Talk:Media portrayal of LGBTQ people

The History of Queer Music

Queer music, or music that is either produced or sung by a LGBTQQAA individual or music that is sung about the LGTBQQAA experience, debuted in the 1920s Blues era. In the beginning of Queer music many songs discussed coming out, acceptance, Pride and Stonewall. In the 70 s it made a switch to talking about people like Anita Bryant, Harvey Milk and Dan White. In the 80s and 90s with the rise of the AIDS epidemic many of the songs addressed the emotional (often anger, and grief), political and social aspects of the AIDs crisis.

1920s-1930s In the late In 1935 Bessie Jackson (Lucille Bogan) released her song “B.D. Woman Blues” the B.D. standing for Bull Daggers. Frankie “half-Pint” Jackson, another Blues artist of this time, was known for singing as a female impersonator and in 1929 released a song titled “My Daddy Rocks Me With One Steady Roll”.This period was also times for “cross-vocals” which are songs intended to be sung by a woman but are sung by men instead, without changing pronouns. This came about in the 20s and 30s when music producers would not allow singers to change a songs wording. This lead to men singing about men and subsequently women singing about women without public scrutiny, because they were aware of the restrictions placed on the singers by the music producers. (An example of “cross-vocals” would be Bing Crosby and his recording of “Ain’t No Sweet Man Worth the Salt of My Tears.”) Also in the late 20s and 30s was The Pansy Craze. This was when openly gay performers suddenly became popular in major city nightclubs. Two of the most popular performers to emerge from this craze were Jean Malin who sang “I’d Rather Be Spanish Than Manish” and Bruz Fletcher in 1937 with “She’s My Most Intimate Friend.”

1950s-1960s Fast forward a little bit and we come to the late 1950s. Between the 30s and the 60s Ray Bourbon was one of the most well-known female impersonators, in 1956 Ray changed his name to Rae Bourbon and released and album titled “Let Me Tell You About My Operation,” in response to Christine Jorgensen’s famous sex change which had been dominating the news. In the early 1960s Camp Records released two albums which featured artist like Sandy Beech, Max Minty & the Gay Blades, and a song by Byrd E Bath called "Homer the Happy Little Homo". In response to this album Teddy & Darrel released an LP called “These Are the Hits, You Silly Savages” with the hope that they could use the sale records to track down homosexuals, however they were unable to do so because the sales were so spread out and diverse. In 1963 Jackie Shane released his song “Any Other Way” with the lyrics “tell her that I'm happy, tell her that I'm gay, tell her that I wouldn't have it, any other way” which reached #2 on the Canadian charts and in 1968 Minette was the first female impersonator to release an entire album which dealt which dealt with subjects such as the hippie movement, psychedelic drugs and Vietnam.

1970s-1980s The 1970s was the birth of glam rock and the pop punk gay scene, which included artist like David Bowie. In 1971 Maxine Feldman wrote a song called “Stonewall Nation” after she participated in her first gay march in Albany, New York and in 1972 she was the first openly lesbian to be elected as the delegate to a major national political convention. The 1970s also brought a lot of first for the Queer music scene. In 1973 “Lavender Country” was the first openly gay country album (20 years later “Out in the Country," by Doug Stevens & the Outband was the second). Also on 1973, the first openly gay rock albums was produced by Chris Robison and his Many Hand Band, which included the song “Lookin’ For A Boy Tonight,” and Alix Dobkin formed her own record label called Women’s Wax Words. She then went on to produce the album “Lavender Jane Loves Women” which was the first album to be produced, financed, performed and engineered entirely by lesbians. Then in 1974 Steven Grossman became the first artist to have a lyrically gay album, titled “Caravan Tonight” released by the major record label called Mercury. This album featured the son “Out” and was the first album with openly gay lyrics to be produced by a major record label. Finally in 1977 Olivia Records released the first various artist album that featured solely lesbian performers. This album was called “Lesbian Concentrate” and was produced in reaction to Anita Bryan bigotry and her anit-LGBT rights crusade.

In 1981 Rough Trade, a band led by Carole Pope reached the Top 20 in Canada with their song “High School Confidential,” this is one of the first openly lesbian songs to reach the charts. Also in 1981, Canadian artist David Sereda released his song “Underage Blues” which discusses what it is like to be a gay teenager. In 1985 a rare performance by Christine Jorgensen, an entertainer who was known for having a sex change in the 1950s, was recorded. In 1983 “La Cage Auz Folles” became the first musical with an openly gay central plot to be a big hit and featured the song “I Am What I Am”. In 1984 one of the earliest songs addressing AIDS was released by Automatic Pilot, a San Francisco based group. The song was called “Safe Living in Dangerous Time”. Although the song was recorded in 1984 the album was never released until 2005 because multiple group members passed away due to the AIDS epidemic. Also from LA came the rapping group Age of Consent, who was one of the first groups to ever have lyrically gay raps. One of their songs called “History Rap” tells the story of the Stonewall Riot.

1990s-Present In more present times we are left with Queer singers, songwriters and musicians that belong to many genres. One example of a well-known Queer artist is Meshell Ndegeocello who entered the hip-hop scene in the 90s<ref name="two">. During this time Bill Clinton was elected president, and the gay and lesbian movement was still in full force from collective organization against AIDS in the 80s<ref name="two">. Her song “Leviticus: Faggot” talks about the sexist and misogynist violence experienced by young Black gay men due to their identities<ref name="two">. Some other more recent artists include Against Me! And their song “Transgender Dysphoria,” ONSIND, Fridge Scum and Spoonboy.

Wiki Education assignment: Anthropology of Digital Culture

This article is currently the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2024 and 6 December 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): 666Medusa (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by 666Medusa (talk) 18:47, 17 September 2024 (UTC)