From the violin to the electric guitar, classical to country, yesteryears and today, the gay musician has always made a profound input into the musical industry. Having grown up with the obvious ones like Boy George and RuPaul, I have always been intrigued by sexuality in music and how the thread gets pulled through lyrics and music.
It is only after discovering a recent import CD release called Queer Noises (1961 – 1978) that I realised how big the ball (no pun) of wool really is. After even more research, I realised that it is more than just wool, it is a whole flock of sheep through history.
Since the earlier classical days, when composers like Tchaikovsky frolicked amongst the boys, homosexuality has been evident. Back in those days, it was seldom frowned upon, as long as the person in question at least married, sowed his seed and reaped the reward of offspring with social status attached to it.
The early 1900’s was when things really started getting more closeted. Morals were the code word of the day. This, however, did not stop artists like Cole Porter celebrating his queerness through some of the most revered music ever written. Songs like I’ve Got You Under My Skin and Love For Sale were and are still revised by great artists like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Bolton. The movie De-lovely gives a little bit of insight into the world of Porter and how, despite his marriage, he was quite open about his extramural activities.
The next few years saw some of the greatest gay musical composers getting world wide recognition, e.g. Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story) and Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd). With the sixties, sexual freedom became more acceptable and people like David Bowie and Janis Joplin were openly flaunting the fact that they were playing around on both sides of the fence. The importance of Bowie’s sexually ambivalent music is still being hailed today by many artists such as Marc Almond and Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) as being crucial in the early development of their musical foundations.
The camp-filled seventies disco era brought about its own wave of artists fuelled with glitter, platform shoes and extraordinary outfits. Probably the most prominent of these were the Village People. (See them soon at Carnival City!) Songs like YMCA and Go West are still big party and wedding favourites. Even heterosexual artists like Donna Summer and Abba were revered as gay icons and Ms Summer probably owed her fame to the initial burst of support from the queer community. Lesbian artists like Dusty Springfield and Janis Ian were also making their ripples on the airwaves.
As disco music gave way to 80’s electro pop and high energy, the sexual openness increased dramatically. Culture Club frontman, Boy George, donned the covers of many magazines and album covers with brightly coloured wigs, earrings and more make-up than a backstreet sex worker. The public embraced Culture Club and songs like Do You Really Want To Hurt Me and Karma Chameleon are still as popular today as they were back then. Soft Cell’s Tainted Love was also riding the airwaves and lead singer, Marc Almond was never scared to flaunt his campness in song or on stage, without openly confessing his sexual preference. It was only in the nineties that he officially came out to the press. We knew all along…
High energy singers like Paul Lekakis (Boom Boom Boom, Let’s Go back To My Room), Baltimora (Tarzan Boy) and Man To Man (Male Stripper) ensured that both hetero and homo kept their feet stomping away. These artists enjoyed major chart success, but quite a few of their careers were short lived due to the emergence of AIDS, which claimed its toll on these artists.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood burst onto the music scene in the mid-eighties and their song, Relax, was instantly banned due to the lyrics: “Relax, when you want to do it… when you want to come”. The fact that two of the band members were openly gay didn’t help things along. This public prejudice instigated some other artists like Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys) and Andy Bell (Erasure) to keep their sexuality under wraps till much later in their careers.
Probably one of the most important bands of the eighties were Bronski Beat, an openly gay band, fronted by falsetto Jimmy Somerville. Their first album, The Age of Consent, raised fingers at the political situations around Britain and Europe with regards to the differences in the legal age for consenting adults to have sex and the differences between hetero and homo consenting ages. Despite their strong stand, the band and Jimmy’s solo career yielded many a mainstream hit, some of these which are still being covered to this day (Smalltown Boy). It wasn’t until 1993 with the death of Freddie Mercury that the public realised the impact of the AIDS tragedy as well as the power of the pink note in the music industry.
An amazing variety of lesbian vocalists suddenly started to make names for themselves, with very little public uproar due to their sexual preference, but lots of respect and recognition for their musical abilities. KD lang brought country music back to the pop market long before Shania Twain became popular. Rockers like Ani Difranco and Melissa Etheridge showed the Bruce Springsteen’s and Bryan Adams’s that women can do it as well, if not better.
During the late nineties, the musical trend seemed to yearn towards the boy and girl bands. Bands like Steps, Westlife, Boyzone and ‘NSync really got the teenage girls (and boys) screaming. Statistically, we thought back then, that at least one of the band members must be queer. We weren’t far off. Stephen Gately from Boyzone, Mark Feehily from Westlife and Lance Bass from ‘NSync were all outed by the British press. H (Ian Watkins) from Steps came out earlier this year. Darren Hayes from Savage Garden waited for gay marriage to become legal in the UK and only announced his wedding to his male partner a week after the occasion occurred. A bunch of male rockers also clicked their Dorothy heels, e.g. Michael Stipe (REM), Jon Birgisson (Sigur Ros) and Roddy Bottum (Faith No More).
Although there are still a lot of great performers in the closet, artists like George Michael, Elton John, Will Young and the Scissor Sisters have not been afraid to be open to the public about their private lives and still earn the same respect they did before. Sir Elton John still rides the airwaves and the public has not turned their backs on him. Elton and partner, David Furnish, who got married about a year ago, are as present in the British publications as any other straight couple. We should have known back then with hits like Song For Guy and Nikita – the latter being a Russian man’s name.
Similarly, George Michael stirred the tabloids when he was caught cottaging in a toilet in Los Angeles. Never scared to comment, he released Outside with a video depicting bathrooms and cops. Even in his latest hit, An Easier Affair, he states: “To think I thought I could be some kind of family man
I told myself I was straight
But I shouldn’t have worried
‘Cos my Maker had a better plan for me”
Despite all the controversy, George’s recent greatest hits album was a hit record and the corresponding show was sold-out wherever he went.
It is impossible to cover all genres of music, but during my research I found prominent gay, lesbian and transgender artists in the fields of pop, rock, heavy metal, jazz, house, classical and even gospel. It is through the hard work of these artists and their courage in coming out, that we can stand up and be proud that we as a community can be heard not only in politics and movies, but also be celebrated in song and dance.