Hope you’re ready for the weekend, besties!
This week had some landmark moments: Britain lost yet another leader named Liz, Byron Perkins became the first out footballer player at an HBCU, and Markiplier became the first Let’s Play-er to trend online for something good.
This week in queer music history had a good number of landmarks too. It’s really just gay anthem after gay anthem for this stretch of Queer History Month!
From a fun place to stay to a vocoder slay, here’s your weekly bop rewind:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Jolene” by Dolly Parton (1973)
This “back off, b*tch” hall-of-famer topped the US Country charts and hopefully scared Ms. Jolene off for good. Somehow, this ever-covered track was penned immediately back-to-back with “I Will Always Love You” on what Parton simply calls “a good writing day”. With a pleading refrain and a guitar line that sounds the way a wood-burning fire smells, “Jolene” was an instant country classic. The song’s premise does boggle the mind a bit, though — who in the world is bad enough to steal Dolly Parton‘s man?
“Y.M.C.A.” by The Village People (1978)
Realizing that this ’70s disco banger is not, in fact, just about hanging out at your local rec center has become something of a young gay rite of passage. At least we learn, though; do the straight folks spelling this song out with their arms at sporting events know what kind of fun it is to stay at the YMCA? If staying ignorant to the meaning keeps this gay track alive in popular culture — and disco with it — then so be it.
“Believe” by Cher (1998)
Cher‘s abrupt pivot to dance-pop and the iconic vocoder that came with it ended up shifting the pop landscape in a very real way. Though it came over 20 albums into her career, this single proved that the star had what it took to remain relevant and contemporary no matter the time period. “Believe” came to stand among the 25 highest-selling singles in history (coincidentally, just two spots lower than “Y.M.C.A”) and lives as one of the defining tracks of the “happy song/sad lyrics” genre.
“Hung Up” by Madonna (2005)
The ticking clock. The grooving “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” trill. A beat that refuses to loosen its grip for a second. “Hung Up” was a true success for the dance-pop era she was reentering after her previous, more serious American Life album. ABBA is seemingly not one to just hand out samples or interpolations, but they must have known an absolute bop when they heard it.
“Welcome To New York” by Taylor Swift (2014)
The track was an absolute game-changer for high school kids going on their senior class trips to New York. Taylor Swift‘s first public foray into allyship with her “Boys and boys and girls and girls” line was generally well-received, and though it eventually led to the divisive “You Need To Calm Down”, it overall set her down a good path.
Join us back here next week for another bop rewind!
Rugby8
CRUISING ANTHEM??????
Excuse Me?
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU????
WERE you even BORN when these songs came out???
Do Not minimize my life , or the lives of GENERATIONS of men who made sure you a world in which to be born!!!!!
Did we cruise? Yes
Did we love it? Yes
Did it DEFINE US???????
F*CK YOU!!!!!
…..without what we did…..this little *fun* , Page Six, National Enquirer, crap column …..would NOT EXIST
You are Rude and Horrible and Unfeeling beyond belief
Gene
Philadelphia PA
Ronbo
Be kind to Charlie Grey, Gene. He is trying to break his habit of converting oddball twit tweets into something that looks original.