Gay Pop Fade Out 2

3.   1990s
4.   1990s to 2000s: Gay Pop Music To Gay Pop Culture
5.   2000s - Present:  What The Fuck Happened..?


3.   1990s

1.   Whilst Grunge Rock and Indie were big, gays had an impact in the pop scene - although they may or may not have been Out.  (Ricky Martin, George Michael,  RuPaul the drag queen, singer and model, the British and American Boy Bands members of whom were rumoured to be gay).  

4.   1990s & 2000s - Gay Pop Music to Gay Pop Culture 

1.   Also in the 1990s, something massive happened.  Gays moved from influencing pop music to influencing pop culture.  This was done via TV shows, sitcoms, gay topics on daytime chat shows. Remember Northern Exposure? In Living Colour? Absolutely Fabulous? Ellen? Will and Grace? Frasier? Queer As Folk - originally a British gay series subsequently adapted and remade into an American one?). 

2.   What about hunky underwear models on billboards and glossy mags rumoured to be gay, others gay-for-pay?  Part of the deliberate buzz was to speculate on their abdominal exercises, cock size and sexuality.  It was no accident that new fitness magazines - actually intended for gay men but ostensibly mass marketed - appeared in the 1990s.  

3.   Bisexual-porn exploded. "Gay" porn stars openly did MMF and cross-over porn. So did the mega-gay international circuit parties with celebrity gay DJs. Gay travel became an established, sophisticated niche market, bragging about the power of the Pink Dollar. Gay clubs complained that  str8s packed the joint because the dance music was better.

4.   It was impossible to get gay guys out of one's face.  Was it due to a loosening of attitudes and the goodwill of social acceptance?  FuelMix thinks the surge was cynically manipulated by the Gay Media - particularly in God's Own Country where they influence TV,  films and fashion. 

5.   Think about it. AIDS had killed gays since the early 80s.  Gays were despised and discriminated against. The Right-Wing Morality Milita had a 20 year field day in vilification. Something had to be done to rehabilitate the image of gay men.  Tons of money  poured into the media to repackage and reinvent the gay man as a potential male supermodel, or the cute guy next door living in a quirky sub-culture of fuckable gym bunnies, or the sensitive cafe going type, or the high net worth power of the Pink Dollar. Muscle, Masculinity, Money and Sensitivity. Worked brilliantly. 

5.   2000s - Present :  What The Fuck Happened..? 

1.   The article mentioned in Part 1 bemoans the near absence of gay influence on pop music from the early 2000s to date. Yeah, there are gay artists like Adam Lambert, Rufus Wainwright or gay front men like Jake Shears in Scissor Sisters, (and the closeted ones from the 70s, 80s and 90s have been Outed). But it is the str8 bands that have been, and still are, getting the huge commercial success. Gaga's "gay" pronouncements are neither pop music nor pop culture.  The article thinks this was due to either a continuing social acceptance of gays or an underlying current of homophobia that was gradually coming to the surface.  

2.   FuelMix disagrees.

3.   Gay Mafia / Gay Media, having rammed Faggotry down people's throats, moved to Stage 2 - the enforced Politcial Correctness of Gayness. Again,  think about it.  In  certain countries in the West, one can hardly say anything about gays without looking over one's shoulder.    There's no shortage of gay "activists", "advocacy groups", "media watchdogs", "employment monitors" (i.e. whose the most gay friendly company to work for...?) "government lobbyists", "political fundraisers" blah blah blah.  In 50 years, gays have morphed from a culture of defiant creation to a culture of political sycophants and suppression - both of themselves and the population at large.  It's stunning to observe the near-universal outwardly Liberal leanings of these groups, combined with an entitlement mentality, near-Fascist zeal to outlaw candid expression and enquiry.  

4.   It's not surprising that homophobia might be on the rise in mainstream society.  If so, it explains the Band Aid measures - e.g. It Gets Better - with the usual assortment of celebs cooing words of assurance or attempting to make Pride more "inclusive".  

5.   More importantly it explains the hitherto silent but growing number of gay men who know in their gut that these advocacy groups don't speak for them; who wonder what the fuck happened to the thrill of gay culture over the last 20 years; and who suspect - like FuelMix has said before - that in order to be a successful gay man on your terms, you have to be homophobic towards the culture of censored gay mediocrity that is being presented as the template of thought and action.

Originally published 15 March 2012
Rebpublished 31 December 2013 |  28 May 2014 | 9 June 2016

Copyright © 2006 – 2016 FuelMix All Rights Reserved