Sunday, February 26, 2006

Listening to the Music

I know I'm out of it. I usually am. In fact, I'm usually so far out of it that I don't even realize there is an 'it' to be out of. But this is something new. I didn't know that there was a thing called 'Gay Music'. And, listening to it, I don't understand the concept.

None of it is music I'd particularly care to hear routinely, but that's because what I like is old jazz, soulful blues, and DWM classics. But when I was selecting the music channel on my Yahoo IM, I noticed one of the channels was called Gay Radio. Well, shucks, I wondered, what's this all about? Theme song from Brokeback Mountain? So I listened to it. Its not my taste, as I said, but its not bad. And I sure don't hear anything 'gay' about it.

So is this a codeword thing, or is the fact that I don't hear anything gay about it because I'm not?

6 comments:

Narie said...

Music by gay musicians maybe? I've gotta go look this up.

Narie said...

Ok, I'm playing it right now and it's playing Abba's "Dancing Queen". Hee! I've got a gay sibling who is going to think this is hilarious. If I hear Judy Garland I may not recover.

Cerulean Bill said...

So it's a word play thing? I get the Judy Garland reference as being actual, though it took me years to realize it. Ditto multiple references to Dinah Shore, over the years.... Dinah Shore? Sweet, charming, Dinah? From what I gather, yes.

Amazing what I can go through life not knowing....

Narie said...

It's definitely gay radio. I used to go to gay clubs after hours to go dancing, in my 20's, and have had alot of gay friends as well as a gay sibling and there is certain music that's just associated with the gay culture. Music that is gay friendly I guess, plus music that the gay community has adopted as their own.
I had the station playing in the background for about an hour, and with the exception of one or two songs, the entire playlist is something I would expect to hear in a gay club, song for song.

Cerulean Bill said...

"Music that is gay friendly"

As distinct from what? Is there 'gay-hostile' music? I'm not talking about the occasional (and maybe not so occasional) misogynist (sorry, don't know a better word) who writes a song you'd expect on a men's room wall (well, okay, perhaps YOU wouldn't, unless the ladies' room is full, but we won't get into that...though why has no one ever tried to increase the level of confusion in the world by labelling them LADDIES and LADIES, I wonder? Though I did once hear of a place where they were named Pointers and Setters, which is rude but funny, I think). But other than that, is there such a thing? Is there a reverse -- straight-friendly vs straight-hostile?

Boy, this is a whole area I've never had reason to think about, before.

Narie said...

It's an interesting question/situation/whathaveyou. Maybe a better description would be "music the gay community identifies with"?

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article sort of about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Gay_anthem

But even it asks the question "why". I don't really know how to describe why it is, I just hear certain songs and immediately identify them as being a song the gay community is fond of. Not that other cultures wouldn't be fond of them too, but some music is just inherently "gay" in my mind. I loved Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" when I was a kid. But to this day I can't hear it without thinking of it as a gay anthem.

Even so, I was surprised to see the gay radio station. Listening to it, it seemed to be a mix of songs often considered gay anthems, club music, and music by gay or gay-friendly artists.