The 25 Gayt Songs of the 1980s

Contents:

• GAY TORY MP MIKE FREER LLS ON HIS OWN PARTY TO END ‘TOXIC’ CULTURE WAR: ‘HUMAN RIGHTS REALLY ARE NOT BATABLE’
• OP-ED: THE GAY CLON EVERYONE KNOWS
• AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY
• THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S

GAY TORY MP MIKE FREER LLS ON HIS OWN PARTY TO END ‘TOXIC’ CULTURE WAR: ‘HUMAN RIGHTS REALLY ARE NOT BATABLE’

For his legn lennial and Generatn Z fans, he’s among the first artists of their lifetime to ankly explore gay sex pop – notably on his recent send album, Bloom – and they’ve hailed him as a trailblazer. The wds of the gay liberatn movement had been blowg strong for a : queer black men such as Sylvter had been at the heart of dis and the children of Bowie were g of age jt as MTV, a new medium that valued the high-energy visuals of queer nightclubs, was male pop artists were prevly few and far between: Ltle Richard’s lyrics about anal sex were cut om Tutti Ftti, and only took Bowie’s arm draped over the shoulr of Mick Ronson on Top of the Pops 1972 to send middle England reelg.

Come the 80s though, acts such as Bronski Beat and Frankie Go to Hollywood beme “the gay hero of the ”, says Pl Flynn, thor of Good As You: 30 Years of Gay Bra. “You had a backcloth of pop mic that was absolutely full of gay people, even megastars like Freddie Mercury and Elton John, but most of them were livg some sort of closeted existence, ” Flynn says.

“There was Boy Gee, Pete Burns – who was married, but who is what you would now ll queer – Morrissey sgg about ‘handsome vils’, Pet Shop Boys wh their slightly more opaque readgs of sexualy, Marc Almond om Soft Cell, Gee Michael, who was closeted even though everyone the dtry knew he was gay.

OP-ED: THE GAY CLON EVERYONE KNOWS

As cric Aled Soto wrote of Gee Michael: “Fe wh queerns so long as the artists didn’t ask or tell, the 1980s were the last time pop stars uld wear fgerls kchen glov whout dienc assumg they were gay. Stock, Aken and Waterman, the songwrg tr who wrote for Dive and were rponsible for such 80s gay anthems as Dead or Alive’s You Sp Me Round (Like a Rerd), started wrg for Kylie Mogue and Jason Donovan (a man so heterosexual he sued a magaze for claimg he was gay).

AS A GAY MAN, THE '80S CRIPPLED MY INTY

The unrground sound they had hered to the mastream gave way to somethg safer, gay male figure, now too threateng to be marketable, vanished om pop and to unrground spac or behd DJ cks. Celebry outgs beme a racket for tabloids that knew the jtery public would jump at such Michael: Outsi – vioAs mastream pop eher disappeared or grad gay men, many gay male pop nsumers rorted largely to “disintifitn” wh straight female pop stars durg the 90s and 00s: the procs by which, the absence of reprentative role mols, queer people claim a piece of culture that is not explicly queer. “Gay men didn’t love Madonna Eva bee they were terted Argentian history, ” says stars the 90s and 00s such as Madonna, Mariah and Kylie equently attributed their succs to loyal gay fanbas.

THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S

Their succs me not om the plsible niabily of the 80s, nor om the proxy sexualy of the 90s – but simply om the ronance of their queer visn a world that was slowly drag of gay panic.

Then there’s Perfume Geni, Sufjan Stevens and, of urse, Troye sgs about gay sex on Bloom, tails Grdr hook-ups on Seventeen and nods to cisg and gay sex clubs the My My My! Perhaps this glorifitn is why young black gay artists like MNEK are failg to sell albums – while some have argued Language is simply not a great pop album, others sist his inty is affectg the mic dtry has cid male queerns is aga marketable, queer theory teach that palism rved out genr and sexual rol as means of ntrol: tegori that queerns is meant to threaten.