History Music / BrothersInArms

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brothers_in_arms.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''I want my MTV...'']]

''Brothers in Arms'' is the fifth studio album by Music/DireStraits, released in 1985. It became a massive million seller thanks to the title track, "Walk of Life", "Your Latest Trick" and the song "Money for Nothing", which was noted for its criticism of MTV. It's one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and was one of the first albums by a major act to be released on [[UsefulNotes/CompactDisc CD]] concurrently with the LP release (barring indie titles, most CD releases early in the format's life were of albums that had already been out for at least a couple years).

In fact, its CD release is notable as the album was specifically designed to take advantage of the format's strengths compared to the then-well-established gramophone record: not only was every song recorded digitally, but the fact that the majority of the tracks were EpicRocking meant that it was impossible to fit the full album onto a single record. Indeed, up until 2006, all vinyl releases of ''Brothers in Arms'' cut a few minutes off of most of the songs (this only changed when Vertigo Records realized they could just release the uncut version as a double LP, but at the time of its original release, double albums were considered commercially unviable in the wake of the [[FollowUpFailure relative underperformance]] of Music/FleetwoodMac's ''Music/{{Tusk}}'' compared to ''Music/{{Rumours}}'').

This gimmick paid off quite well for Dire Straits, with the album becoming the first to sell more copies on CD than on vinyl, making it one of two major [[KillerApp killer apps]] for the CD format (the other being a reissue of [[Music/PinkFloyd Pink Floyd's]] ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon''). It helps that the album came out just as CD players were dropping dramatically in price since their introduction three years earlier, becoming affordable for the average rock fan. Beyond that, the album was a gargantuan commercial success overall, topping the charts in the UK, the US, Australia, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and going on to become the best-selling album of 1985 in the UK and Australia. The album would also be certified diamond in Canada & France and platinum in a hell of a lot of other places a hell of a lot of times: ''twenty-four-fold'' in New Zealand, seventeen-fold in Australia, fourteen-fold in the UK, nine-fold in the US, six-fold in Switzerland, five-fold in Denmark, four-fold in Austria, three-fold in Spain, two-fold in Finland, and one-fold in Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, and Switzerland. It also went gold in Argentina, Poland, and Sweden.

Regarding the musical content itself, the album is both a NewSoundAlbum and a RevisitingTheRoots approach, returning to the band's roots rock sound following the ProgressiveRock-oriented ''Music/LoveOverGold'', while simultaneously continuing that album's musical experimentation and incorporation of synthesizers for atmospheric effect (albeit oriented in a far more commercially accessible direction). As with Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/LittleCreatures'' released the same year, the album would herald a trend toward "rootsy" musical textures in popular music during the second half of the 1980s, embodied by the resonator guitar on the cover. Combined with the continued presence of EpicRocking, the end result is a sonic middle ground between the nostalgic minimalism of the band's first three albums and the musical innovation of ''Love Over Gold''.

This album was subject of an episode in the TV documentary series ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' and is also the {{Trope Namer|s}} for MoneyForNothing.

Track 2 is the TropeNamer for the video game trope MoneyForNothing.

----
!! Tracklist:

# "So Far Away" (5:12)[[labelnote:*]]3:59 on the 1985 LP[[/labelnote]]
# "Money for Nothing" (8:26)[[labelnote:*]]7:04 on the 1985 LP[[/labelnote]]
# "Walk of Life" (4:12)
# "Your Latest Trick" (6:33)[[labelnote:*]]4:46 on the 1985 LP[[/labelnote]]
# "Why Worry" (8:31)[[labelnote:*]]5:22 on the 1985 LP[[/labelnote]]
# "Ride Across the River" (6:58)
# "The Man's Too Strong" (4:40)
# "One World" (3:40)
# "Brothers in Arms" (6:59)

----
!!Principal Members:

* Alan Clark - keyboard
* Guy Fletcher - synthesizer, vocals
* John Illsley - bass, vocals
* Mark Knopfler - lead vocals, guitar
* Omar Hakim - drums
* Terry Williams - drums

----
!! "Here come Johnny, gonna tell ya the story, hand me down my walking tropes":
* [[AbsenteeActor Absentee Musician]]: Terry Williams for most of the album, replaced by Omar Hakim.
* AlliterativeTitle: "'''W'''hy '''W'''orry"
* AnimatedMusicVideo
** "Money for Nothing," notably for being the very first music video to feature fully computer-animated characters (created by the team that would eventually become Creator/MainframeEntertainment and create ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' and ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'') and also featuring bits of {{rotoscoping}} over footage of the band. It ended up nabbing the 1985 Grammy for Best Music Video from another classic animated video, Music/{{Aha}}'s "Take on Me."
** "Brother In Arms" includes various kinds of animation, including stop-motion, {{rotoscoping}} and normal hand-drawn animation.
* BitingTheHandHumor: "Money for Nothing" criticised MTV, while at the same time having a music video that got a lot of airplay on the channel. In fact, Mark Knopfler doesn't like music videos and only agreed to have one done for the song because MTV themselves insisted.
* CapitalismIsBad: "Money for Nothing", a criticism of the music industry, especially regarding MTV.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Per word of Mark Knopfler, "Money for Nothing" is sung from the perspective of a conservative retail store clerk commenting on the music videos he sees on MTV, which he doesn't consider "real" work (hence the refrain, "money for nothing and the chicks for free"). He also mocks a singer's effeminate getup via homophobic slurs, sleazily remarks on a woman performer, and makes racist jokes at the expense of a bongo player. Knopfler emphasized that you're meant to see the narrator of the song as a scumbag and that it's a reflection of his own negative opinions on fans of rock music.
* EndOfAnAge: The album's release marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD, with its longer tracks on CD and cassette as well as the use of digital recording. Major labels would give vinyl shorter shrift through the decade until they started to phase out LP releases altogether around the end of the '80s. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn, with [[PopularityPolynomial the return of the LP]] as the premier physical music format.
* EpicRocking: {{Invoked|Trope}} by the band as a way to promote the CD format. The broad majority of the tracks[[note]]"Money for Nothing" (8:26), "Why Worry" (8:31), "Brothers in Arms" (7:00), "Ride Across the River" (6:58), "Your Latest Trick" (6:33)[[/note]] all exceed six minutes; in fact, the abundance of atypically long tracks on ''Brothers in Arms'' meant that the only way to release the album in its entirety on the vinyl record format was as a double LP.
* FightingForAHomeland: The unnamed narrator of "Brothers in Arms":
--> These mist-covered mountains are home now for me / But my home is the lowlands and always will be / Some day you'll return to your valleys and your farms / And you'll no longer burn to be brothers in arms...
* ICouldaBeenAContender: The narrator of "Money for Nothing" laments that he should have learned to play guitar or drums, the worst physical discomfort being a blister on his finger or thumb and an easy life of not doing real work.
* LongDistanceRelationship: The narrator of "So Far Away" is a guy in one of these missing his girl; the song provides the page quote.
* LowerClassLout: The protagonist of "Money for Nothing".
-->''I shoulda learned to play the guitar\\
I should learned to play them drums\\
Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera\\
Man, we could have some fun\\
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?\\
He's bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee''
* LyricalDissonance: In "Money for Nothing", the word "faggot" pops up a couple of times, and the narrator makes numerous other racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and just plain ignorant statements. Knopfler has repeatedly explained that the song was inspired by an unambitious, bigoted dumbass he met in an electronics store who struck him as the epitome of everything that was wrong and reactionary about rock fans, so the song is written from his perspective - many of the lines, in fact, were taken verbatim from things Knopfler heard him say ("that ain't workin'", "the little faggot with the earring and make-up", "we got to install microwave ovens...", and so on).
* MoneySong:
--> ''Money for nothing and your chicks for free''
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: "Money for Nothing" was inspired by the over-night sensation that was MTV. At the time of recording the channel was only four years old, but had already become an international mainstream success dictating the norms for the music industry for years to come.
* {{Sexophone}}: "Your Latest Trick".
* ShoutOut:
** "Money for Nothing" references the "I Want My MTV" advertising slogan at the start and end of the song.
** Crossing with SongOfSongTitles: The street musician in "Walk of Life" plays oldies, including "I Got a Woman", [[Music/RayCharles "What'd I Say"]], [[Music/GeneVincent "Be-Bop-a-Lula"]], "Mack the Knife", "My Sweet Lovin' Woman".
* SillyLoveSongs: "So Far Away", which is basically the narrator missing his girl.
* SpecialGuest: Music/{{Sting}} on "Money for Nothing", singing the falsetto "I want my MTV!" in the melody of his own "[[Music/ThePolice Don't Stand So Close to Me]]". (He got a songwriting credit because of this.)
* TakeThat: "Money for Nothing" was a less-than-subtle critique of MTV.
--> ''Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it''
--> ''You play the guitar on the MTV''
--> ''That ain't workin', that's the way you do it''
--> ''Money for nothing and your chicks for free''
* TimeMarchesOn: The "Money for Nothing" music video had some of the earliest CGI animation, which looks extremely primitive today, but it was considered ground-breaking in its original release.
* TitleTrack: "Brothers in Arms".
--> ''Someday you'll return to your valleys and your farms''
--> ''And you'll no longer burn to be brothers in arms''
* TropeCodifier: This was the first album to be specifically recorded and produced for the CD market - the CD version contained longer versions of several songs than the vinyl version and was the first album to sell more copies on CD than vinyl.
* WarIsHell: At least two songs. "Brothers in Arms" is about the tribulations of ordinary soldiers in combat. "The Man's Too Strong" is an extended MyGodWhatHaveIDone from a war criminal.
** "Ride Across the River" sorta-kinda fits too:
--->I'm a soldier of fortune, I'm a dog of war
--->And we don't give a damn who the killing is for
--->It's the same old story with a different name
--->Death or glory, it's the killing game
----

And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?''

* LyricalDissonance: In "Money for Nothing", the word "faggot" pops up a couple of times, and the narrator makes numerous other racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and just plain ignorant statements. Knopfler has repeatedly explained that the song was inspired by an unambitious dumbass he met in an electronics store who struck him as the epitome of everything that was wrong and reactionary about rock fans, so the song is written from his perspective - many of the lines, in fact, were taken verbatim from things Knopfler heard him say ("that ain't workin'", "the little faggot with the earring and make-up", "we got to install microwave ovens...", and so on).

--> ''I shoulda learned to play the guitar''
--> ''I should learned to play them drums''
--> ''Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera''
--> ''Man, we could have some''
--> ''And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?''
--> ''Bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee''

* EndOfAnAge: The album's release marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD, with its longer tracks on CD and cassette as well as the use of digital recording. Major labels would give vinyl shorter shrift through the decade until they started to phase out LP releases altogether around the end of the '80s. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn and [[PopularityPolynomial the return of the LP]] as the premier physical music format.

* EndOfAnAge: The album's release marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD, with its longer tracks on CD and cassette as well as the use of digital recording. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn and [[PopularityPolynomial the return of the LP]] as the premier physical music format.

This album was subject of an episode in the TV documentary series ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' and is also the {{Trope Namer|s}} for MoneyForNothing. The album was listed at No. 352 in ''Magazine/RollingStone'''s [[UsefulNotes/RollingStone500GreatestAlbumsOfAllTime 500 Greatest Albums of All Time]] and at No. 600 on ''WebSite/AcclaimedMusic''[='s=] [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums All-Time Top Albums]].

In fact, its CD release is rather notable as the album was specifically designed to take advantage of the format's strengths compared to the then-well-established gramophone record: not only was every song recorded digitally, but the fact that the majority of the tracks were EpicRocking meant that it was impossible to fit the full album onto a single record. Indeed, up until 2006, all vinyl releases of ''Brothers in Arms'' cut a few minutes off of most of the songs (this only changed when Vertigo Records realized they could just release the uncut version as a double LP, but at the time of its original release, double albums were considered commercially unviable in the wake of the [[FollowUpFailure relative underperformance]] of Music/FleetwoodMac's ''Music/{{Tusk}}'' compared to ''Music/{{Rumours}}'').

This gimmick paid off quite well for Dire Straits, with the album becoming the first to sell more copies on CD than on vinyl, making it one of two major [[KillerApp killer apps]] for the CD format (the other being a reissue of [[Music/PinkFloyd Pink Floyd's]] ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon''). It helps that the album came out just as CD players were dropping dramatically in price since their introduction three years earlier, becoming affordable for the average rock fan. To this day, the CD release of ''Brothers in Arms'' is considered the definitive version of the album. Beyond that, the album was a gargantuan commercial success overall, topping the charts in the UK, the US, Australia, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and going on to become the best-selling album of 1985 in the UK and Australia. The album would also be certified diamond in Canada & France and platinum in a hell of a lot of other places a hell of a lot of times: ''twenty-four-fold'' in New Zealand, seventeen-fold in Australia, fourteen-fold in the UK, nine-fold in the US, six-fold in Switzerland, five-fold in Denmark, four-fold in Austria, three-fold in Spain, two-fold in Finland, and one-fold in Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, and Switzerland. It also went gold in Argentina, Poland, and Sweden. Needless to say, heights like these were far beyond anything the band had ever achieved before, and would set insurmountable (and ultimately [[CreatorKiller unfulfilled]]) expectations for their follow-up, ''Music/OnEveryStreet''.

Regarding the musical content itself, the album is both a NewSoundAlbum and a RevisitingTheRoots approach, returning to the band's roots rock sound following the ProgressiveRock-oriented ''Music/LoveOverGold'', while simultaneously continuing that album's musical experimentation and incorporation of synthesizers for atmospheric effect (albeit oriented in a far more commercially accessible direction). As with Music/TalkingHeads' ''Music/LittleCreatures'' released the same year, the album would herald a trend toward "rootsy" musical textures in popular music during the second half of the 1980s, embodied by the resonator guitar on the cover. Combined with the continued presence of EpicRocking, the end result is a sonic middle ground between the nostalgic minimalism of the band's first three albums and the musical innovation of ''Love Over Gold''. Such an approach earned the band critical scorn in the UK, but major critical ''acclaim'' [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff in the US]]; it would go on to be thoroughly VindicatedByHistory in Britain, and among fans and critics today it is widely considered Dire Straits' greatest album.

Regarding the musical content itself, the album is both a NewSoundAlbum and a RevisitingTheRoots approach, returning to the band's roots rock sound following the ProgressiveRock-oriented ''Music/LoveOverGold'', while simultaneously continuing that album's musical experimentation and incorporation of synthesizers for atmospheric effect (albeit oriented in a far more commercially accessible direction). Combined with the continued presence of EpicRocking, the end result is a sonic middle ground between the nostalgic minimalism of the band's first three albums and the musical innovation of ''Love Over Gold''. Such an approach earned the band critical scorn in the UK, but major critical ''acclaim'' [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff in the US]]; it would go on to be thoroughly VindicatedByHistory in Britain, and among fans and critics today it is widely considered Dire Straits' greatest album.

* EndOfAnAge: The album's release marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD, with its longer tracks on CD and cassette as well as the use of digital recording. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn, when LP releases once again were the premier physical music format.

* EndOfAnAge: The album's marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn, when LP releases once again were the premier physical music format.

* EndOfAnAge: The album's marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn, when LP releases one again were the premier physical music format.

* EndOfAnAge: The album's marked the end of the era of the phonograph (which had already been losing ground to the cassette) as the dominant form of music reproduction and the rise of the CD. The album's later double-LP release would herald the end of the CD era and the start of the Vinyl Revival in turn, when LP releases one again were the premiere physical music format.