tylergilly-blog

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“Lay Me Down” lyrics vs video

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Sam-smith-lay-me-down-lyrics

Video: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/sam-smith-on-controversial-lay-me-down-video-were-the-first-ever-to-do-it-20150205

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Videos vs. Music

What makes the portrayal of gay couples in music videos more acceptable than their portrayal in the song itself? (Sam Smith’s “Lay Me Down” video featured a gay marriage when the song itself lacked the ‘he’ pronoun)

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Here is Frank Ocean’s coming out letter

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How gayness is viewed

How is homosexuality viewed and treated in other genres that are not as heavily influenced by gay culture? (Steve Grand country video is posted in relation to this question)

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More research

I would like to research the specific elements of drag and gay culture that have influenced pop music in order to situate homosexuality within the genre.

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Attalid and Power

Attali writes about the political power of sound as a tool to create a sense of community and empowerment, which is why the position of popular gay artists in the industry and their inability to produce music that touches the gay community is frustrating.  Some of these artists have immense reaches and fan bases where positive messages of homosexuality could be spread, yet they continue to fall into the hetero-normative tropes that reduce the meaning of their music.  In order to fit in and be accepted within the music industry, it seems as though gayness needs to be left out of the music and only has a place in the artists’ personal lives.

  Stadler, Gustavus. (Spring 2010). Introduction: Breaking Sound Barriers. Social Text vol. 28 Issue 1 (102), p1-12.

 Attali, Jacques. (1985). “Listening.” Noise: The Political Economy of Music, tran. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009: pp. 3-12, 18-20.

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Augoyard and Masking

However few, some artists have broken the barriers that have been set by the hetero-normative music industry like Frank Ocean.  His 2012 album Channel Orange explicitly tackles the queer feelings that he has experienced without making his sexual orientation ambiguous.  Although his album was very well received, it did not get the recognition fans believed it should have gotten at awards ceremonies like the Grammies. Augoyard defines the term masking as the replacing or overpowering of a sound with other sounds in order to drown it out.    It seemed as though the industry was attempting to burry Frank Ocean’s by giving more attention to artists with less controversial work (Matthews).

 Matthews, Cate. “The Music Industry Doesn’t Want You To Hear These Songs Because They Are’t ‘Radio-Friendly’”. The Huffington Post. February 12, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/radio-friendly-pop-song-matt-fishel-gay_n_5596074.html. Accessed March 20, 2017. Web.

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Barthes and Silence

Out gay artists like Sam Smith have been open about their attempts to write or rewrite their songs with gender-neutral pronouns in order to remove sexuality from their music and allow larger, predominantly heterosexual, audiences to relate (Williams).  Major artists like Sam Smith have the privilege to be outspoken about their sexuality and inspire people within the LGBTQ community on an international scale; but instead they are silent.  They discuss their sexual orientation in interviews and on social media and even include gay couples in their music videos yet they will not make reference to same sex relationships in their music.  In Barthes’ discussion of silence, he analyzes the correlation between silence and the lack of presence and participation within discourse.  It seems as though gay artists who are not actively incorporating their sexuality into their writing are not allowing gay culture to penetrate into music.

 Barthes, Roland. (1972).“Listening”, Critical Essays, translated by Richard Howard. Illinois: Northwestern University Press, p 245-260.

 Wagner, Roi. (2012) Silence as Resistance before the Subject, or Could the Subaltern Remain Silent? November 2012; Vol. 29, No. 6, 99-124. 

 Williams, George. “Why Do So Mnay Gay Singers Avoid Singing About Men?”. Attitude. August 23, 2015. http://attitude.co.uk/why-do-so-many-gay-singers-avoid-singing-about-men/. Accessed March 20, 2017. Web.

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Yass [Insert Female Pop Icon Here]

Sometimes whenever I see a gay couple represented in a show or movie I can’t help but do a double take.  As a gay man I shouldn’t feel surprised to see other gay men coupled together on camera but yet it’s so rare and so often overlooked that the presence of homosexuality in any media has become elusive and alien.  I’ve just become so accustomed to following the trials and tribulations of heterosexual relationships that I forget how little content is geared towards same sex couples.  In the new and prospering golden era of television, a handful of series have stepped forward and addressed the LGBTQ community with shows like “The L Word” and “Looking”; however music seems to be at a stand still. Gay culture has sculpted the style and sound of pop music by sprinkling the flare and boldness of drag theatrics into the aesthetic of pop artists like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry.  Out gay artists are able to prosper in the pop music scene and address their sexuality with more confidence than ever before.  Yet, regardless of the progress that has been made, how many songs can you think of that are explicitly written about a same sex couple?  How often do you hear a male identifying voice sing a romantic ballad about another man?  Gay artists seem to be afraid to use the pronoun ‘he’ in their pop songs as a courtesy to their heterosexual fan base.  Unfortunately the courtesy has not been reciprocated since mainstream music almost never acknowledges same sex romances.

For my final essay, I would like to delve deeper into the underrepresentation of homosexuality within music and the effects that this issue has had on the musical taste of gay men.  Music is supposed to be an expression of oneself and a voice to relate to, yet with the ambiguity and lack of pronouns in songs written by gay artists, it is a sticky situation trying to find a sound that has any meaning to a gay man.  To compensate for the loss of a voice, I believe that gay men turn to female icons in order to fulfill their romantic and sexual expressions since these women offer an empowered stance on female sexuality.  Idols like Beyonce, and Lady Gaga use male pronouns to describe partners and sing about relationships in a manner that can speak to gay men.  Over the course of pop music’s evolution, elements of drag culture have slipped into the mainstream, which has created a bond between the LGBTQ community and the music (DJ Louis XIV).  Gay men feel drawn to these strong female role models and many of these artists have opened their arms to the gay community.  Although I believe that these female voices are positive, they can never completely capture the voice of a gay man, which leaves us lost and unable to fully emote to mainstream music.

 DJ Louis XIV. “Sam Smith and the Right Amount of Gayness for the Grammys”. Cuepoint. February 3, 215. https://medium.com/cuepoint/sam-smith-and-the-right-amount-of-gayness-for-the-grammys-d84e04744358#.1wsi8c3dv. Accessed March 20, 2017. Web.