Music can be a very powerful thing when it comes to changing the world. Rock has been used to disseminate political and social messages. It was used to enlighten, educate, motivate and protest.
These are the stories of musicians who were not afraid to admit their sexuality when society was not ready to hear it. The month of pride is the ideal moment to recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by various LGBTQ2 Musicians at the time when you just didn’t talk about who you liked.
I will start by asking this question, even if you know the answer, but I will ask for it anyway. What are the following people in common? Tchaikovsky, Handel, Schubert, George Gershwin, the manager of the Beatles Brian Epstein, Freddie Mercury, the singer of B-52, Fred Schneider, Morrissey, the legend Punk Bob Mug!
Here are some others: the pre-rock guitarist Pioneer Rosetta Tharp, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Mellisa Etherridge, Tegan and Sara and St. Vincent.
Everything above – and many others, identify as gays, non -binary, bisexuals or someone LGBTQ2.
Who was the first rocker to get out of the closet? A good choice would be little Richard, although he fought against his sexuality throughout his life. His image was always Campy and fabulous and the original words not censored by his tube “Tutti Frutti” leave little doubt. But in 1957, in the middle of an Australian tour, he had a crisis of faith after claiming to have dreamed of his own damnation, a large part of which had to do with being gay. He left the music industry and never again reached the rights he obtained in the 1950s.
The next adult to come has been David Bowie. He sporadically attracted attention since 1964, when he appeared on British television as a spokesperson for an invented organization known as the International League for the preservation of animal filament. He was only 17 years old at the time.
But Bowie had just started. In January 1970, he became one of the first stars of pop to be questioned by JeremyA gay magazine. The article had nothing to do with his sexuality, but the very fact that he appeared in a gay magazine was very radical. Three years earlier, you could still be sent to prison to be homosexual.
Ten months later, coverage of his The man who sold the world The album included Bowie lounging in a long fluid blue dress designed by a man known as Mr. Fish. It was the most feminized male image of a rock star that the world has ever seen. Many record stores (especially in the United States) have refused to display or even store recording, requiring the version of a version with alternative illustrations. Despite this, the file sold less than 1,500 copies in America between November 1970 and June 1971. This was then the state of the world.
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The real shock occurred in the January 22, 1972 issue MelodyOne of the major weekly music magazines in the United Kingdom when Bowie said: “I’m gay and I have always been.” It was largely an advertising to set up the beginnings of his character Ziggy Stardust. But for some people, the effect of these words was incalculable. Ziggy’s androgynous bisexuality, makeup and glitter (as well as what has been described as an obscene performance in addition to pops) offered hope to closed people around the planet.
However, Bowie (via Ziggy) was not the first openly gay rock star in the world. We could turn to Lou Reed, whose parents sent him for electro-chococo therapy to adolescence to exorcise what they feared were “homosexual trends”.
In 1972, after leaving the velvet basement, he adopted a very glamorous image, wearing S&M and favorite equipment, almost white hairstyles and black painted nails. His songs have often explored the perverse side of life, including “Walk on the Wild Side”, a Hit of the Top 40 that told the story of some of the most colorful characters in Andy Warhol: Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn, Joe Dallesandro and Joe “Sugar Plum Fairy” Campbell.
Even if Lou married a woman in 1973, many simply assumed that he was gay. Was he? Certainly bisexual at the very least, but it has never been public on this subject.
The first rock singer to be unambiguous to be gay was Jobriath. Born Bruce Campbell, he was a former member of a forgotten California group called Pigeon. From there, he entered the musical theater, performing in hair productions. He was also a part -time drug addict and an occasional rental boy.
In the early 1970s, he acquired a manager named Jerry Brandt who almost immediately concluded an agreement of half a million dollars with Elektra Records. His first album was recorded with the help of Peter Frampton and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. To launch the record, Elektra paid a display panel of $ 200,000 of an almost naked job in the middle of Times Square. Full page advertisements appeared in The New York Times,, Roller,, Vogueand even Penthouse.
Another $ 200,000 was spent on stage production which was to open at the Paris Opera, which included a 40 -foot model from the Empire State Building which was supposed to symbolize … Well, you know. And in the interviews, Jobriath qualified as a “real fairy”.
But everything crashed. The Paris shows have never occurred, and after two poorly sold albums, Jobriath has disappeared. He rebounded between New York and Los Angeles, not doing much because of a management contract dressed in punishing iron. In the early 1980s, his bathing bathing habits caught up with him and he contracted HIV / AIDS. He died on August 3, 1987, a week after the expiration of his 10 -year contract with Jerry Brandt.
Years later, thanks mainly to a contingent of fans who discovered it after his death – Morrissey is one of his great admirers and promoters – Le Monde has learned of Jobriath’s contribution to LGBTQ2 history.
We must recognize a few others. A British group Folk-rock entitled All the still involved sang a few pro-Gay songs in 1972. There is a song from 1973 by Chris Robinson entitled “Looking for a Boy Tonight”. A German group, Flying Lesbiennes, appeared briefly in 1975. Steve Grossman was an openly gay folk-blues singer in the 1970s. And in 1978, the Gay / Lesbian Liberty Group, which presented itself as the first openly gay musical organization in the world, was founded in San Francisco.
One of the big things about punk rock of the 1970s was the concept that music belonged to everyone and that anyone should be able to make music, whatever age, economic background, musical capacity, sex or sexual orientation. Punk allowed gay artists such as Pete Shelley des Buzzcocks, Elton Motllo, Jayne (formerly Wayne) the county and Ricky Wilson of the B-52 (who tragically can be the first rock artist to die of AIDS).
There were also others. Although nobody in New York dolls was gay (at least we don’t think it), they were the first group to really push androgynia in the context of their image with makeup, big hair and of course, a lot of spandex (the historic discs that they seem to have been the first group to perform in spandex.) The big boys were a group of Pytons de Texas. Singer Randy “Biscuit” Turner was strong and proudly released. New Wave took the Disco Campy elements and presented hundreds of techno-pop acts with effeminate men and androgynous artists.
In the early 1980s, many courageously played their sexuality. Think of Boy George of Culture Club, Frankie goes to Hollywood, and Carole Pope in Canada in Rough Trade, a name from the Gay subculture. She was in advance to be a lesbian. “Yeah, I have different ideas about sex. Do you want to do something about it? Bold enough things for dull Canada, boring and conservative.
While the 1980s faded in the 1990s, projections and manifestations of non-heterosexuality became current. There is still homophobia and prejudices, but most music fans are careful today to find out if an interpreter is gay, hetero, queer or trans. And we will not have arrived here if it was not for these first courageous pioneers.
Good pride, everyone.
