First, learn about How to Write a Song Review. Then,
review any of the 7 songs on the list below which I've selected for
this assignment. This is but a mere sampling of the songs I've
created over the past 30 or so years, recording under the name ghetto girl, but for this assignment I've focused on my songs which have an LGBT aspect to them. (There's some other music on my Bandcamp website you can check out too, and you can even download the songs for free if you like! )
Also, note that you can view the lyrics and credits for each song, which should be considered as part of your reviews.
Each
song review should be about 100 words. For such a mini-review, it's
better to focus on one unique quality of the song, and be specific in
your analysis of that quality, rather than say a lot of boring general
stuff about the song overall.
Please feel free to write scathing reviews, but support all opinions with specifics!
Each
review can earn up to seven points based on the quality and depth of
your writing. You may submit reviews for up to 7 songs, making this
assignment worth up to 49 potential points!
You may email the review to me as a .doc file attachment any time before Monday 12/14, at 11:59 pm.
tranzmergance(This
one's an old-school, home-made video made with early-90's
technology! The words are fairly easy to make out, and are highly
supplemented
i'll never be a fag(No
lyrics in this one, other than the sampled in vocal performances,
including the one by my Uncle Mike, who spits out the title of the song
(recorded surreptitiously when I was 15 on a little cassette recorder I
had.)
Queer Rock: A Legitimate Distinction or Mere Media Hype?
From the very start, rock-n-roll has always been about beingnasty!Chuck Berry’s music gorged the libidos of its listeners with its raw sexuality and its "savage" Negro rhythms, inciting the puritanical censorship of 1950’s middle-class white America. Good Old BoyElvis Presley, though white, nevertheless nearly got himself booted off the "Ed Sullivan Show" because he couldn’t stop thrusting his crotch into the faces of the moistening girls in the front row of his shows. ln the 1960’s, theRolling Stones caused a ruckus on the same show, refusing to change the lyrics of their blatant sexual proposition "Let’s Spend the Night Together" to "Let’s Spend Some Time Together." The 1970’s gave us Mick Jagger,David Bowie and Elton john fagging it up with abandon andDonna Summer orgasming her way into the Disco Era, while in the 1980’s, the Artist-Then-Known-As-Prince was singing about "Head" and "Darling Nikki" whom he "met in a hotel lobby masturbating with a magazine.
This is only an extremely small sampling of the blatant sexuality ever-present in rock music since its beginnings. Certainly many more, as well as more explicit references could be cited. But until three or four years ago, even the most exhaustive search would have failed to reveal one voice notably lacking in the chorus of nasty rock-n-roll boys and girls: the voice of the openly gay person. But in the 1990’s, we can now cite bands such as Pansy Division that write songs with lyrics like these:
He’s thought about it for a long long time About being attracted to his own kind He’s ready to take those fantasies And make them into something real And finally do all the things He’s been dreaming of He’s joining the Cocksucker Club
ln 1992 the Era of "Queer Rock" arrived. And with it came a barrage of press coverage and media attention, with record labels scrambling to find their own band o’ homos they could tout to this newly emerging market, this Queer Nation with its supposed reserves of disposable income. But what exactly qualifies a band to be lumped into this category? Are the sexual orientations of the band members relevant? Must one or more of the band members be "out"? Or perhaps the bands’ creative output needs only to appeal to a gay sensibility, regardless of the band members’ sexual orientations.
No doubt, sexual ambiguity has always been present in rock and roll. Dudly Saunders of Option magazine writes of the 1970's, "Mick Jagger camped it up shamelessly, David Bowie declared 'bisexuality is fun' and Lou Reed wore heavy leather and flaunted his drag queen lover" (62). But prior to the 90’s, these declarations of queerness always seemed to be a gimmick, a titillating device rock stars could offer audiences as a cheap thrill. It was considered chic to add a little same-sex experience to your sexual resume. Ultimately, Jagger, Bowie and Reed all retreated into heterosexuality, regressions which, in all three cases, coincided with their artistic output becoming much more tame, much more bland, much less interesting.
These days, however, when gay politics and lifestyles make the headlines on almost a daily basis, many queer musicians are much more willing to publicly affirm their homosexual orientations as a permanent part of their lives.
Andy Bell of the band Erasure
Chris Xefos of the band King Missile
"Jewish-Lesbian-Folksinger" Phranc
and both of the Pet Shop Boys
are just a few musicians who have gone on record regarding their homosexuality. Granted, these may be lesser-known musicians, but queers can also find higher-profile role models in the world of rock.
Boy George, everyone’s favorite drag queen of the 80’s, recently confirmed what everyone knew all along: "I try not to be an evil queen, but sometimes I have to" he told Kiki Mason of Out magazine (80).
Melissa Etheridge, whom Out magazine dubbed "the lesbian nation’s hottest spokes-celeb," has been pictured with her pregnant partner on the cover of a Newsweek magazine featuring an article on gay parenting.
And one of the reigning queens of rock, Elton John, who along with Jagger et. al. professed his bisexuality in the 70’s, only to remain mute on the subject throughout the 80’s, has unabashedly affirmed his gayness in the 90’s, establishing his own foundation for AIDS research. Indeed, it seems as if we may have reached a point when it is no longer a big deal to be a gay rocker.
However, many queers in the music industry are are still reluctant to come out, citing a myriad of reasons that parallels the excuses given by closeted queers of all professions. While Gary Floyd of the band Sister Double Happiness has been open about his sexuality in print, he likes to identify himself as strictly "a queer singer in a band" since the rest of the band is straight; he fears his sexuality might become "the only thing the band becomes known for." Bob Mould, formerly of the band Husker Du, also fears that a public disclosure of his gayness might "distract from the music" (Saunders, 65). Ray Rogers, writing for OUT magazine, quotes Michael Stipe, lead singer of mega-platinum band REM: ". . . a lot of people [think] I am 100% homosexual. That’s not really the case. Nor am I 100% heterosexual. Nor do I adhere to or appreciate the label bisexual .... I still maintain that it’s nobody’s business. Just because I’m a media figure, I don’t feel obligated to share every aspect of my life with the public" (72). Jazz great Cecil Taylor, who, in response to a reporter’s inquiry, asked, "Do you think a three-letter word dictates the complexity of my humanity?" (Saunders, 65). To make matters even more confusing, there is a band called "The Queers" and a band called "The Fags", neither of which contain any homosexuals! Regardless of whether band members are out-of-the-closet, as those in Pansy Division, or more "cautious" like Michael Stipe, the moniker "Queer Rock Band" seems here to stay.
One band that is often tagged with this label is the San Francisco-based band Enrique. Four of its seven members are gay, but that’s certainly not a consensus for labeling the entire band queer. Its lone female, one of the singers, is straight, beautiful, and often wears sexy, revealing outfits that make the hetero boys in the audience hard. (She appeals to dykes as well, openly welcoming their adoration.) Brendan Bartholomew, writing for The Western Edition, describes the band as follows: "Imagine if Batman and Robin were replaced by Robin and Robin, and the two Robins fronted a rock-n-roll band while wearing lipstick, blond wigs, and multicolored psychedelic jumpsuits" (1). But in this day and age, when avowed hetero boys in bands wear dresses, and (presumably straight) major-league basketball players don drag every chance they get, a little wig and lipstick doesn’t seem to be reason enough to label a band as gay. Good Times magazine describes Enrique this way: "Camp extreme . . . lf you take a Las Vegas drag queen primped-up with a 70’s glam-pop persona, then add a couple of snotty, bombastic sidekicks, that’s Enrique" (32).
The key word here would seem to be camp, that hard-to-define, but know-it-when-I-see-it sensibility so often associated with gay men. The American Heritage Dictionary defines camp as "an affectation or appreciation of manners and tastes commonly thought to be artificial, vulgar, or banal" (276). Although at first glance it may seem to be a homophobic impulse which causes one to associate gay men with camp, Frank Browning, the author of The Culture of Desire, opines that the essence of camp sensibility is the same as that of queer sensibility: "intimate acknowledgment that there is no centered, secure self, that modern self is fluid fiction" (212).
lf "an appreciation of tastes thought to be artificial, vulgar, or banal" is a defining quality of a gay sensibility, then Enrique certainly deserves an award for the "Most Queer" of rock bands. For unlike so many other "artistes," Enrique has never taken itself too seriously, celebrating in its songs such influential cultural icons as "Charlie’s Angels, Twinkies, Calgon, Wesson Oil, Thighmasters, mechanical bulls, and bell bottoms" (Bartholomew, 1). And if a queer sensibility acknowledges that the "modern self is fluid fiction," then again, Enrique certainly epitomizes this sensibility, for throughout its eight-year history it has evolved from a couple of non-singing go-go boys, to a novice grunge band, to a trio of vocalists fronting taped electro-disco music, to a living embodiment of the "Schoolhouse Rocks" TV shows, finally emerging (for now) as a polished, professional band that is "kind of like the B-52’s meets Kiss, with 'Laugh-ln' and 'Pee-Wee’s Playhouse' mixed in" according to Karen Sulkis of The Oakland Tribune. Now if that doesn’t sound gay, I don’t know what does!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ultimately, it appears we must settle for the unsatisfying conclusion that there IS no way todefine what a "queer rock band" is. A band made up entirely of queers doesn’t want to be known as a gay band. A band with no gays in it is called “The Queers". What we can be certain of is that the media have had a field day with the term, applying it wantonly whenever they can to cash in on the craze, just as they did a couple years back with the "Lipstick Lesbian" frenzy. I only hope the fate of Los Angeles band Extra Fancy is not indicative of the future trend. Signed to Atlantic Records a year ago, the "openly gay" band received a phenomenal amount of press, with multi-paged, full-color spreads in not only all the glossy gay magazines, but all the major music magazines as well. They toured extensively, and their record sold fairly well for a new band. But Atlantic dropped them just as quickly two months ago, without ceremony or explanation. Perhaps they sensed a shifting of opinion regarding the tolerance of openly gay artists , or maybe they simply noted a cooling of the most recent buzz surrounding gays in rock and roll. I can only hope that gay rock-n-rollers, just like gays in every other area of life, eventually become accepted and integrated fully into the American fabric, instead of just being this week’s hottest hype or controversial news featurette.
WORKS CITED
The American Heritage Dictionary. Third Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston. 1992.
Bartholomew, Brendan. "Enrique Propels Polyester to New Heights." Western Edition, Vol. 3, #15, Feb. 1996.
Browning, Frank. The Culture of Desire. Crown Publishers. New York. 1993.
Good Times (Santa Cruz County’s News and Entertainment Weekly). March 9, 1995.
Mason, Kiki. "A Boy’s Own Story.” Out #27, Nov. 1995.
Pansy Division. “The Cocksucker Club." Undressed. Lookout Records, 1992.
Prince “Darling Nikki." Purple Rain. Warner Brothers Records, 1984.
Rogers, Ray. “Choosing His Religion? Out #27, Nov. 1995.
