INXS

There was something in Michael Hutchence that can't be taught or manufactured. A mix of danger and elegance, of sensuality and mystery, that made it impossible to look away when he was on stage. The great rock frontmen have charisma; Hutchence had something more, a kind of gravity of his own that pulled every gaze towards him without any apparent effort. And behind him there was a band, INXS, that knew how to build the perfect frame for that magnetism: a sophisticated, sexy, danceable sound that conquered the whole world from the most improbable place, Australia.

Rock you could dance to

INXS came from Sydney, and their great discovery was fusing things that usually stayed apart: the force of rock, the groove of funk, the elegance of new wave. The result was elegant music with swing, as good for a dance floor as for a stadium. "Need You Tonight", with that minimal, sexy riff that gets right into your body, was number one in the United States and is one of the coolest songs ever recorded: pure attitude, pure contained desire, not one note too many.

And they weren't just one hit. The album "Kick", from 1987, was a global phenomenon with one song after another —"New Sensation", "Devil Inside", "Never Tear Us Apart"—. That last one, "Never Tear Us Apart", is a ballad of enormous beauty, dramatic and solemn, still moving decades later. INXS proved that a band from the other side of the world, far from the centres of musical power, could stand as an equal with anyone. They were the greatest pride of Australian rock in their generation.

The void

The heart of all this was Hutchence, and that's why his story has an ending that left millions of people in shock. Michael Hutchence died in 1997, in Sydney, at the age of thirty-seven, in tragic circumstances. With him went one of the most magnetic presences rock had ever produced, in mid-flight, with a great deal still ahead of him.

The band tried to carry on, and that part is hard: nobody could fill that place, because what Hutchence had cannot be replaced. But what he left recorded remains intact. Every time "Never Tear Us Apart" or "Need You Tonight" plays, that impossible magnetism comes back for a while, that voice, that way of being in the world. Death took him; it couldn't touch the music.

What to remember

INXS was the band that put Australian rock on top of the world, fusing rock, funk and new wave into an elegant, danceable sound, with hits like "Need You Tonight" and "Never Tear Us Apart". At the front they had Michael Hutchence, one of the most magnetic frontmen in the history of rock, whose death in 1997, at thirty-seven, left a void the band could never fill.

Remember it this way: there is charisma you work at and charisma you simply have. Hutchence had it, the kind that can't be explained. He left far too soon, but that presence was caught forever in the songs. Put them on, and there he is again, impossible to ignore.

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This text refers to the death, in tragic circumstances, of a musician. If you are going through a difficult time, in Chile you can call *4141, the suicide prevention line of the Ministry of Health, available 24 hours a day.

Sources

INXS, Australian band formed in Sydney in 1977, made up of Michael Hutchence (vocals), the brothers Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Gary Beers. They fused rock, funk and new wave and achieved worldwide reach in the eighties, especially with the album "Kick" (1987) and its singles "Need You Tonight" (number one on the American Billboard Hot 100), "New Sensation", "Devil Inside" and "Never Tear Us Apart". Michael Hutchence, born on 22 January 1960, was found dead on 22 November 1997 in Sydney, aged thirty-seven. The band later continued with different vocalists. Profile compiled for Rebobinados with fact-checking; interpretations of the meaning of the work are offered as the author's reading. Out of respect, this text does not detail the circumstances of his death. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Variety, Salon and other coverage.