Editing Aztec Camera (section)

==Artistry==
===Musical style and influences===

Aztec Camera were primarily a [[Pop music|pop]] group centred on Frame's [[acoustic guitar]] work, which featured prominently on their first album ''High Land, High Rain''.<ref name="pop">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/azteccamera/albums/album/110654/rid/5942285/ |title=Aztec Camera: High Land, Hard Rain |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=15 September 1983 |access-date=11 June 2024 |last=Fricke |first=David |author-link=David Fricke |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060509055446/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/azteccamera/albums/album/110654/rid/5942285/ |archive-date=9 May 2006|url-status=dead}}</ref> Their [[Folk music|folk-]] and [[jazz]]-inflected style of pop became more polished on their second album, ''Knife'', with the introduction of electronic synthesizers and [[Contemporary R&B|R&B]] elements.<ref name="AMG">{{cite web|url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p3594/biography|pure_url=yes}}|title=Aztec Camera|author=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=3 December 2011}}</ref> R&B grew more prominent on the third album, ''Love'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-mw0000197570 |title=Love Review |last=Ruhlmann |first=William |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref> a [[dance-pop]] outing that proved less popular. This development was throttled back for the group's fourth album ''Stray'', which featured more streamlined rock singles and was described by ''[[AllMusic]]'' as a "loosely connected cycle mingling folk, soul, and pop in varying proportions".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/stray-mw0000689857 |title=Stray Review |last=Mason |first=Stewart |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref>

Over the group's career, their music has been described as [[New wave music|new wave]],<ref>{{cite magazine|first= Kyle |last= McGovern |title= Aztec Camera Dust Off Rarities for 'High Land, Hard Rain' Reissue |magazine= [[Spin (magazine)|Spin]] |date= 19 December 2013 |access-date= 28 January 2017 |url= http://www.spin.com/2013/12/aztec-camera-30th-anniversary-high-land-hard-rain-reissue/}}</ref> [[sophisti-pop]],<ref name="arcand">{{cite web |last1=Arcand |first1=Rob |title=Backwards and Forwards (The WEA Recordings 1984-1995) |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/aztec-camera-backwards-and-forwards-the-wea-recordings-1984-1995/ |website=Pitchfork}}</ref><ref name="deep and wide">{{cite web |last1=Monger |first1=James Christopher |title=Deep and Wide and Tall: The Platinum Collection |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/deep-and-wide-and-tall-the-platinum-collection-mw0000762363?1683320612248 |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref> [[jangle pop]],<ref>{{cite web|website=Treblezine|url=https://www.treblezine.com/the-90-minute-guide-new-wave/|title=The 90-Minute Guide: New Wave|author=Jeff Terich|date=2 March 2009|access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18512815.cocteaus-blue-nile-aztec-camera-part-one-look-back-1980s/|title=From the Cocteaus to Blue Nile and Aztec Camera: Part one of our look back at the 1980s|author=Russell Leadbetter|date=11 June 2020|access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref> [[indie pop]],<ref>{{cite web|website=[[Slicing Up Eyeballs]]|url=http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2021/06/18/aztec-camera-box-set/|title=Aztec Camera's 1984-1995 output collected on 9-disc 'Backwards and Forwards' box set|date=18 June 2021|access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|website=[[Chicago Reader]]|url=https://chicagoreader.com/music/chicago-jangle-pop-group-calicoloco-drop-their-sharpest-single-yet/|title=Chicago jangle-pop group CalicoLoco drop their sharpest single yet|first1=J.R.|last1=Nelson|first2=Leor|last2=Galil|date=8 March 2022|access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref> and [[post-punk]].<ref>{{cite web|website=[[The Morning Call]]|url=https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1987-12-12-2598832-story.html|title=RODDY FRAME CHANGES AZTEC CAMERA'S FOCUS TO GRACEFUL POP SOUL|author=Len Righi|date=11 December 1987|access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|publisher=[[MTV ]]|url=https://www.mtv.com/news/rr7ev9/aztec-cameras-roddy-frame|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221027193510/https://www.mtv.com/news/rr7ev9/aztec-cameras-roddy-frame|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 October 2022|title=Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame|author=Frank Tortorici|date=28 January 1999|access-date=27 October 2022}}</ref> 

Frame cited guitarist [[John McGeoch]] as influential. "He chose very simple lines over anything bombastic [...] the song came first and he tried to complement that".<ref name=dylan>{{cite web |first=Daniel |last=Dylan Wray|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/04/post-punk-guitarist-john-mcgeoch-magazine-siouxsie-sioux|title=Invention, grace and bloodlust ballet: post-punk guitarist John McGeoch |work=The Guardian|location=London |date=4 May 2022 |access-date=21 February 2023}}</ref>

===Causes===
On 21 January 1985, alongside [[Orange Juice (band)|Orange Juice]], [[the Woodentops]] and [[Everything but the Girl]], Aztec Camera raised an estimated [[Pound sterling|£]]18,000 for the striking miners of the [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|National Union of Mineworkers (NUM)]] through a fundraising event at the [[Brixton Academy]]—the year-long strike concluded six weeks later.<ref>{{cite news|title=From the archive, 21 January 1985: Pop bands put on miners' benefit show|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/jan/21/archive-orange-juice-miners-strike-benefit-1985|access-date=1 March 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=21 January 1985|author=Robin Denselow}}</ref>

Following the release of the ''Love'' album, the band were invited to perform at a benefit concert for the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament|Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)]] organisation in the late 1980s. Frame explained in a television interview prior to the concert that he was merely the entertainment and would not deliver any speeches.<ref name="Party">{{cite web|title=Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera on the Garden Party (with Richard Jobson)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjTwFHyGCQQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/xjTwFHyGCQQ |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|website=bisonrav on YouTube|publisher=Google Inc|access-date=9 June 2014|format=Video upload|date=7 November 2013}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 1990, Aztec Camera contributed the song "[[Do I Love You?]]" to the [[Cole Porter]] tribute album ''[[Red Hot + Blue]]'' that was produced by the [[Red Hot Organization]]. The proceeds from the album benefited [[HIV/AIDS]] research.<ref>{{cite web|title=AZTEC CAMERA-DO I LOVE YOU?(PV)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWLe_eHGZ3w|via=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc|access-date=1 March 2013|format=Video upload|date=27 June 2007}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead Youtube links|date=February 2022}}</ref>