Gay Pop Fade Out 1

1.   1970s
2.   Late 1970s and 1980s

"At a time when being gay was illegal, and the only way to live as an out gay man was to work in the theatre or as a hairdresser, pop management offered a new opportunity. So a lot of gays started to dabble in it." 

-----Simon Napier-Bell, Manager of the 1960s group, The Yardbirds quoted in Straight and narrow: how pop lost its gay edge, by Alexis Petridis, The Guardian, 28 February 2012. 

1.   The rationale of the article quoted above, is that gay men, persecuted in the 50s and 60s for their sexuality, not only caught the wave of rock and roll and pop, but in their capacity as Managers of the groups, actively encouraged flamboyance and defiance.  As Napier-Bell put it:

"Faced with the absurdity of being a criminal just because your dick faced the wrong way, gays didn't have much respect for other aspects of the law, drugs included. And groups were encouraged to do outrageous things to publicise themselves."

2.   Why were pop groups drawn to gay managers in the first place? The article says that's a moot point.  But the Mod movement in England of the 1950s (from which some of these bands came), had a pronounced gay / socially defiant element (the article alludes to the supposedly exciting life of the gay rent boy and the perception that single gay men had a better lifestyle with higher disposable income).  FuelMix wonders whether the newly formed groups in the 1960s were looking to financially escape the dreary post-World War 2 years and saw gay culture and gay socially defiant managers as a source of leverage.

3.   So here's FuelMix's take on this:


1.   1970s

The campiness, flamboyance and experimental androgeny continued into the 1970s (remember the early camp and the then closeted Elton John? or the very str8 but curious looking David Bowie? or KISS?) 


2.   Late 1970s and 1980s

1.   In the late 70s and the 1980s, there were openly gay pop acts (Sylvester, Village People, Bronski Beat, Culture Club, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, Dead Or Alive - mostly from England as it turned out), closeted semi-gay acts like WHAM! and Freddie Mercury of Queen; and closeted solo gay artists (George Michael.)  In addition, the 1980s saw the emergence of specifically-for-gays HiNRG dance music PLUS the emergence of the pop diva adopted by gays worldwide (Remember Bette Midler who got her start in the gay saunas of New York? Diana Ross? Whitney? Cher? Tina Turner? Madonna?) AND the emergence of the Drag Queen from an underground scene fixture to an openly gay icon in the bars or on stage.  Remember the early RuPaul or Divine or Miss Piggy from the Muppets?

2.   Gay political activism was loud, still marginal but had an impact. Remember Stonewall? 

3.   International gay tourism emerged with identifiable must-see gay destinations - Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bangkok, Berlin, Ibiza, Los Angeles, Mykonos, New York, San Diego,  San Francisco, Sydney.  

Coming Up In Part 2: 
  
3.  The 1990s To Now   
4.  What Happened To Gay influence On Pop Music....And Why?

Originally published 11 March 2012
Republished 31 December 2013 | 28 May 2014 | 9 June 2016


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