The Secret Gay History of Indie Rock | Pchfork

Contents:

• THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF INDIE ROCK
• 15 BT GAY ROCK SGERS YOU WILL LOVE
• GAY PSYCHELIC ROCK: THE NEW SOUND OF PRI
• GAY ROCK & ROLL YEARS, THE ( 1993)

THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF INDIE ROCK

They me up the llege town of Athens, Geia, performg clubs wh a gay clientele and makg e of the Universy of Geia library to fd queer liberatn texts. M., and troduced a new generatn to the Velvets via live was a move that David Bowie had ed more than a earlier, at a time when punk and gay culture were mglg the UK unrground.

Through Bowie (and other early glam rockers), there was a brief moment when the transgrsive athetics of VU found s way to postwar Brish rock, turng to somethg glamoro, lasciv, 1978, a year after releasg the UK’s first DIY EP The Spiral Scratch, the Buzzcks appeared on the popular mic show Top of the Pops, their ontman Pete Shelley gayg up the stage whout the y of glam or theatril drag. In 1981, the BBC banned Shelley’s synth-pop love letter to anal sex, “Homosapien, ” and the culture surroundg die took a more censor turn. The sound was easily dified by journalists; s punk and ’60s rock fluenc siarly spired bands across the scene, rultg a relatively homogeno and chaste style.

(Journalists at the time generally failed to notice the herent gayns of Morrissey’s Osr Wil idolatry, stead terpretg as heterosexual sensivy. )“I n’t thk of one rock artist who has been gay and proud, erotic and liberatg— seizg the airwav and givg the boys boners, ” Adam Block wrote rponse to this culture shift, his 1982 say for The Advote, “Confsns of a Gay Rocker. Pansy Divisn, who formed San Francis around 1991, are oft-billed as the world’s first gay alternative rock band and creded wh briefly liftg queerre to the mastream.

15 BT GAY ROCK SGERS YOU WILL LOVE

Inspired by Buzzcks and the Ramon, Pansy Divisn—prised solely of gay men—“wanted to be explic bee seemed like there was no one else was gog to be, ” says sger/guarist Jon Goli, addg: “You know, fuckers like Morrissey, who would jt always tease . ”Queerre—a gay offshoot of punk, post-punk, die—began mid ’80s Toronto when two ze-makers Xeroxed illtratns of rock stars engaged gay eroti, cludg a jockstrap-wearg Anthony Kiedis. In 2001, Ontar’s Joel Gibb found Hidn Cameras, a self-fed “gay folk church mic” act that helped revive the cy’s perishg die rock scene wh sexually lasciv live shows.

Horn of Plenty reprented a fleetg moment of horns wh the Grizzly Bear ovre, while ontman Ed Droste’s sexualy was curly downplayed by the mastream prs, an attu he partially attribut to makg his gayns so brazen om the outset; he never had his own “g out” moment. While wrg Vampire Weekend’s send album, 2010’s Contra, Batmanglij and Ezra Koenig worked on “Diplomat’s Son, ” a tenr, g-of-age gay love song. “There was a culture around that was pretty homophobic, hontly”—a culture that would ocsnally follow him when he performed wh Vampire Weekend.

GAY PSYCHELIC ROCK: THE NEW SOUND OF PRI

”Batmanglij ultimately left Vampire Weekend 2016 to pursue solo projects, both as a mician and producer—highlights of which have clud “4Runner, ” a track of his dited to the great gay tradn of cross-untry road-trippg, as well as productn on Clairo’s queer Bildungsroman June 2015, the Supreme Court affirmed the nstutnal right of same-sex upl to marry.

Vcent—who was then a highly publicized relatnship wh supermol Cara Delevigne—surrenred the safety of hetero and homonormativy for a turn towards glam-rock spired rebellns. I’m queer, but queer more as an outlook, ” she told the New was also around this time that fans stopped askg whether the ty-voiced dreamboat Sufjan Stevens was sgg about gay men or God; his volvement the sre for Lu Guadagno’s film adaptn of Andre Aciman’s gay g-of-age novel Call Me By Your Name said enough. Fans may openly embrace a gay Elton John, Melissa Etheridge or Ricky Mart now, but over the past 50 years or more ’s been a stggle for most queer artists to live their liv openly and whout shame and persecutn.

His theatril scream-sgg, macho stage prence, and all-around badassery (bt showsed on inic rerds like 1980’s Brish Steel and 1982’s Screamg for Vengeance) prompted many fans to ll him “Metal God:” a tradnally mascule trope Halford boldly upend Febary 1998, when he me out as gay an MTV News terview.

GAY ROCK & ROLL YEARS, THE ( 1993)

As the earlit show of queer solidary om a proment metal mician, Halford’s admissn proved val rhapg the public perceptn of heavy metal, repostg an earspltg, heteronormative boys’ club as a safe space where headbangers of all typ uld be themselv, sheltered the flailg arms of not jt a benevolent (and openly gay) God, but the scene wr large. ” The fact that he did all while beg pletely open about his sexualy – llg himself “rock’s tt fairy” – is astoundg and, for a brief, shg moment 1974, Jobriath beme the most visible gay man popular mic. While the “Queen of Dis” is a tle most monly btowed upon Donna Summer, also appli to Sylvter, who was a fixture of the dis scene and an in of the gay liberatn movement that spawned out of San Francis.

It wasn’t until after hostg var episos of the show for a uple years – which all centered on LGBT issu – that she spoke openly about her partner of over two s and the stggl of beg gay the mic dtry. “I thk the rerd dtry – by and large what’s left of – is still totally homophobic, ” she said, notg that she me out her twenti and never went to “lengths” to nceal .