The art of secrecy, the sound of lavender -- The twenties- "T'aint nobody's business if I do": sissies, bull-dykers and freakish man blues -- The thirties- the age of the pansy craze -- The forties- war games and nancy boys -- The fifties- the tutti frutti revolution -- The sixties- gay party pop and the rock'n'roll closet -- The seventies- let the children boogie -- The seventies II- disco, punk and out come the freaks -- The eighties- all the nice boys love sea men- pop comes out -- The nineties- rock'n'roll- queer to the core -- Twenty-first century- a rainbow riot.
Summary:
Popular music's queer DNA is inarguable, from Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, from cross-dressing Kurt Cobain to "female Elvis" k.d. lang. Regardless, gay and lesbian performers have preferred the safety of the closet for generations, mainly due to the tenuous legal status of homosexuality and the rife homophobia that lives on in spite of the victories of Gay Liberation. Only in 2014 did an 'out' gay pop star, Sam Smith, top the US chart. Bearing this in mind, it comes as no surprise that there has never been a comprehensive general history of LGBTQ+ personalities and influences in and around popular music until now. Martin Aston's Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out is the first book to convey the protracted and, at times, torturous tale of popular music's queer past, present, and future.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.