I have never thought of “Dancing on My Own’” as a gay anthem, but hearing it put that way doesn’t surprise me. Gay culture has always had to embody outsidership. I think we’re all just scared to be lonely. We all want to be loved and we all want to be seen. When you’re different on a very basic level, that feeling is going to be with you more often than someone who doesn’t have to face what being an outsider is really like. I think it’s a song about being on the outside — very physically — and if it feels like a gay anthem then I take that as a super compliment.
— Swedish singer Robyn talks to OUT magazine about the pop industry and why gay anthems don’t have to be shoved down our throats to make it to our hearts.
jjkeyes
Obsessed!
mattsy
Better thab GAGAG!!
Alex
I love the song, but it’s hardly a gay anthem. It’s about someone you’re interested in picking someone else over you … it doesn’t mention or suggest anything other than the default heterosexuality at all. At least Born This Way (an annoying song, imo) mentions queerness, so has a legitimate claim to being a gay anthem.
We *can* appreciate songs without having to first label them as ‘ours’.
QJ201
Body Talk is an amazing album. If you like Dancing on my own, listen to Indestructible!!
Habit Rouge
Great song, amazing song! However, it’s a universal message. Who hasn’t experienced liking someone and the feeling not being returned? *sigh* Agree with Alex
Tim
It may not be a gay anthem, but her last New York show in February was probably 95% gay men.
Red Meat
Robyn is so fake, if you think gaga is fake, you don’t know this whore.
~PR~
Robyn has been around longer than GaGa… and she has reinvented herself several times. She is an entertainer and her music is pure pop heaven. Of her last 3 EP’s, 2 containing 8 songs, the last 5, not one song is a dud. They all have a certain something to them that makes them all the more fun to listen to. I cannot say the same for Lady GaGa, who has showed so much promise but all 4 of the songs she’s released from her new album have left me feeling underwhelmed. GaGa does make me want to dance sometimes, but Robyn… as someone else put it… Robyn makes you want to dance while her lyrics make you cry. Now that is power.
Jeffree
@Red Meat: You’re very convincing in terms of logic & facts. I’m impressed. The use of “whore” was particularly thoughtful, tasteful, and apt.
Surely you have a novel or a scientific treatise in you, just waiting to be written.
— — — /snark/