Contents:
THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF INDIE ROCK
Rallyg gay rights activists, mic bloggers, and even Michael Stipe to his e, he has brought queer issu to the foreont of die rock — a rare acplishment, spe the fact that there’s no shortage of LGBT artists whose mic falls to that ill-fed mic fans are probably already faiar wh the big nam — Antony Hegarty, Beth Dto of The Gossip, Scissor Sisters, Steph Merr of The Magic Fields, Tegan and Sara, Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Carrie Brownste — we’re celebratg Perfume Geni’ new album by roundg up a few ls well-known queer die rockers who serve your attentn. 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.