bop after bop

A shocking superstar smooch, the ultimate lipsync moment & more: Your weekly bop rewind

Happy Queer History Month, and happy weekend!

Things got pretty wild this week. A pro athlete came out (and immediately said “jk”), Ed Sheeran gave Sam Smith that super horny gift, and a killer doll named “M3gan” came out of nowhere and slayed the gays.

This week in queer music history was somehow even wilder; so wild, in fact, that we can’t even show half of the “age-inappropriate” music videos.

From nude biking poses to iconic roses, here’s your weekly bop rewind:

“Bicycle Race” by Queen (October 13, 1978)

With the world’s most thinly veiled metaphor, Queen decided to drop the biconic track the world didn’t know it was waiting for. This song was not only a moment for bisexuality, but sexuality in general; the music video was skin-bearing enough to get edited or banned in a number of countries. The band even brought topless women onstage for this number in concert (bicycles in tow, of course). #FreetheNipple lives on.

“So Emotional” by Whitney Houston (October 12, 1987)

Unlike Whitney, we know exactly why we like it. “So Emotional” gives the more mature, more complex older sister to “How Will I Know?”: still head-over-heels, still conflicted, but now with stakes. Whitney somehow manages to make cheating sound like the most heinous offense in “It’s Not Right, But It’s Okay” and the most romantic scenario in songs like this and “Saving All My Love For You.” And, like any great historical event, many queers still remember exactly where they were when they saw Sasha Velour turn this song into a lip-syncing masterclass and instantly win her season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“Show Me Love” by Robin S. (October 13, 1990)

In one fell chart-topping swoop, Robin S. earned her name as “Maven of House Music.” “Show Me Love” is a dance-sampler’s best friend, being tapped by everyone from Disclosure to Charli XCX to Kiesza. This enduring club banger has recently seen yet another renaissance with its interpolation in Beyonce‘s summer hit “Break My Soul” (Get it? Renaissance? Come on!). Robin thanked Bey, saying “thank you so much for giving me my flowers while I’m still alive.” In reality, a house generation of dance music has Robin to thank.

“Me Against The Music” by Britney Spears & Madonna (October 14, 2003)

Even with Madonna feigning ambiguous queerness for decades, this one has to go down in the queerbaiting hall of fame. Not only did the two get closer than close at the end of the video, but the duet was preceded by one of the biggest gay moments in VMAs history. We’re of course referring to Madonna famously making out with Britney (and slightly less famously, Christina) at the award show just over a month before this song dropped. There’s no way to know how many young sapphics this moment spawned, nor how many more were made by the Heather Morris/Naya Rivera recreation of it all on Glee.

“Vagina” by CupcakKe (October 13, 2015)

This bolder-than-bold voice in the Chicago rap scene made waves in 2015 with back-to-back viral hits “Vagina” and “Deepthroat”. The songs (and their equally explicit music videos) were widely regarded as novelties, but CupcakKe’s talent for evocative writing was evident to anyone who’d listen objectively. Even in a cultural moment where sexually-charged female rap like “Anaconda” was getting pretty universally panned, CupcakKe fearlessly entered the scene vulgarity-first.

She’s now better understood by the more “WAP”-friendly audience that she helped flourish, and the irony-pilled teens of TikTok have embraced the irreverence of songs like “Vagina” as top-tier meme fodder. The bisexual rap starlet has gone on to pen tracks about everything from CSA to queer rights to autism advocacy, but her sexually explicit verses will always live as standouts.

Join us here next week for another bop rewind!

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