Patrick Cowley, the gay geni of Hi-NRG |

Contents:

• DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC
• GAY MIC: HOE PARTY MIC (BT HOE GAY SONGS)
• THE RISE OF ELECTRONIC GAY DANCE MIC
• BT OF GAY DANCE, VOL. 1
• GAY BLACK MEN HELPED CREATE EDM. WHY DO STRAIGHT WHE MEN DOMATE IT?
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INFLUENCE OF GAY DANCE
• PATRICK COWLEY, THE GAY GENI OF HI-NRG

DANCE PRI: THE GAY ORIGS OF DANCE MIC

Image: Time Out/D-Free/ShutterstockMove your hips wh the sential gay songs, om unfettable LGBTQ+ anthems to poignant ballads explorg queer lifeThirty days of summer is a pretty paltry amount of time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ muny. And while we’d never balk at an exce to celebrate everythg that Pri stands for, we also believe that any time is the perfect time to crank up the gay songs and let the rabow flag fly. RECOMMENDED:?  The bt party songs ever ma?  The bt karaoke songs?  The bt pop songs of all time?  The bt classic rock songs?  The bt happy songsBt gay songs, rankedImage: Polydor1.

‘I Will Survive’ by Gloria GaynorIt starts off slowly, shroud fear; then the beat kicks , the song builds nfince, and by the end, now backed by a strg sectn, ’s a full-bore dis anthem of self-assurance.

GAY MIC: HOE PARTY MIC (BT HOE GAY SONGS)

On s betiful face, Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’ is about a woman gettg over the guy who done her wrong; but 1978, as gay liberatn was gatherg steam heated nightclubs around the world, also played like a claratn of hard-won pri (‘I ed to cry / But now I hold my head up high’) and pennce om the hetero norm (‘I’m not that chaed-up ltle person still love wh you’).

Rerd at the height of Ameri's AIDS crisis and spired by New York’s unrground gay ball scene (famoly documented the 1991 film Paris Is Burng), Madonna’s ep-hoe–flected 1990 smash mands you to leave the heavy stuff asi—if only for a few mut—and fd salvatn on the dance floor.

THE RISE OF ELECTRONIC GAY DANCE MIC

Nearly a quarter of a century later, this classic track om one of the most beloved gay ins of all time sounds no ls imperative.

BT OF GAY DANCE, VOL. 1

Chic’s Nile Rodgers was spired to wre this funky 1980 gem for Diana Ross after seeg multiple drag queens drsed as the inic sger at a gay dis New York. ‘Over the Rabow’ by Judy GarlandFor generatns who grew up as ‘iends of Dorothy’, yearng to pe to a realm of Technilor urban fantasy, the tac gay natnal anthem was Garland’s wistful ballad om 1939’s The Wizard of Oz (wh a geo melody by Harold Arlen and touchg lyrics by social activist E.Y. But even now that so many closet doors have opened, ‘Over the Rabow’—and don’t you dare ll ‘Somewhere Over the Rabow’ lt someone threaten to revoke your gay rd—still spir pri and reverence.

‘A Ltle Rpect’ by Erasure‘What relign or reason uld drive a man to forsake his lover?’ sgs Andy Bell on this stirrg synth-pop classic — a h for Brish duo Erasure 1988, and a perfect, piquant rponse to the Brish ernment’s outrageoly homophobic Sectn 28 legislatn.

Word is that at the time, Bell would troduce the song onstage sayg, ‘When I was a ltle girl, I asked my mummy, ‘Can I be gay when I grow up?’ She replied, ‘Y, if you show a ltle rpect.’’Image: Capol Rerds11. ‘Y.M.C.A.’ by Village PeopleFor any guy who’s ever wanted to be (or sleep wh) a wboy, p or leather-clad biker, the Village People reign supreme as gay-anthem chart toppers. Along the way, the openly gay sisters stck a major blow for LGBTQ+ reprentatn mastream pop, which has steadily been improvg ever sce.

GAY BLACK MEN HELPED CREATE EDM. WHY DO STRAIGHT WHE MEN DOMATE IT?

‘Go Wt’ by Pet Shop BoysWhen the Village People got all Horace Greeley 1979, was most likely a wk and a nod to the growg gay utopia of San Francis. ‘It’s Rag Men’ by the Weather GirlsGay ins Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Cher and Barbra Streisand all turned down Pl Jabara and Pl Shaffer’s mpy posn before the Weather Girls snapped up 1982. ‘Let’s Have a Kiki’ by Scissor SistersIn the summer of 2012, ‘Let's Have a Kiki’ was so ubiquo gay bars that nearly crossed over to annoyg.

Mogue herself has said that the vio is an homage to her gay dience; featur a human pyramid of pansexual smoochg ( the style of naked-stallatn artist Spencer Tunick). The drag queen-slash-mogul buted this sassy h 1992, wng over not only gay fans, but an dience as wi as that of Nirvana’s Kurt Coba, who ced the song as one of his favor a year later. ‘Born This Way’ by Lady GagaNo one has ever mpaigned for a gay fan base que so openly as Lady Gaga, and her 2011 h ‘Born This Way’ was her most obv gift to our mographic.

‘Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)’ by C+C Mic FactoryA gag a 1997 episo of The Simpsons found a seemgly ‘manly’ steel l turng to a flamboyant gay club when this 1990 track me over the loudspeaker — an ditn of jt how thoroughly gay this song is. ‘Gonna Make You Sweat’ is the send song on our list featurg the powerhoe vols of Weather Girls sger Martha Wash, who never que achieved mastream fame (she was replaced this track’s vio by C+C Mic Factory member Zelma Davis), but has been beloved by the gay muny for s.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INFLUENCE OF GAY DANCE

‘Cy Grrrl’ by CSSBad girls and gay boys have always been bti, and this 2011 track om Brazilian bo Cansei Ser Sexy is a lovg o to that special relatnship. Lead sger Lovefoxxx looks back on adolcent fantasi of ‘beg by wh my job and my gay iends, lghg and drkg wh my one-night stands’ the ‘big cy’. Wrten for the movie Thank God It’s Friday by gay dis poser Pl Jabara—who won an Osr for —the number begs a sleepy, reflective space, then ro self and s listeners to get back the swg of thgs.

‘So don’t be aaid to let them show / Your te lors are betiful like a rabow.’ In her long history of gay activism — perhaps no other straight pop star has been more actively engaged on that ont — Lper has always been willg to speak lourful tth to power.Image: Island Rerds35.

PATRICK COWLEY, THE GAY GENI OF HI-NRG

‘Come to My Wdow’ by Melissa EtheridgeFour years before Ellen clared, ‘Yep, I’m Gay’, on the ver of Time, Melissa Etheridge tled her 1993 album ‘Y I Am’ after publicly g out as a lbian at an gural event for Bill Clton.