From the 1940s on, what songs/artists are key to trans* issues in rock?
July 20, 2015 9:07 AM Subscribe
This coming week begins the revisiting of my intro to rock music course syllabus. I will need your help. One key topic is considering transgender issues in rock music, from~1940s to present. What songs and artists are essential to discuss here? [I'm] not quite asking for a list of trans artists, but for songs, themes, and personas that open up to questions of queerness.
I've stolen this question wholesale from @datageneral on Twitter. I'm not a college professor, just an avid consumer of music who's also interested in gender. If you can recommend some books I should look at as well, I'd appreciate it.
I've stolen this question wholesale from @datageneral on Twitter. I'm not a college professor, just an avid consumer of music who's also interested in gender. If you can recommend some books I should look at as well, I'd appreciate it.
well, walk on the wild side is trans-positive.
posted by andrewcooke at 9:16 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by andrewcooke at 9:16 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
It was the associated movie that really got people talking, but Boy George's performance of the title song in "The Crying Game" would have to be on any such list, I'd think.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:17 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:17 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Androgynous - The Replacements.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:18 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 9:18 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
In the same vein as "Wall On The Wild Side", Lou Reed also wrote "Candy Says" about Warhol superstar Candy Darling. "I've come to hate my body and all that it requires in this world." Candy Darling also appears in "Walk On The Wild Side", which begins "Candy came from out on the Island".
posted by chrchr at 9:20 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by chrchr at 9:20 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Bessie Jackson 1935 song BD Woman described "bull dagger" masculine lesbian women. "They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural man....They can lay their jive just like a natural man."
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:28 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:28 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
Jayne County's Are You Man Enough to Be a Woman.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:29 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:29 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Have you seen the Pitchfork series Queering the Pitch?
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:49 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:49 AM on July 20, 2015
If gender-non-conformity is enough, early rock-n-roll pioneer Esquerita definitely earns a nod.
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:56 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Juliet Banana at 9:56 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
There's a gender-role/pronoun switch in "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da" by the Beatles that might be worth mentioning.
posted by saladin at 9:58 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by saladin at 9:58 AM on July 20, 2015
Androgyny by Garbage (the music video is also impressive visually.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:09 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:09 AM on July 20, 2015
This list of "alternative trans anthems," written after some misguided cis musician put out a self-declared "trans anthem" of her own, might be worth a read.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:14 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:14 AM on July 20, 2015
For better or worse, Rocky Horror and Hedwig & The Angry Inch were both really crucial to my understanding of transness as a closeted kid in the 90s. Honestly both shows are really terrible as representations of what transness or genderqueerness is about, but there were so few other visible representations of that sort of thing that I gravitated towards them basically by default — and so did a lot of other trans women my age, I think.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:15 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:15 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Punk and industrial have always had a certain amount of genderfuck that was sometimes played off as transgression-for-its-own-sake but was sometimes clearly sincere.
For instance Genesis P-Orridge and h/er late partner both eventually underwent what was essentially medical transition (including hormone treatment), but framed it at the time as a large-scale performance art project. P-Orridge h/erself probably doesn't count as "rock," but s/he was a huge influence in terms of themes and presentation on later and more rock-oriented industrial performers — including, I'd argue, Marilyn Manson.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:28 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
For instance Genesis P-Orridge and h/er late partner both eventually underwent what was essentially medical transition (including hormone treatment), but framed it at the time as a large-scale performance art project. P-Orridge h/erself probably doesn't count as "rock," but s/he was a huge influence in terms of themes and presentation on later and more rock-oriented industrial performers — including, I'd argue, Marilyn Manson.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:28 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
A place to dig in is Queer Music Heritage's Drag Artists & Female Impersonators and Transgender Music Special pages. There are links at the bottom of the second link to more than a dozen more shows. There's a lot of interesting stuff there, though much of it couldn't be described as rock music (though it doesn't make sense to think of rock music, particularly in its early days, as a category that can be segregated from other types of music without ending up with a completely distorted view of music history). QMH is an amazing website generally and worth browsing through.
posted by vathek at 10:30 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by vathek at 10:30 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, this is sort of a stretch if you're specifically interested in trans stuff, but as part of the larger conversation about gender transgression in rock it's worth talking about male-fronted bands like the Velvet Underground, the Ramones and the Jesus and Mary Chain that borrowed really heavily from 60s girl-group music.
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:35 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 10:35 AM on July 20, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: These are all gold! Thanks, & if you have more thoughts please keep 'em coming.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:38 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by Going To Maine at 10:38 AM on July 20, 2015
For the present day, I don't think you can really talk about trans punk without talking about HIRS and G.L.O.S.S..
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:51 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:51 AM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think it might be worth adding "A Boy Named Sue" - which is not about trans issues, but is pretty steeped in transphobia (the song also has a sequel, which I think was meant to be funny but is actually really horrific).
posted by Mchelly at 10:54 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by Mchelly at 10:54 AM on July 20, 2015
Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman
But she was another man
All the girls around her say she's got it coming
But she gets it while she can
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:59 AM on July 20, 2015
But she was another man
All the girls around her say she's got it coming
But she gets it while she can
posted by Too-Ticky at 10:59 AM on July 20, 2015
Pete Townshend gave this song some goofy background about it being set in a future society where you choose your child's gender, but based on lyrics alone, the Who's "I'm a Boy" has always sounded to me like the speaker is trans.
posted by thetortoise at 11:25 AM on July 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by thetortoise at 11:25 AM on July 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
HELLO THANK YOU for this thread -- your responses are very smart and helpful. There will be a lot more of this kind of stuff in the coming weeks and months, incl. trans issues, queer issues, and gender issues, as well as significant sections on race and politics vis-a-vis rock. And mixed in, plenty of discussion of familiar topics like genre, money, power, eras, drugs, musical form, legal and cultural rights, and all the rest. And requests for song recs and playlists.
I invite you to come hang out on Twitters - @datageneral -- as this and other discussions about rock music continue.
posted by datageneral at 11:57 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
I invite you to come hang out on Twitters - @datageneral -- as this and other discussions about rock music continue.
posted by datageneral at 11:57 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]
If you'd like to discuss transphobia in music culture over time, you'll probably want to address popular songs like "Dude Looks Like a Lady" by Aerosmith and "Funky Cold Medina" by Tone-Loc (my GOD that song is gross).
posted by nicebookrack at 2:34 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by nicebookrack at 2:34 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Lessee ... wasn't Freddy Mercury gay? (and not afraid of androgyny?)
Wendy Carlos doesn't really qualify as a "rock" musician, but I don't think it is possible to understate how influential she has been to rock or virtually any style of music you could name. Check me on the facts, but I believe she underwent gender reassignment surgery circa 1972, and 'came out' in an interview in Playboy magazine in 1979.
posted by doctor tough love at 3:09 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Wendy Carlos doesn't really qualify as a "rock" musician, but I don't think it is possible to understate how influential she has been to rock or virtually any style of music you could name. Check me on the facts, but I believe she underwent gender reassignment surgery circa 1972, and 'came out' in an interview in Playboy magazine in 1979.
posted by doctor tough love at 3:09 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Annie Lennox wasn't transgender, but her androgynous appearance and her cross dressing put her well into the gender-bending dialogue that I remember from the mid 1980s through the early 1990s. (I love Annie Lennox.)
Around the same time, the films Victor/Victoria and La Cage aux Folles, remade in the US as The Birdcage, had a huge impact.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 4:27 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Around the same time, the films Victor/Victoria and La Cage aux Folles, remade in the US as The Birdcage, had a huge impact.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 4:27 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
They don't easily fit the rock idiom, but the songs from Victor/Victoria are smashing.
Also, while they weren't exactly radio acts, the bands formed for the recording of the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack had an immense impact on me back when I was still a teen and singing songs in punk/lo-fi bands at Vino's and other places that allowed that sort of thing.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 5:05 PM on July 20, 2015
Also, while they weren't exactly radio acts, the bands formed for the recording of the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack had an immense impact on me back when I was still a teen and singing songs in punk/lo-fi bands at Vino's and other places that allowed that sort of thing.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 5:05 PM on July 20, 2015
I've always seen Eurythmics' "I Need a Man" as a flip of Bowie's "Suffragette City".
posted by brujita at 7:05 PM on July 20, 2015
posted by brujita at 7:05 PM on July 20, 2015
Jackie Shane (previously). Here's a fantastic CBC story on Jackie.
posted by kimdog at 7:23 PM on July 20, 2015
posted by kimdog at 7:23 PM on July 20, 2015
One that just occurred to me is The Miracles' "Ain't Nobody Straight In L.A." It's from the same album as "Love Machine" and features a group of (presumably) straight guys discussing what to do for the evening. It's a very funny, campy song, and not in any way nasty. At one point, one of the guys says, "Some of the finest women are in the gay bars," to which another replies, "Yeah, but how do you know they're women?" The sheer casualness of the song makes it stand out.
posted by vathek at 10:11 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by vathek at 10:11 PM on July 20, 2015 [1 favorite]
Well, obviously Bradford Cox of Deerhunter has to be a key figure in recent attempts to inject queer/trans* issues into the performance of contemporary guitar music.
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:17 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:17 AM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh,and there are tons of young GLBTQ bands in the North East right now. Martha, ONSIND and No Ditching, plus The SPook School from Edinburgh, who have a lot of songs about gender binary and 'passing'. Going back further, there's Sexual Deviant by Avocado Baby.
posted by mippy at 5:48 AM on July 21, 2015
posted by mippy at 5:48 AM on July 21, 2015
The video for Cursed Female by Porno For Pyros (featuring a young Buck Angel).
posted by ostranenie at 7:37 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ostranenie at 7:37 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Kitteh at 9:13 AM on July 20, 2015 [3 favorites]