Gay Country (Was: Re: K.D. Lang)
Howdy, Here's an interesting exercise... input the words "Gay" and "country music" in a web search engine. The results will take you on a fairly diverse trip. Almost none of it useful, but here's some stuff worth at least a reasonable P2 mention: Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards (GLAMA) www.glama.com Nominations are being accepted for the third annual awards show to be held in 1999. Past winners have included (listing the country/folk-associated artists): k.d. lang-- Medal of Achievement-- 1997 Ferron -- Out Music Award -- 1996 Indigo Girls -- Duo/Group of the Year -- 1998 Artists Doug Williams and the Outband -- http://www.escape.com/~bpsl/ Ferron -- http://ferronweb.com/ Well Oiled Sisters -- http://drum.gduncan.com/wos/hello.htm Other Sites Gay Lesbian Themes in Popular Music -- http://www2.kenyon.edu/people/scotts/projects/wmns21/country.htm Gay-MART (an online shopping site aimed at the homosexual market) offers a limited selection of gay-oriented country music at http://www.gaymart.com/shopmusc/1catgory/c0510109.html I filtered out most references to Garth Brooks (usually referring to "We Shall Be Free") and k.d. lang (for obvious reasons), as well as references to former CMA President Connie Gay. Also, I chose not to include references to Dolly Parton and Reba McIntyre impersonators. So there you go. Take care, Shane Rhyne Knoxville, TN [EMAIL PROTECTED] NP: Hogwaller Ramblers
RE: Gay Country (Was: Re: K.D. Lang)
This reminds me that I wanted to offer a brief observation concerning Carl Wilson's post on the subject from last week, in which he referred to a survey of attitudes toward homosexuality. I don't doubt that the respondents he described as suburban/female (I don't, alas, have the original post anymore) and hence part of the presumptive New Country target audience, exhibited less than, er, affirmative respect for gays and lesbians, but it ought to go without saying that their views aren't exactly a step backwards from the views one would find among members of the country music audience pre-, say, 1980. Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
Re: Gay Country (Was: Re: K.D. Lang)
Just a correction of the record here, Jon. I didn't argue that the views in the survey and intreviews were a step backward from anything. (And I also didn't say suburban/female - I said average middle-class - which was the focus of the survey and the related book (whose title I'll trawl up if anyone's interested)). My point was that on race, religion, culture, gender (i don't recall there was any class oriented content, unsurprisingly) the responses were much more tolerant and unprejudiced than you might expect - while the respondents may not live integrated lives racially, for instance, they recognized and earnestly expressed respect for those categories of difference. But when it came to homosexuality people were much less progressive, much readier to express discomfort, even hatred. The implication was that we haven't come as far in North Am. society on accepting diverse sexualities as we might like to think, compared to some other fronts. That's not nec. to say the survey was accurate, but insofar as it was an indicator, it reinforces the sense that the very idea of homosexuality is still fraught territory and risky for music that pitches itself more toward "average" folks. Thus it's probably a mistake underestimating the career problems it would raise for KD or any other out country musician (or light pop or rock artist, or fill-in-the-mainstream-category here) carl w.
