Eric Bach is an openly gay broadster for the Frericksburg Natnals. He has major league aspiratns, but his path has been much lonelier than he would prefer.
Contents:
- POP MIC COULD USE ANOTHER DE AS 'GAY' AS THE '80S
- TROYE SIVAN, HAYLEY KIYOKO ARE THE UNABASHEDLY GAY POP STARS WE NEED RIGHT NOW
POP MIC COULD USE ANOTHER DE AS 'GAY' AS THE '80S
The crease the number of visible gay and trans people is sometim treated as a cursy or a e for ncern by crics, but ’s not a surprise. It’s normal. * gay new wave artists *
Rex and The Sweet as well as solo superstar David Bowie, spe his claratn of gayns Melody Maker Duran, Depeche Mo, Spand Ballet and their new-wave peers were an entirely different story. They were teen idols (unlike the glam rockers) and, Ant's se, a bona fi sex symbol, settg fashn trends while challengg the strict fn of masculy and what "gay" and "straight" were supposed to look like.
It was, a sense, the first metrosexual didn't take one look at the members of Spand Ballet the vio for "To Cut a Long Story Short, " their 1980 but sgle, and jt assume that they were gay? Didn't those so-lled "New Romantics" tick all the gay stereotyp?
Among the possibly rrect assumptns: 1) There was Band Aid/Live Aid-style mararie among the pop acts; 2) one big h set them up for life; and 3) a lot of them were boys who liked 's not to say that '80s new wave didn't have s gay ntgent. I hadn't cid if I was 100 percent gay, and wasn't an issue.
TROYE SIVAN, HAYLEY KIYOKO ARE THE UNABASHEDLY GAY POP STARS WE NEED RIGHT NOW
"I wasn't embarrassed about beg gay, but my role as Limahl, my pop star role, had to be more enigmatic, " he says.
"I didn't want to start talkg about gay sex and gays 1983 when most of our followg was teenage girls. Of urse, lookg back, I n realize anybody wh a modicum of life experience would have said, 'He's gay -- he jt don't know yet. Perhaps that's why Boy Gee managed to bee a bankable ternatnal superstar, why Marc Almond logged a strg of UK hs, and out of Soft Cell, and why "Smalltown Boy, " Bronski Beat's gay anthem, went to number 3 the UK and nearly land the U.
I spect new wave's pre-"straight-actg" genr-unspecific fluidy is a large part of why the ongog '80s revival ronat so powerfully wh gay men particular. Peter Griff may have lled the clip for "Dancg the Street, " Jagger's duet wh David Bowie, the gayt vio ever a few years ago on Fay Guy, but 1985 was a huge h.