Gay/Lesbian Popular Music

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

In a class of mine today a teacher made the assertion that there hasn't been a popular version of something as overtly gay/lesbian in theme since something like Ma Rainey's "Prove it on Me". I disagreed, in theory, immediately with this thought, but couldn't think of anyone that had a large degree of commercial success that was overtly gay and wrote songs about those themes. Can someone help me out here? Looking for people in America or England, because I was vaguely tempted to mention Tatu, but thought it would be sloughed off as meaningless since European pop seems to be regarded as something entirely different by most people where I live.

Thanks in advance.

― Todd Burns, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 16:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

"i want to fuck you in the ass"

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 17:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

"i kissed a girl"

― jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 17:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

Cough up some chart stats, Harvell.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 17:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bronski Beat "Smalltown Boy" which was US Top 50 (higher in UK) but I wonder how "overt" that really is?

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 17:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

Lola, Walk on The Wild Side, Boys and Girls

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 17:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

Jet Boy Jet Girl, All The Young Dudes, Johnny, Are You Queer?

your teacher's out of his/her freakin' mind

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

if "overtly gay/lesbian themes" and "popularity" are being judged by the (pretty mild, relatively unknown) Ma Rainey song (she says something like "Going out with a bunch of my friends, you know they're women I don't like no men" as far as I remember), then there are about k-zillion examples you can use to refute this theory

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm Too Sexy?

― jm, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Fritz is OTM.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax" owns this thread.

― Aaron W, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pet Shop Boys Go West and New York City Boy.

― Siegbran (eofor), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

judas priest - you got another thing comin'

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Damn, Wish I Was Your Lover" Sophie B. Hawkins is explicitly Sapphic in its lyrics, and got to number two in the UK.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 18:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

The thing is though there's a different between someone being openly gay and then making some winking inuendo -- "overt" is the key. How about songs that say "I'm gay," basically? Lola's narrator acts like he's been fooled, Walk on the Wild Side has a transvestie character -- that's a lot different from a song about gay love that's not marked as being perverted, disfunctional, etc.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 19:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Village People's Macho Man, In The Navy, YMCA... definitely identified as gay anthems and sung by stadiums full of straights on a regular basis... and as "out" as Ma Rainey was.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 19:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

and I think Lola's narrator seems pretty happy about the whole thing too! He's glad he's a man and so is Lola! (but I do hear what you're saying, Mark)

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 19:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

Wouldn't it be pretty hard to mistake Boy George and RuPaul as straight? I mean, the makeup and all...

― Aaron W, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 20:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

The makeup! Yeah they're bone smokin' flamers alright

― dave q, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 21:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

MELISSA ETHERIDGE.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 5 November 2002 21:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ani difranco! duh. she caused millions of university girls to 'experiment'. she may not be airplay popular but has sold alot of records

― ddd, Tuesday, 5 November 2002 22:05 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bowie - Boys Keep Swinging, Let's sleep together, John I'm only Dancing
God Is My Co-Pilot

― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 04:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Korn

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 12:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Seeing Other People" Belle and Sebastian

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 12:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Judas Priest's "Raw Deal" - mentions "Denim dudes" on "New York, Fire Island" as well as "big boys, eager for some action"

Accept's "Love Child" features the chorus "Feeling the power of lust when the guy's passing by", but did they even understand their own lyrics?

― dave q, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 17:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

soon very soon...The Hidden Cameras.

― jjreece, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 18:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

eleven months pass...

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf600/f612/f61255o8oly.jpg

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 8 October 2003 22:53 (twenty years ago) link

"I Was A Male Dancer in A a Go-Go Bar"

― Neil FC (Neil FC), Thursday, 9 October 2003 00:29 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

the hidden cameras own this thread, obv.

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

the Magnetic Fields

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

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

"Your Woman" by White Town to thread.

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

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

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

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

What about Jobriath? Klaus Nomi?

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

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

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 11 October 2003 05:49 (twenty years ago) link

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 (twenty years ago) link

And it's a great goddamn song!

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

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

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 11 October 2003 11:06 (twenty years ago) link

five 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 (fifteen years ago) link

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 (fifteen years ago) link

Anyone ever do a song in Polari?

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

three 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 (twelve years ago) link

Justin Bieber

― Peace (peaceful) (The Brainwasher), Thursday, 22 March 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.