Skylarker
People come second, or possibly third.
It's funny.... I understood a lot of things today after talking about a silly subject with a friend: the song "Getting away with it" by Electronic....
And I understood that Morrissey (even with The Smiths) and the Pet Shop Boys somehow had a similar project, which was defining how gay music was going to sound in the 80's and early 90's; but gay music not restricted for a gay audience at all.
Such thing was not a novelty, it had already happened with two genres: Disco and Glam Rock.
Of course the Pet Shop boys picked most of their influences from Disco, which Morrissey was all about quoting Glam bands (The Dolls) and "burn down the disco".
One project involved a celebratory style, danceable, cheerful... whilst the other one involved melancholia and a dramatic tone.
(It is even funny that BOTH bands at some given point got videos made by Derek Jarman, which was almost like a certificate of authenticity in that sense).
But probably BOTH the Pet Shop Boys and Morrissey wanted to deliver the message of "This is gay music not restricted to a gay audience".
So probably Morrissey in his early years was quite interested in delivering the "I am gay" message, specially in the interviews... Or the incredibly weird duet of Morrissey and Pete Burns.
... And, probably, as time passed, Morrissey abandoned that project and mostly gave up playing the game of hide and seek with his sexual orientation and later he simply said "Humasexual" without playing games of hide and seek.
"And I understood that Morrissey (even with The Smiths) and the Pet Shop Boys somehow had a similar project, which was defining how gay music was going to sound in the 80's and early 90's; but gay music not restricted for a gay audience at all."
Gay music? What the hell is "gay" music? Show me one Smiths song that is "gay." Even if you can find one that is lyrically directed at a male, its sentiments can most certainly also be sung from a straight girl's point of view or, alternately, the "male" target could easily be changed out for a girl and sung from the viewpoint of a straight male. Therefore, sorry, no dice. Not "gay" music.
In fact, if memory serves, a lot of gay people didn't even like Morrissey/The Smiths in the 80s and 90s because he wasn't so obvious and one dimensional about his interest in men. And sure, a lot DID like him, but my point is that the music he made could hardly be pigeonholed into such an absurd category as "gay music."
"Such thing was not a novelty, it had already happened with two genres: Disco and Glam Rock.
Of course the Pet Shop boys picked most of their influences from Disco, which Morrissey was all about quoting Glam bands (The Dolls) and 'burn down the disco'. "
"Burn down the disco" was a reference to the vapid crap, mostly made by black people, that Morrissey despised in the 80s. The full context of that line is to burn down the disco (i.e. "club") bevause the music said nothing and meant nothing. The sexual connotation, gay or otherwise, had NOTHING to do with that song.
"probably Morrissey in his early years was quite interested in delivering the "I am gay" message, specially in the interviews... Or the incredibly weird duet of Morrissey and Pete Burns."
Literally based on WHAT? Where is his "I am gay" message? Where is it in the music and where is it in ANY interview? In fact there is a specific interview from Australian radio in 1985 where he specifically says that while the "gay" tag doesn't bother him or embarrass him, it's an untrue assumption by the press and that he is beyond such simplistic categorization...which is pretty much EXACTLY the same thing in a different package years later when he described himself as "humasexual."
I never understood why this was such a dilemma for people...he obviously likes both sexes, has had experiences with both sexes, and writes about both sexes. This is SO simple. What has made it convoluted is that people who are straight want him to be straight and people who are gay want him to be gay. But that's on them, not on him.
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