Clay Aiken doing OK? I think so, right?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 14:26 (twelve years ago) link
Martin came out in 2010 (way later than he should have imho) well after his career had peaked and he'd basically retired.
Aiken's on Broadway iirc, where they don't tolerate homosexuals
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
Martin's coming out so late into his career slough is precisely what was wrong.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
how about the village people?
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
what about them?
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:05 (twelve years ago) link
what's up Poliopolice
― dayo, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
were they ever even IN the closet to begin with? that was 35 years ago, and even 5 yo me knew they were gay.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
yeah his gay following was huge, I doubt it would have damaged his career to come out sooner - probably would have boosted it tbh
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
Hey Dayo! How's it hanging?
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
Ted Haggard seems to have lost a lot of followers
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link
unfamiliar w/ band, but looks like he was a cute boy so pourin' one out.
Hate to admit it, but this was sort of my first thought too.
― jungleous butterflies strange birds (Eric H.), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
and how was Ted Haggard's music career going pre-outing?
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
That photo of Tom and his wife is cuet.
― poxen, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
How's Ricky Martin these days?
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:25 AM Bookmark
his album last year debuted at #3, so quite alright
― The Reverend, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:26 (twelve years ago) link
my co-columnist at the voice actually wrote something pretty informative recently about how no out gay artist has never had a #1 album in the US: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/05/adam_lambert_gay_pop_star.php
― some dude, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:57 (twelve years ago) link
stop dividing the LBGT community by preferring Rufus Wainwright's music, ship!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
interesting piece (i'm not finished with it yet) but that little factoid kinda says more about how charts are weird than about homophobia in the record-buying public imho
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
lol alfred
― some dude, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:06 (twelve years ago) link
for ex:
On the male side, Boy George's self-declared status as America's favorite drag queen (about as far as a pop star could go publicly in 1984), didn't hurt Culture Club at all on the Hot 100, where they scored six Top 10 hits including a No. 1 ("Karma Chameleon"). But despite selling four million U.S. copies, 1983's Colour by Numbers spent a frustrating six weeks at No. 2, a reflection mainly of its misfortune at being released within the same year as Michael Jackson's Thriller.
xp
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i'm not saying that stat in and of itself is a huge thing, nor does CM's column to be fair, but i was surprised to hear that Elton's string of #1s ended almost immediately after he came out, had no idea.
― some dude, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
yeah there's no question CBN would've been a #1 album otherwise
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
this is kind of a silly tangent as to whether it's brave commercially of a punk rock singer to come out as transgender. it's just brave of a person, i don't care if you're "used to it" or not.
― da croupier, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
which, frankly, strikes me as really bizarre. I mean, I have that record and it's pretty good but it is so strange that something that goofily arty and day-glo and obviously gay was such a huge success. it's a very odd combination of styles - calypso/reggae, R&B croon, synthpop - delivered in neonized sub-Harlequinade drag queen package ... just, why did this appeal to huge swathes of America? did it tie into some club med fantasy people liked to indulge in or something?
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
The timing of Elton's fall made for irresistible speculation, but I wonder if the slow change in the pop climate had something to do with it too: the Hot 100 was moving towards disco and disco-inflected pop in 1976 and 1977, and Blue Moves was out of step[/i] (it doesn't explain the debacles of the disco-inflected A Single Man or the Thom Bell-produced Victim of Love, of course). My other question is how fast word traveled about Elton's RS admissions. How many kids and boomers read RS in the late seventies? Was the subject discussed on "Nightline" or something?
There's also the quality of the music. Elton had recorded spotty albums but few of the albums b/w 1976 and 1982 boasted one memorable single. He admits to being burned out at the time and it shows. His imperial period, to quote the Pet Shop Boys, had ended.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
These images and tropes signified as "New Wave" and played exceptionally well on MTV. Also, the songs were damn good and fully deserved hits.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
it's like the amorphous sexuality of UK glam transferring over to America a decade late (see also Prince, MJ etc).
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
yeah I'm not knocking the material on CBN. some of it is beyond silly but there are def hooks there.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
Speaking as a guy who didn't have MTV until the late nineties, I heard Culture Club hits beside Men at Work, Matthew Wilder, and Lionel Richie and didn't notice anything amiss; they all played with "island" rhythms.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
maybe disco's success had dislodged America's sexual mores enough to allow less traditionally gendered artists to come through via New Wave
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
ahhh Matthew Wilder
MTV.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
suddenly English nancy boys in pirate makeup singing over glam chords and disco bass lines were acceptable
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, Haircut 100 was huge on MTV (speaking of vaguely tropical)
― biggie smallclothes (brownie), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:23 (twelve years ago) link
― The Reverend, Thursday, May 10, 2012 2:26 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Ha, well I guess I got PWNED,
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Thursday, 10 May 2012 20:24 (twelve years ago) link
ha, i thought that was a genuine question
― The Reverend, Thursday, 10 May 2012 20:29 (twelve years ago) link
he is rich enough that he is playing CHE in EVITA on BROADWAY
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 May 2012 20:49 (twelve years ago) link
lol
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:00 (twelve years ago) link
the role of Evita was taken
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:04 (twelve years ago) link
What a weird piece, that VV-thing. Because my god, how many gay artists have had huge singles in America, number one or otherwise? What kind of strange standard is the elusive number one album? And certainly there have been acts so flamboyant that I'd surmise their heterosexuality made no difference to homophobes. Like, were there homophobic Prince fans who were all, yeah, he sings high and dresses in black panties, teases with "am I straight or gay?" but he's totally not gay, so he's OK?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
Did Judas Priest fans turn their back in the band when Rob Halford came out?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:12 (twelve years ago) link
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Thursday, May 10, 2012 3:49 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, May 10, 2012 4:00 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, May 10, 2012 4:04 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
o_O
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
Halford came out well past their commercial peak. And then left the band (I forget which came first, this was around the same time...?) He's an interesting case tho. Certainly now it's no problem, they're rightly revered as "metal gods".
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:18 (twelve years ago) link
I was about to make Shakey's joke tbh
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago) link
What kind of strange standard is the elusive number one album?
I think CM is approaching it as a matter of trivia more than anything.
― Carrie Antwoord (jaymc), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:23 (twelve years ago) link
I dont think there's any way to link an artist's gayness with their chart success, especially using whatever strange science is at work in that piece. If anything it seems like a lot ("a lot") of artists, at least "rock" artists, come out when their career has already slowed or faltered, which definitely imparts the illusion of failure.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:29 (twelve years ago) link
What about Bowie? He came out early in his career -- he go tit out of the way, so to speak. It certainly caused American critics to view him with suspicion for years.. Not only is he a chameleon, but he's queer.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:36 (twelve years ago) link
Bowie's one of the only cases I can think of where a straight guy tried to pass himself off as gay AS A CAREER MOVE
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:42 (twelve years ago) link
Brandon Flowers, in his luckless way, has tried.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
What about Pete Townshend? What about Brett "I'm gay but I've never had a gay experience" Anderson?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:48 (twelve years ago) link
Certainly the Depeche Mode guys, hetero though they may be, didn't exactly make an effort to macho themselves up.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:49 (twelve years ago) link