Kailee Shollenberger

Professor Long

Pop & Protest

Gender

"Girls/Girls/Boys" Panic! At the Disco

Panic! At the Disco first emerged at the peak of the movement during the mid

2000s. The band was created by two high school friends, drummer and guitarist

Ryan Ross, who grew tired of covering other artists, specifically blink-182. They recruited guitarist and vocalist and bassist Brent Wilson. Together the new band caught the attention of Decaydance Records and became the first band to be signed to ’s Pete

Wentz’s label. Their 2005 debut, “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out”, topped the charts with “I

Write Sins Not Tragedies”. Wilson was fired while Panic! was on the Nintendo Fusion Tour, leading to the addition of to the group. Eventually, Walker and Ross parted ways with the band to begin their own music career as a duo. Leaving Urie and Smith shorthanded, they filled their lineup with and . By 2016 Brendon Urie had taken the wheel and directed the sound Panic!’s music from emo driven rock to psychedelic pop and electronic beats. Brendon Urie has been a longtime ally of the LGBTQ community and has come out as pansexual. Panic! At the Disco’s song “Girls/Girls/Boys” explores the idea that “love is not a choice” and the concept of living freely (1).

Urie has publicly stated that the inspiration for the song was his sexual experience with a bisexual girl and her girlfriend when he was sixteen. During the pre-chorus, Urie explains that we do not have a choice in who we love saying, “And never did I think that I would be caught in the way you got me,” (1). He did not think he would fall in love with this girl as she’s in a relationship with another woman, but the girl’s bisexuality does not bother him. The chorus of the song delivers its strongest message in the chorus where it directly states that “love is not a choice” (1). The song describes the feelings a boy develops for the girl he is pretending to date, so she can be in a relationship with another girl without anyone knowing. The words

“sophisticated, manipulated,” found in the chorus describe the complexity of personal identity, yet it is not an intellectual concept. Your gender identity and sexual preference is the most primal thing we share. A person can often feel “manipulated” by the urge to express their true selves due to some people’s difficulty in accepting those who are different than them. Fans have expressed the comfort and support they felt from this song which encourages everyone to be true to themselves as you do not choose who you love.

1. https://genius.com/2304367 ​ ​