Gay/Lesbian Popular Music

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If someone can mention God Is My Co-Pilot, then I'll mention Kitchens Of Distinction... they did have a US college chart #1, as I read.

― Damian (Damian), Thursday, 9 October 2003 10:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

I seem to recall Erasure had some overtly gay-themed videos, and Freddie Mercury was in drag in the video for "I Want to Break Free."
Also the Indigo Girls, kd lang and the Smiths/Morrissey were artists with high pop culture profiles who were overt abt. gay/lesbian themes.

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:00 (9 years ago) Permalink

the hidden cameras own this thread, obv.

― joan vich (joan vich), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:34 (9 years ago) Permalink

the Magnetic Fields

― Damian (Damian), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yup to Hidden Cameras.

George Michael - that song with the video where he pastiches his own caught in a toilet moment

Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With)

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

And also, why assume that when someone sings generically about 'loving you' etc, that the you is a different sex?

I'm sure you could make an argument that singing about homosexual love without the need to define it as GAY or different is actually more 'out' than semi-cryptic lyrical references.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Thursday, 9 October 2003 11:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

"Your Woman" by White Town to thread.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 9 October 2003 13:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

"The Drowners", "My Insatiable One","The Big Time" by Suede.

― Neil FC (Neil FC), Thursday, 9 October 2003 14:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

depeche mode's "what your name?" from speak and spell is 100% gay, albeit campy innocent gay.

― Felcher (Felcher), Thursday, 9 October 2003 19:58 (9 years ago) Permalink

Bowie's "Queen Bitch" was all over the FM rock stations in 1972 and is absolutely explicit that it's about man on man love. (And I don't see how you can avoid the gay content in "Walk On the Wild Side.")

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 10 October 2003 03:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't think you should count songs by artists who've later come out of the closet as "overtly gay/lesbian", if the songs themselves don't have a clear gay/lesbian lyrics. There's nothing such in "I Want to Break Free", "I'm Too Sexy" or even "Relax". Village People are a harder case, however. Although their image was always gay (even though some of them were straight), their lyrics have no direct homosexual references, and I bet not everyone in the seventies knew why they were dressed that way and what they were implying when they sang about the Navy and the YMCA.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 10 October 2003 11:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

Village People: I'd always take that 'it's okay why worry' lyric to be a reference to a popular lubricant.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Friday, 10 October 2003 22:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

What about Jobriath? Klaus Nomi?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 11 October 2003 00:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

Tom Robinson Band. Can't get much more overt than that.

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 11 October 2003 05:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

Pete Shelley's Homosapien was a big hit. I've been told it reached number one in Australia. Surely the following lyrics are quite explicit unlike some of the songs mentioned that could be interpreted in a number of ways.

I'm the shy boy
You're the coy boy
And you know we're
Homosapien too
I'm the cruiser
You're the loser
Me and you sir
Homosapien too
Homosuperior
In my interior
But from the skin out
I'm homosapien too
And you're homosapien too
And i'm homosapien like you
And we're homosapien too

― Amarga (Amarga), Saturday, 11 October 2003 09:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

And it's a great goddamn song!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 11 October 2003 10:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

a better question might be what pop songs DON'T have any gay connotations.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 11 October 2003 11:06 (9 years ago) Permalink

5 years pass...

"i kissed a girl"
― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, November 5, 2002 5:09 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ahead of the times

― Someone Still Loves You Evan and Jaron (Tape Store), Sunday, 14 December 2008 07:54 (4 years ago) Permalink

Agreed on "Boys keep swinging" and "Queen Bitch", but I'd always read "John I'm Only Dancing" to mean he was dancing with John's girl and he didn't want to piss him off. Now that I think about it, I was wrong, damn you heterosexism! I wouldn't quite call it overtly gay though, as the most prominent lyric is "she turns me on".

― Whitey on the Moon, Sunday, 14 December 2008 21:55 (4 years ago) Permalink

Anyone ever do a song in Polari?

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 14 December 2008 21:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

If a male comedian/talk-show host in 2012 were to make a joke about lesbians' musical tastes, who would be lazily name-checked? Would it still be Melissa Etheridge/Indigo Girls?

― Cuba Pudding, Jr. (jaymc), Thursday, 22 March 2012 21:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

Justin Bieber

― Peace (peaceful) (The Brainwasher), Thursday, 22 March 2012 21:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

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