Erasure's Andy Bell on 'The Neon,' Beg Love, & the '80s Gay Scene

Contents:

• RYM ULTIMATE BOX SET > 80'S GAY SYNTHPOP
• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
• A DEEPER LOOK AT ‘ENOLA GAY’: AN IN OF ’80S SYNTH-POP AND ANTI-WAR SENTIMENT
• THE POWER OF GAY
• ERASURE'S ANDY BELL ON THE NEON, BEG LOVE, & THE '80S GAY SCENE

RYM ULTIMATE BOX SET > 80'S GAY SYNTHPOP

He released the album Homosapien, which moved away om guar-driven Punk to synth-driven Pop/Dance. In the UK, BBC banned for "explic reference to gay sex". His next album, XL1 (1983) ntaed a number of songs wh gay-related lyrics.

Yaz received ccial early support gay clubs om New York to San Francis the early 1980s, many of whom embraced the band for Moyet's soulful vol work on tracks like "Midnight, " which she go om a whisper to a wail wh astonishg grace. Over the years, she's emerged as somethg of a gay in, enjoyg a particularly fervent followg Los Angel and San Francis. 1985, the rerd honed a style known ‘80s gay clubs as Hi-NRG, an electronic variant on ‘70s dis featurg clatterg percsn, octave-skippg bassl, uptempo BPMs, and sexually charged lyrics.

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

"Throughout her reer, sger-songwrer Cyndi Lper has promoted gay and lbian rights.

" Wh her 2007 and 2008 "Te Colors" tours, Lper has helped raise awarens about lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr rights around the untry.

A DEEPER LOOK AT ‘ENOLA GAY’: AN IN OF ’80S SYNTH-POP AND ANTI-WAR SENTIMENT

But spe s succs, there’s one re element of the rerd that seems to be swept unr the g; the album remas a cultural touchstone popular mic, not only for s sonic fluence, but for what Please (and the duo of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe themselv) reprents terms of sexualy and LGBT reprentatn pop put to perspective, Please was released durg a pivotal perd of the gay rights movement. Mass media (spe s stance of objectivy) was largely marketed through a heteronormative lens and the AIDS vis was dubbed “the gay ncer” by numero media outlets. ” that serv as the duo’s llg rd: Sexually ambiguo lyrics that apply to both gay and straight relatnships.

Tennant eventually me out publicly, eight years after the release of Please, a 1994 terview wh Attu, which he stated, “I do thk that we have ntributed, through our mic and also through our vios and the general way we’ve prented thgs, rather a lot to what you might ll ‘gay culture’. I uld spend several pag discsg the notn of ‘gay culture’, but for the sake of argument, I would jt say that we have ntributed a lot. And the simple reason for this is that I have wrten songs om my own pot of view… What I’m actually sayg is, I am gay, and I have wrten songs om that pot of view”~idolator"Suburbia".

THE POWER OF GAY

And the simple reason for this is that I have wrten songs om my own pot of view… What I’m actually sayg is, I am gay, and I have wrten songs om that pot of view” of Love. Both San and Ted Ottaviano are gay, but Book of Love never sought to overtly intify the band as such. Although 1988 sgle “Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls” did addrs the AIDS epimic and 1993’s “Boy Pop” is a clear nod to gay club culture, Ottaviano says that “we always downplayed that aspect to the band.

Andy Bell (born 1964 Peterborough, UK), an openly gay man, was sellg women's sho and performg a band lled the Void, when he rpond to a newspaper advert that was lookg for a sger. If ever there was a time when gay radilism was need, was 1985, when Rock Hudson’s ath ma heterosexuals realize AIDS uld kill them too.

ERASURE'S ANDY BELL ON THE NEON, BEG LOVE, & THE '80S GAY SCENE

In the era of Partg Glanc and My Betiful Lndrette – films whose virtu centered on unlispg gay men suated workg class hom and bs, shot unwaverg mocratizg medium shot – Somerville dared to sg as if he were wavg a mve feather boa. Back then, genr-benrs like Boy Gee and Annie Lennox as well as out gay men like Bronski Beat’s Jimmy Somerville and Frankie Go to Hollywood’s Holly Johnson and Pl Rutherford led U. That beme obv durg Dead or Alive’s Sophistited-era set at The Sat, New York’s legendary gay dis.

He was the Hi-NRG diva who broke the mold even as was beg st; the New Waver who brought blatantly gay Gothic drama to clubland and the U. Andy was out and proud that very late 80's style - seemed that at last the rerd buyg mass were begng to change their views about gay people somuch as they were que prepared to buy albums and then go to the live performanc and cheer them along like they would anyone else. (1992) [Compilatn]Pop Mic Could Use another De as Gay as the 80's.

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.