Gay/Lesbian Popular Music

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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-three years ago)

"i want to fuck you in the ass"

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

"i kissed a girl"

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

Cough up some chart stats, Harvell.

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

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-three years ago)

Lola, Walk on The Wild Side, Boys and Girls

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

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

I'm Too Sexy?

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

Fritz is OTM.

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

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

Pet Shop Boys Go West and New York City Boy.

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

judas priest - you got another thing comin'

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

"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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

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

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

MELISSA ETHERIDGE.

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

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-three years ago)

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-three years ago)

Korn

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

"Seeing Other People" Belle and Sebastian

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

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-three years ago)

soon very soon...The Hidden Cameras.

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

eleven months pass...

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

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

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

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

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-two years ago)

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-two years ago)

the hidden cameras own this thread, obv.

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

the Magnetic Fields

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

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-two years ago)

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-two years ago)

"Your Woman" by White Town to thread.

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

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

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

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-two years ago)

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-two years ago)

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-two years ago)

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-two years ago)

What about Jobriath? Klaus Nomi?

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

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

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

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-two years ago)

And it's a great goddamn song!

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

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-two years ago)

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 (seventeen years ago)

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 (seventeen years ago)

Anyone ever do a song in Polari?

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

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 (thirteen years ago)

Justin Bieber

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

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