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BIBLIOGRAPHY. Charles Dejob, Marc- Early Indications. A fourteenth- Antoine Muret: un professeur franpis en century ordinance from Florence bans the xvi* Italie dons la seconde moitib du singing of "sodomitical songs." Although sitcle, Paris: E. Thorin, 1881. Warren Johansson the words and music of these are lost, the need to prohibit them attests that homo- sexuality was part of the bawdy repertoire MUSIC,POPULAR of urban life as early as the late Middle Popular music isnot only of inter- Ages. The arrival of printing made possible est in its own right as an important area of the diffusion-no doubt with establish- popular culture, but in times for which ment encouragement--of a counterflow of major documentation of homosexuality antihomosexual songs. A characteristic and attitudes towards it on the part of the example is an English single-sheet folio of lower and middle classes is lacking, it is a ballad, "Of the Horrible and Woefull one source of value to historical inquiry. Destruction of Sodom andGomorra, to the In the broadest sense, popular Tune of the Nine Muses" [London, ca. music includes everything that is not 1570).In France during the time of Louis funded by elites for an elite, usually upper XIV satirical songs pilloried the homosex- class or ecclesiastical, audience. This is ual peccadillos of Jean-Baptiste Lully, usually art music (that is to say, sonatas, master of the king's music, and other symphonies, lieder, operas, etc., and their notables. equivalents in non-Western music). It is, In the nineteenth century the moreover, useful to distinguish "popular" music hall saw a vogue for both male and music from folkmusic-the older forms of female impersonators, leading to drag anonymous, noncommercial expression. performances of songs appropriate to the Popular music made use of mechanical oppositesex. In 1881 Gilbert and Sullivan's means of reproduction of musical scores Patience, incorporating a character based and text, beginning with song books and on Oscar Wilde, created the archetype of a sheet music in the Renaissance. The gay man in popular music-though the commercialization of popular music ap- character (Bunthorpe)was officially sim- pears first in cabaret and concert perform- ply an "aesthete." In the inner cities of ances to which tickets are sold to a general Europe and North America a few clandes- audience, later in the sale of recordings. tine gay establishments offered sung en- Although some scholars believe tertainments, a tradition that survived into that they can detect erotic motifs in in- the second third of the twentieth century strumental music, this is certain only in with the performances of Rae Bourbon. the few cases where the composer has so Modem Commercial Popular Mu- indicated, as in the "Love Death" music sic. At the turn of the present century, the from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde; it has English-speakingworld saw the emergence been suggested that Tchaikovsky's Sym- of a new category of music with mass phoniepathdtique has a homosexual appeal, the commercial popular song. What theme. But the field of inquiry is in prac- made this music distinctive was its broad tice limited to songs with words, and the availability through phonograph record- texts are the principal criterion of interpre- ings, radio, and eventually sound motion tation. In practice intonation (broadly pictures and television. Suggestive ele- defined to include lilt, timbre, and accen- ments had been present in the nineteenth- tuation) is also important as a second level century music hall, in vaudeville and of meaning, which may supplement or minstrelsy, but these live entertainments even contradict the denotative one; sound lacked the standardization of style, tempo, recordings largely retain these intonational and intonation found in songs diffused by registers. a New York-centered grouping of highly * MUSIC, POPULAR professional songwriters, collectively proached this song was revived by Bing styled Tin Pan Alley, that were fixed in Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and others. form and sold by the millions in record- Other songs show mockery of ings. Of course eachrecorded versionwould gender conventions. The 1938 story "Ferdi- have its own standardization, but many nand the Bull," about an animal that pre- songs retained in the popular mind the ferred sniffing flowers to fighting, became qualities given by the first major record- a Disney film and song. In The Wizard of ing. Erotic suggestiveness appears in these Oz Bert Lahr played and sang the part of songs not only in the lyrics, where the the cowardly lion, a dandified incompe- innuendo may be subtle, but in intona- tent. tion, which served to bring out any under- The interwar years saw the rise of lying ambiguities. Consequently, it is a special category known at the time as necessary to listen to the audio recordings "race records." These songs, whose verve themselves to obtain the full effect. made them increasingly attractive to white A surprising number of examples audiences, drew upon an existing genre of escaped the tacit censorship that prevailed very frank black folk music, which they to until the 1960s. One category is that of some extent bowdlerized. Nonetheless, songs intended for one sex to be sung by a blues singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith singer of the other-without benefit of the recorded anumber of clearly lesbian songs. drag disguise as seen in the music hall. As In 1928 Rainey sang: "Went out last night,/ early as 1898 John Terrell recorded "He with a crowd of my friends,/ they must be Certainly Was Good to Me," and in 1907 wornens/ Cause I don't like mens" ("Prove Billy Murray longed for his absent sailor It on Me Blues"). As confinement was a "Honey Boy," while in the 1930s Bing common part of the black male experi- Crosby was to essay "There Ain't No Sweet ence, blues songs frequently dealt with Man (Worth the Salt of My Tears)." Ruth jailhouse life, and occasionally referred to Etting sang a 1927 song about the charms the necessarily homoerotic sexuality of a woman friend, "It All Belongs to Me" therein. Thus in one old song the prisoner (1928))and MarleneDietrich became cele- asks the jailer to "put another gal in my brated for such renditions as "I've Grown stall," "gal-boy" being one of many South- Accustomed to Her Face." There has been em black slang terms for a sexually passive a tendency to interpret the female-to-male prisoner. songs as more threatening than the male- Stephen Foster (1826-18641, who to-female ones (as shown by censorship in began the tradition of distinctively Ameri- later versions), corresponding to the fact can popular songs, was almost certainly that the sissy is more disapproved than the gay-he ran away with another composer, tomboy. George Cooper-but his lyrics sedulously Some songs, such as Bing Crosby's avoid any hint of his orientation. 1929 "Gay Love," simply refrained from Such concealment is hardly char- revealing the sex of the love object, leaving acteristic of the work of Noel Coward it to the listener's, imagination. A few (1899-1973) and the uncloseted Cole Por- others were more explicit, such as Ewen ter(1893-1964).Thewitty lyricist of Broad- Hall's thirties tune "Delicate Cowboy," way musicals Lorenz Hart (1895-1943) who not only sang "gay" but preferred to seems to have been gay, but it has not been ride side-saddle. possible to confirm rumors about George America's wars helped to stimu- Gershwin ( 1898-1 937J. Although bisexual late a certain interest in buddy songs. Thus composer-conductor Leonard Bemstein in 1922 the singer of "My Buddy" laments (1918- ) aspires to renown in the classical the departure of his comrade, reminiscing field it may be that his most lasting work about "gay" times. As World War 11 ap- is the music for West Side Story (1957). MUSIC, POPULAR 9

The 1959 Broadway musical The commercial mass market, displacing to a Nervous Set featuredanindirect but widely large extent the old Tin Pan Alley hege- understood "Ballad of thesad Young Men," mony. which despite its gloomy perspective be- In its origins, however, rock and came popular in gay bars. Although musi- roll was a type of "underground" music. cals were much patronized by gay men, in As such, it was not aimed at widespread order to retain their heterosexual audience radio airplay and was therefore less subject they tended to be circumspect about sex- to censorship. This, however, does not ual references. (Later, after the Stonewall explain the widespread airplay of Presley's Rebellion, the Reverend A1 Carmines was big hit, "Jailhouse Rock" (1957), which to create a series of openly gay musicals in contained a hardly disguised allusion to Greenwich Village, beginning with The homosexuality in the context of a song Faggot in 1973.) containing black code-words for sex, most No survey of gay-related music notably "rock" itself: "Number 47 said to would be complete without a mention of Number 3/ 'You're the cutest jailbird I the phenomenon of "conscription," ever did see./ I sure would be delighted whereby a song without ostensible gay with your company/ come on and do the reference would become adopted by gay jailhouse rock with me!"' With the com- people as special to them and be widely mercial breakthrough of rock and roll, playedin gay bars as wellas at home. Often such uncensored references quickly disap- such songs would deal with furtive love, peared and were not to reappear until such as The Lettermen's "Secretly," but broadcast censorship standards had been the most famous one of the sixties was seriously weakened in the upheavals of interpreted by homosexuals to deal with the late sixties and early seventies. cruising and eye-contact: Frank Sinatra's In the 1960s, rock and roll broad- "Strangers in the Night" (1966). ened out into "rock," incorporating such Rock and Roll. A new, youth- diverse elements as electrified quasi-folk oriented popular music, rock and roll, music (among whose stars were the pub- developed in the United States in the mid- licly bisexual or lesbianlgay singers Janis 1950s out of a fusion of black rhythm and Joplin, Donovan, and Joan Baez), political blues, gospel, doowop harmonic singing, protest songs, and complex "psychedelic" white rockabilly, and other elements. constructions. The decade was dominated One of the black pioneers of rock by theBritish, who invaded Americanrock and roll was the singer Richard Penniman starting in 1964, led by theBeatles and the ("Little Richard"), who appeared onstage Rolling Stones. The Beatles released the wearing mascara eyelashes and a high, sexually ambiguous "Obladie Oblada" on effeminate pompadour, having been kicked the "White Album" in 1968, while the out of his home at age 13 for homosexual- Stones included some esoteric but clear ity. His cleaned-up 1956recordingof "Tutti self-ascribed references to homosexual Frutti" sold over three million copies, prostitution in "When the Whip Comes leaving an indelible mark on the new genre. Down" and some references (slightly dis- A year later, however, Little Richard left guised through the use of British slang)to rock and roll to become a Seventh Day oral sex by transvestites in "Honky Tonk Adventist and later denounced his own Women" (1969).The very popular Doors homosexuality, claiming to have "re- opened up the previously taboo subject of formed" to heterosexuality. anal intercourse in 1968 when Jim Morri- When white singers such as Elvis son lyrically proclaimed "I'm a Backdoor Presley started recording black rock and Man." roll tunes, radio took up the new music The Explicit Seventies. In 1970 and it quickly came to dominate the the Rolling Stones, trying to get out of a .D. MUSIC, POPULAR contract with their record company, Decca, with a 1972 homoerotic love song, recorded "Cocksucker Blues"; Decca did "Daniel." In France Charles Aznavour's refuse to release it, but the song became "Ce qu'ils disent" (1972)was a somewhat well known to the legions of Stones fans mournful ballad about a transvestite en- through bootlegrecordings and discussions tertainer who lives with his mother. And in the music press. Lyrics asked "Oh, where at the end of the decade Peter Townshend, can I get my cock sucked?Where can I get lead singer for the supergroup The Who, my ass fucked?" was ready to release a solo album with a Following in the wake of "Cock- song called "Rough Boys" describing his sucker Blues', came a wave of explicit erotic attraction to young toughs. songs in the rock genre, some of which A footnote to the seventies was managed to get mass airplay and thus the 1978 "coming out" of Mitch Ryder, becomemajorhits. Therelaxation of broad- who had become a Top Ten singer in 1966 cast censorship standards was no doubt and 1967, and now discussed his experi- related to the explosion of homosexual ences with anal intercourse in his album visibility which beganwith the 1969 Stone- "How I Spent My Vacation." wall Rebellion and which brought discus- Disco, Punk, and New Wave. sion of homosexuality into all the mass Even as rock music was turning its atten- media. tion to homosexuality, however, the gay Among the first of these was audience was turning away from rock. As "Lola" from the very popular British group early as 1972, disc jockeys in gay bars and TheKinks(1971).In this hit, whichreached clubs were putting bits and pieces of black the number nine position on the best- dance music together into a new genre, seller charts, Ray Davies sang of a virgin disco, which at first had little appeal to boy who takes a fancy to Lola, only to heterosexual whites. Disco music featured discover that "I know I'm a man/ and so is mechanical studio productions using Lola"; the discovery doesn't seem to lessen canned rhythm tracks overlaid with a live the boy's ardor at all. This eye-opener was singer, and thus did away with the neces- followed by the American Lou Reed's 1972 sity of hiring bands either for clubs or for Top Ten hit, "[Take a] Walk on the Wild recording purposes. Even as disco swept Side," which recommended not only male rock off the airwaves in 1977, it retained prostitution but also transvestism. The many of its previous associations with the campy Reed (who was presumed homo- gay subculture. sexual but who got married in 1980) and Most notable of the gay-associ- his producer on this record, the androgy- ated disco performers was a group (initself nous, married, and (according to a 1972 rare for the genre) of New Yorkers called statement he later qualified) homosexual The Village People, which dressed like a David Bowie, were major figures in a rock collection of gay stereotypes. With songs movement of the early seventies called like 1978's "Macho Man," "YMCA" (a "glitter rock," which was frequently asso- number two hit in 1979), and "In the ciated with homosexuality in the music Navy," The Village People appealed with press. Another notable feature of the glit- little indirection to thegay disco audience, ter movement was the New York Dolls, but found themselves becoming a mass who appeared in drag and female makeup. commercial success as well. The United More in the mainstream of com- States Navy at one point agreed to use "In mercial rock was Rod Stewart's popular the Navy" as part of arecruiting campaign, 1976 song, "The Killing of Georgie," an but quickly dropped the idea when it was outright attack on "queerbashing." Elton pointed out to them that the song was full John, who "came out" as bisexual in 1976, of only thinly disguised homoeroticism. achieved considerable commercial success 'The openly gay black disco singer Sy lvester, MUSIC, POPULAR 4 based in San Francisco, managed a fairly "underground," music through the eight- successful career for some years (he suc- ies, and it is still notable for producing cumbed to AIDS in 1988). Generally, explicitly homoerotic songs and singers. however, the mass commercial success of The trend towards musical diver- disco, which lasted into the early eighties, sification led to women's music sung by discouraged producers from including lesbians. As early as 1969MaxineFeldman frankly homosexual themes in their was proudly singing "Angry Atthis," which lyrics. became the first example to be issued as a In reaction to the dominant posi- 45 rpm single. Later, Holly Near, Meg tion of disco in the mid-seventies, there Christian, and Cris Williamson were to arose in 1975 a new underground move- become long-term favorites, frequently ment with inspirations going back to the performing in cabarets and women's festi- rockand roll of thefifties: punk rock. As an vals. The firm of Olivia Records was cre- underground, with little hope for substan- ated to record and market this music. No tial airplay, the punks were able and en- one of comparable stature appeared from a couraged to break all the taboos they could purely gay-male context, but in the 1970s find, protesting against the "safe" homo- gay (and lesbian) choruses sprang up in geneity of disco lyrics. major cities of North America, spreading Both founders of punk, singer Patti to Europe as well. Smith (a bisexual) and the group The Early in the 1980s, radio program- Ramones, sang about homosexuality in mers and mass audiences began to tire of their debut albums. When the movement disco, opening the way for the popular reached Britain in 1976, it sparked a simi- acceptance of the once-underground "New lar reaction with groups like the Sex Pis- Wave," which evolved into "electropop" tols and the Buzzcocks singing about by incorporating synthesizers and other explicitly homosexual themes; punk electronic music. In Britain a number of ideology opposed homophobia. Rather new wave figures such as the androgynous than frequent the disco-oriented gay bars, Boy George and the Culture Club and the homosexual rockers went to punk clubs outright gay groupsBronskiBeat, Soft Cell, and made their presence notable in an and Frankie Goes to Hollywood achieved atmosphere of general acceptance. widespread commercial success; Bronski Punk began to make an impres- Beat in particular produced a string of sion on the wider gay audience when gay popular gay-oriented songs. Towards the punk singers began to move out of the end of the decade this tradition was carried genre and into the wider "new wave" on by singers in the bands Erasure and the musical movement; in this fashion Lon- Pet ShopBoys. TheBroadway version of La don gay activist Tom Robinson and ex- Cage aux Folles showed that even a musi- Buzzcock Pete Shelley became widely cal about transvestites could be success- known. Robinson's 1978 "Glad to Be Gay" ful, but it did not start a trend. By and large, drew wide attention even as a punk song, explicit gay music retreated from the perhaps the only widely successful song to Americanmainstream in the 1980sas AlDS treat homosexuality as a political issue; put a damper on gay romanticism. the telephone numbers of the New York Conclusion. As we have seen, the and Los Angeles gay switchboards were forces of censorship often operated to keep listed on the inner sleeve of his "Power in gay elements in mainstream popular songs theDarknessUalbum. Shelley's "Homosa- on the level of ambiguity and innuendo. pien" love song became a commercially Yet this need for covertness bonded with successful (especially in England) dance the homosexual talent for camp humor to song in 198 1 despite explicit lyrics. Mean- produce examples that are not only crea- while, punk has continued as a thriving, if tive but throw light on the consciousness 9 MUSIC, POPULAR of gay men and lesbians in earlier as well as Skillfully adapting the conventions of Ital- recent times. For a brief time in the 1970s ian grand opera to French taste, he set the it looked as if explicitly gay-related music pattern for French opera down to the late was successfully breaking into the com- eighteenth century, His homosexual con- mercially successful mainstream of popu- duct generated endless gossip, which he lar music. Nevertheless, for examples of forestalled temporarily by marrying in explicit treatment of gayllesbian themes 1661.In the end he owed his survival to the the contemporary listener must often turn support of the king, who could not do to relatively uncommercial sources such without the sumptuous entertainments as the feminist groups or the punks. Lully provided. Stephen Donaldson Pietro Metastasio (1698-1 782) was by far the most important librettist of baroque opera. The son of a Roman grocer, MUSICIANS Pietro was adopted at the age of eleven by The mythical archetype of the a noble who was undoubtedly in love with homosexual musician is the figure of the him and who provided the classical educa- Greek Or~heus,noted for his magical art tion needed for his career. His tempestu- in music and Poetry. After the loss of his ous later career was marked by dramatic wife Eurydice~Or~heus gathered together involvements with women as well as with an entourage of Young whom he men, including the famous castrato Carlo wooed with song. In some inventor leg- Broschi (better known as Farinelli; ends he is regarded as the discoverer of 1705-1782). pederasty itself. A more humble ancestor George Frederick Handel (1685- is Co~donithe love-sick shepherd of 1759))born in Germany, but active mainly Vergil's Second Ecloguet who poured out in Italy and in England, wrote many operas his unrequited affection for the youth and oratorios. In striking contrast to his Alexis in song, accompanying himself on great contemporary JohannSebastianBach, the pipes. Handel never married or had children. His B4r0queMusic- Opera, arising at associations point to homosexual inclina- the start of the seventeenth century in tions, but if he exercised this taste, he southem where the Counter-Ref- covered his tracks so successfully that ormation had its baleful sway, nonethe- modem research has not been able to find less provided an umbrella for a certain the evidence. amount of nonconformity. For musical Romanticism anddfter. The key reasons1 many of the most important roles figure for musical romanticism was the were sung by eunuch males1 the castrati1 great Viennese composer Franz Schubert whosometimesbecametheobiectsofma~~ (1797-1828], whose unique melodic gift devotion among the rich and cultivated enabled him to the heart of every devotees of the art. musical task he attempted. In Vienna For Jean-Ba~tisteLull~ (1632- Schubert moved in bohemian circles, 16871, a native of Florence who dominated which teemed with homosexua~and bi- music-making at theFrench court of Louis sexual lovers of the arts. schubert never m1 scholars have been able to piece to- married, rejecting suggestions that he do gether a complex picture of the trials and so with outbursts of temper. His romantic triumphs of a major gay musician. After attachments to men appear in veiled form composingnumerous ballets, in 1672Lully in a short story he wrote in 1822, u~~ obtained a patent for the production of ~~~~~.u~h~ composer died of syphilis opera and established the Academie Roy- just after reaching the age of thirty. ale de Musique, which he used to ensure a The sexual tastes of Schubert's virtual monopoly of the operatic stage. lesser French counterpart, Camille Saint-