Seduced and Abandoned: Essays on Gay Men and Popular MusicSmith examines the different ways in which gay men use pop music, both as producers and consumers, and how, in turn, pop uses gay men. He asks what role culture plays in shaping identity and why pop continues to thrill gay men. These 40 essays and interviews look at how performers, from The Kinks' Ray Davies to Gene's Martin Rossiter, have used pop as a platform to explore and articulate, conform to or contest notions of sexuality and gender. A defence of cultural differences and an attack on cultural elitism, Seduced and Abandoned is as passionate and provocative as pop itself. |
Contents
1 | |
5 | |
3 Ambisexuality | 10 |
Nirvana | 14 |
Village People | 20 |
Michael Jackson | 25 |
Erasure | 32 |
Stock Aitken and Waterman | 39 |
Sex Pop and Censorship | 127 |
Suede | 134 |
Colin Bell | 139 |
REM | 149 |
McAlmont Thieves | 154 |
Kitchens of Distinction and Sugar | 157 |
Manic Street Preachers | 163 |
Gay Dance Labels and NuNRG | 166 |
The Secret History of the Penis in Pop | 43 |
Happy Mondays | 50 |
Trannies With Attitude | 53 |
Right Said Fred | 59 |
Morrissey | 64 |
Tom Watkins | 69 |
Jimmy Somerville | 77 |
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult | 83 |
Pop and AIDS | 86 |
Frankie Knuckles | 92 |
Female Fans and Unmanly Men | 100 |
The Kinks | 106 |
Take That | 113 |
Heavy Metal | 121 |
Homocore and Queer core | 172 |
RuPaul | 179 |
Holly Johnson | 183 |
Jon Savage and Disco | 195 |
Pet Shop Boys | 200 |
Gene | 212 |
Pet Shop Boys | 219 |
One Night in a Gay Club | 224 |
2wo Third3 | 231 |
Queen | 234 |
Afterwords | 240 |
244 | |
248 | |
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Common terms and phrases
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