Gay Music and Identity in the 21st Century

In the last 15 years alone, we can see a visible spike in gay artists in the music industry, not so much in that there are more gay artists, but that the subject matter they sing about is clearly gay. When you look at some of the greatest musicians from the past, many have been openly LGBTQ (Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Lesley Gore) but their music was rarely extrovertly gay. At times, you could look at artists and know that their provocative actions (like the way they dressed) was to intentionally promote discussion about themselves, rather than as a gender statement. Fast forward to 2017 and the music scene is bursting with elaborate sexual and gender identity statements.

Take Sam Smith, for example. His debut album, In the Lonely Hour was released in 2014, and whilst successful, was full of songs singing about lovers with an ambiguous gender. Now, 2017, he has just released The Thrill of it All, which is aloof with brazen references to his sexuality: “Say I shouldn’t be here but I can’t give up his touch/it is him i love, it is him” For me, this blatant acceptance of sexuality and challenge to religion on the song Him reflects several things, most namely that Smith is able to embrace his sexuality fully, but also that he can see the challenges that LGBTQ people face from establishments such as the Church.

Although slightly different, the implications are the same for other media, such as RuPaul’s Drag Race. Whilst it is obviously a TV show mainly, rather than a music show, the extrovert intertwining of television and music compliment each other, and portray the show as a kind of “gay musical” shamelessly using RuPaul songs as fragments and leitmotif at points throughout the show. The cross-sexuality appeal of the show, as well as the infectiousness of the “drag-song-formula” gives the gay music of RuPaul (and all the inevitable spin-off artists) a springboard that pushes the shows gay musics into the pop forefront.

Years and Years’ interpretative dance sections in their music videos, such as the Desire video is full of gender neutral imagery and alternative sexuality. Whilst the lyrics remain non-exclusive, the art portrayed in the videos suggests an LGBTQ setting and mindset. These two examples show that mainstream gay music is increasingly becoming more accepted, but also that artists perhaps feel that they don’t need to label themselves.