RYM Ultimate Box Set > 80's Gay Synthpop - Rate Your Mic

Contents:

• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
• THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S
• ULTIMATE PRI PLAYLIST: THE 50 BT GAY SONGS
• RYM ULTIMATE BOX SET > 80'S GAY SYNTHPOP

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

Manco’s crowd, which clud many gay men of lor, bellowed out the chos, refigurg the song’s addrsee as a new kd of Shore Commissn, ‘Free Man’ (1975)D. -led dance spac that were exclive to gay men — ually whe, middle-class gay men — started to open Manhattan late 1972. Valento, ‘I Was Born This Way’ (1975)The first rerd to feature lyrics about beg an out-and-proud gay man me om the mil performer Charl “Valento” Harris, who released “I Was Born This Way” as an apparently one-off release on Gaiee.

” “The lyrics were perfect, ” she told me Summer, ‘I Feel Love’ (1977)Gay male dance crowds were drawn to rerdgs that featured Black female volists, often intifyg wh their emotnal exprsivens and strength the face of adversy, often to the surprise of the artists, who were ually gospel-traed.

Patrick Cowley, ‘Mutant Man’ (1982)Patrick Cowley fed his reputatn as one of the world’s most progrsive synthizer players durg rerdgs wh the dis pneer Sylvter, cludg “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real), ” perhaps the ultimate gay male anthem. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn D, Page 5 of the New York edn wh the headle: Sp Some Gay Dis.

THE 13 GAYT MIC VIOS OF THE '80S

While some have looked on wh a cril eye, we’ve cid to celebrate , along wh all the gay anthems that me before . Rumors had been swirlg for years around Michael’s sexualy but nothg was ever nfirmed by him prr to this song’s release (shortly thereafter he me out as bisexual, before g out as gay further down the le). While there’s nothg explicly homosexual the play, many believe that the ma characters Vladimir and Estragon are an ageg homosexual uple, who are worn out and not engagg sexually any longer.

If you’ve ever wnsed eher of the played a gay club, you’d fely agree when you hear the entire place go crazy and sg along wh every word.

ULTIMATE PRI PLAYLIST: THE 50 BT GAY SONGS

Nile Rodgers (om the band Chic), who was workg wh Ross on material for her album Diana, got the spiratn for the song after seeg multiple drag queens drsed as Ross at a gay-iendly New York Cy club.

Freddie Mercury was fely a rd-rryg member of the LGBTQ muny, although there is some bate about whether he intified as gay or bisexual. The vio further solidified the song’s stat as a gay anthem, as featur all the members of the band cross-drsg. Group, Bronski Beat, released a gay anthem lled “Smalltown Boy” as the first sgle off their but album The Age of Consent.

It was the semi-tobgraphil story of lead sger Jimmy Somerville about the opprsn of homosexuals the early ’80s provcial Stland.

RYM ULTIMATE BOX SET > 80'S GAY SYNTHPOP

It showed Somerville beg attacked by a homophobic gang before beg brought home by police to the fay whom he is tryg to n away om. Sure, RuPl had already broken before this song and movie (see our number one song) and the mid-’90s were surprisgly gay-iendly — To Wong Foo was sandwiched between the release of two other celebrated and succsful mastream LGBTQ films, The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert 1994 and The Birdge 1996. Although only reached number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, was a number one h on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play, large part bee so many gay men loved the song — after all, was fun, sexy, danceable and mpy.

Charts after a Facebook mpaign was lnched to get the song back on the charts rponse to a polician who blamed floodg and adverse weather on gay marriage. Martha Wash and Izora Armstead may not be LGBTQ, but the duo, pecially Wash, are nsired to be gay ins today, thanks large part to “It’s Rag Men. 1990 was the year that the unrground gay ball scene sort of went mastream, thanks large part to this Billboard Hot 100 number one h om one of the most famo artists the world at the time.

For those unfaiar, the New York Cy ball scene was an LGBTQ subculture where different ho — mostly Black and Lat gay, bi, lbian and trans people — walked (or peted) for trophi tegori such as Face, Body, Butch Queen Realns, Femme Queen Realns, miscellaneo drag and Vogueg. In addn to Jose and Luis, Madonna st five other male dancers for the tour and “Vogue” vio (four of them were gay and one of them straight). But I’m sure Ru uldn’t have imaged that 27 years later, not only would his song still be played gay bars, but people all over the world, both LGBTQ and our alli, would still be sayg l om this song, thanks to their cln a realy show lled RuPl’s Drag Race.

” but really, the work Ru put to her reer that all stemmed om “Supermol” mak this the number one gay anthem of the 80s and 90s. In a culturally nservative muny, where gog to church and buildg a fay were heavily emphasized, Ahn felt his gay inty kept him “om beg able to participate Korean culture.

He learned to embrace beg both Korean and gay, so much so that he directed “Fire Island, ” a groundbreakg queer Asian Amerin rom- released last year. Beg Asian Amerin and LGBTQ+ n feel lonely, wh stutns such as ethnic church often disavowg non-heterosexual relatnships while tradnal LGBTQ+ spac such as gay bars n be unwelg to people of lor. “Fdg plac like GAMeBoi, where beg queer and Asian do -exist … It’s not like a 1, 000-year-old Korean cultural rual, but I uld create a new rual, ” said Ahn, a recent Friday, hundreds packed QT Nightlife’s monthly K-Pop Night at Micky’s, a Wt Hollywood gay club a block or so east om the old GAMeBoi posed for selfi a pk Barbie box wh dis balls hangg overhead.

” (Michael Owen Baker / For The Tim) Even historilly gay neighborhoods like Wt Hollywood or San Francis’s Castro district, Asian Amerins have long been ignored or fetishized, seen as feme and weak. In 2019, then-Wt Hollywood Mayor John Duran argued that he did not appropriately touch a member of the Gay Men’s Chos of Los Angel bee “he’s a skny Korean kid wh pimpl on his cheek. ” Asian Amerin advocy groups cricized Duran’s remark, wh API Equaly-LA potg to the long history of discrimatn agast Asian men gay muni such as Wt Hollywood, whose clubs “ed to require three forms of photo intifitn om anyone they perceived as Asian.

The ‘80s had all, and today we celebrate the moments where the gay really jumped OUT the ’s foremost art form: the mic vio. Ins like Whney and Madonna turned out plenty of hs durg the ‘80s that are today nsired gay anthems, but the classic vios—eher by LGBTQ+ artists or featurg queer subject matter—are gay a more leral sense.

BRONSKI BEAT - “SMALLTOWN BOY” (1984)This ‘80s dance h and s explicly queer vio about a smalltown gay boy the big cy broke new ground for LGBTQ+ visibily—and reached the top of the charts the procs.