Magazines love to publish lists because people are utter suckers for them. Count me in—-I love a good list. But Out’s 100 Greatest, Gayest Records list was just especially fun to read. (Hat tip) I just wish they’d blurbed every choice, because then I could dork out on this for that much longer. If this is the list of the gayest albums of all time, I guess I have pretty gay taste because I’m a ginormous fan of huge chunks of this list.
Actually, what I think made this list for me is that the theme means that it’s eclectic and personal, which to me is more interesting than trying to categorize albums by “greatest rock albums” or anything like that. There’s also a tendency of a lot of rock magazines and fans who are homophobic to paper over the importance of both gay people and gay themes in rock history, and this is a good corrective. I think, for instance, that some of the queerness I perceive in bands like the Velvet Underground might get lost out there, because the stereotype of the music snob champion of a band like this is a straight guy who might blanch to think of it that way. I’m a big fan of breaking down the stereotype of who can or can’t be a music snob.
Plus, they revive a couple of bands that are pretty good that might be generally forgotten, like Deee-Lite or Soft Cell.
Unsurprisingly, kd lang is on the list. She’s always been one of those artists I can’t reconcile, because while I love her voice, I tend to think most of her songs aren’t that compelling. There’s one exception to this rule, one song of kd lang’s that has always gotten to me. I like the melody and the imagery in the song.
Check out the list and share some of your favorites in comments.
------
Registration is now required! We're still in the process of getting it all squared away, so for the moment don't forget to Login or Register using the links in the upper left menu before starting to write your comment.
Wait, sorry, I think there is a typo in the title of this list. It should read “The 100 Greatest Records”.
Because seriously, it needs no qualifiers.
I read down the list and thought, “OMG, I LOVE THAT ALBUM!” or some variation (“OOH, I need to download that…”, “Oh, man, I love k.d. lang, why don’t I have any of her records?”) for Every Single entry.
That said, I am a homo of sorts. So maybe they just have me pegged.