the driving force of this song is created by that lightly moving low end.
The flashy horn section was a product of the three's compromise. Corinne insisted on a Motown style, Andy on a marching band style, and Martin said, 'We don't need horns.' The result was a sound different from what any of them had imagined, and Andy reflects, 'It became something no one expected. That was better.'
And in the final chorus, the key shifts up a step. In fact, this modulation wasn't in the demo; it was brought in by producer Paul Staveley O'Duffy. Andy has said, 'We were listening to so much Stevie Wonder that it was almost an obligation to go up a tone in the final chorus.' Following the previous No. 070, 'Livin' on a Prayer,' this is coincidentally the second song in a row from 1986 to feature a modulation in the final act. Depicting a dead end in the lyrics and sounding a breakthrough through modulation—this could be called the upward-vector technique shared by 80s pop music.
4. Lessons: Is 'breaking out' a negation or a creation?
I will measure this song using two yardsticks.
First, the Galtung definition. There is no direct violence here, nor is there conflict between nations. What exists is a state where talent and desires are left 'as they are'—in other words, the gap between potential realization and reality. What kept this fixed was the conventional wisdom that one shouldn't abandon a stable job, and the expectations of those around her that 'staying a designer is safe.' In Galtung's terms, this means that cultural violence, which makes the suppression of potential seem 'natural,' was at work on a very small scale.
Next is the Adachi definition. The word 'Breakout' might at first glance look like a departure from something, a movement of negation (negative peace). However, if you look closely at the lyrics, what this song is ordering is neither 'destroy' nor 'fight.' It is 'find a way' and 'say what you want to say.' In other words, it is a command to add your own voice, which had been suppressed, to this world in a new way. It is not the removal of evil, but the creation of good. In the Adachi definition, this is a movement of positive peace. The negative term 'break out' is, in its essence, composed entirely of affirmation. This twist is what makes this song interesting.
When viewed through the 'points and lines' of Adachi theory, it becomes even clearer. Corinne's 'point' before the accident looked blessed to outsiders: a designer with her own label and a stable income. However, her 'line'—her vector—was pointing in a direction that was gradually moving away from the possibility of becoming a singer. I believe the extreme state of a fractured skull showed her the direction of that line. And so, she discarded the richness of the point and changed the direction of the line. The 'point' of recording demos onto a Walkman while living in a squat might have looked like rock bottom, but her vector was pointing straight up.
There is one more thing I want to make sure to write. The reason this song could sing of 'liberation' is not because she was strong on her own. The reason she made the Monday morning deadline was because there was the music of her friends, the life of her roommate, the courier service, and someone who said, 'This is good.' Breaking out always happens with a little help from others. The 'if there are two of us, we can hold on' that Tommy and Gina taught us in No. 070 and the 'step forward even if you are alone' in this song might actually be two sides of the same coin.
5. In sum
Words written on the border of life and death became one of the most lighthearted pop songs in history. What 'Breakout' teaches us is that the gap between your potential and reality also becomes a form of violence if left unattended, and that the gap begins to close the moment you 'say what you want to say.' That final modulation is a celebratory fanfare that rings only for those who have changed the direction of their line.
This series, 'Rikiya Adachi's [Western Music Commentary x Peace Studies],' is a series where a peace scholar seriously deciphers the reasons why those classic songs are still loved today. The meanings of terms that appear in the articles, such as 'structural violence,' 'cultural violence,' and 'positive peace,' as well as how to read each article, are summarized in this pinned post. If you are new here, please start from here.