The growing popularity of Michael Jackson which started in 1983 also set foot in 1984 especially after the video for "Thriller" was released. Even though the content of the video was controversial at that time, it was also groundbreaking and it revolutionized the music industry and the world of pop by breaking down the racial barriers and transforming the music video into a work of art.
Even at the other end of the Atlantic the 1983 started with a small scandal which involved Frankie Goes To Hollywood who got banned by BBC for almost a year due to the explicit lyrics in the and provocative video for their biggest hit "Relax". Despite this fact, the band managed to have major success around the world with their debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. This was also the first big success for ZTT Records and three times platinum in the UK. Towards the end of the year the Frankie Goes to Hollywood ban was slowly lifted and "Relax" was the ultimate anthem of 1984 introducing the Frankie Says Relax trend.
With the growing popularity of MTV, in 1984 the first MTV Music Awards were given away at the Radio City Music Hall in New York. Among the winners were Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock. Madonna was not up for awards, but manged to make prominence and shake the pop world with her performance at the VMA's.
Just ahead of Christmas when 1984 was in the fade out, a group of musicians headed by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure got together for a good cause forming Band Aid. This was a group of musicians who recorded a song to raise awareness and funds for the Ethiopian famine in 1983–1985. It included more than 40 musicians and it sold over two million copies around the globe and raised more than $24 million.
Towards the end of the year New Gold Dream which could easily be translated as the golden era of new Wave slowly began to vanish and became clear that the new musical term was Pop.
