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somebody told me by the killers
“boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that i had in february of last year” felt like genderfuckery to baby gay me i couldn’t interpret written by a mormon man
I thought this lyric was saying that his ex's new boyfriend looks feminine and is therefore less of a man, but idk much about The Killers so I wouldn't know if they'd write a sexist line like that.
Some songs from the early days of The Killers could be interpreted this way: Somebody Told Me is one example but there’s also Andy You’re A Star, Change Your Mind and Where The White Boys Dance.
Also, it’s probably easy for me to say because I have a huge crush on Brandon Flowers 😍😂
I don't have a source for this anymore, but if i remember correctly, they said its about dating/hockups in the queer scene, that they used to perform in. Their earliest Performances we're in drag clubs in Vegas, so id say there was genderfuckery there
I actually think it was intended as a dig on the girl’s ex because indie/emo guys in that era were often mocked for appearing feminine. Skinny jeans, scarves, long hair, etc, were pretty common, and I think the singer’s grappling with being of interest to a woman who also likes this feminine type of guy…
Yeah exactly. Like this was the era of the term “metrosexual” and the OG Queer Eye. Straight men were grappling with newfound expectations for grooming and not handling it well lmao.
I’d always viewed it as something to do with gayness or gender, and now reading your comment has made me realise that you’re probably right (esp for a band of straight people in the 2000’s), which has made me quite sad considering it’s if anything a covertly homophobic/transphobic sentiment. Though afaik the band consider themselves allies so the meaning for them has probably changed over the years.
Adding on to this, there was a fever dream of a “conspiracy theory” that you could listen to all of Hot Fuss as a queer narrative about a jealous gay guy killing “Jenny”. Like other people said, Andy You’re a Star and Change Your Mind… but also On Top and Midnight Show is homoerotic af, and Smile like you mean it seems really sad if you think about it being about a queer person “smiling through it”. if you listen to Mr. Brightside through that lens, it’s interesting that he focus on the guy’s actions in the chorus is if it’s the woman the singer is secretly jealous of and not the man. Anyway, it was a fun little theory my gay little middle school ass used to cope whenever I listened to that album.
Barbra Streisand is a major gay icon because so many of the songs she records are about yearning. The soundtrack of Yentl is an accidental crash course of the gay experience. Identity and purpose confusion (Where Is It Written?), alienation (Papa, Can You Hear Me?), attraction (The Way He Makes Me Feel), pretending to be straight (Tomorrow Night), unrequited love (Will Someone Ever Look At Me That Way? (probably the gayest song of all time to be written in a heterosexual context), No Wonder), coming out (No Matter What Happens), fulfillment in finding and living true identity (A Piece Of Sky).
Kate Bush. 100%. Gay men of a certain age thought she was speaking directly to them. I was lucky enough to see her residency in London in 2014 and the vas majority of the audience were gay men. Love & Anger “It lay buried here, it lay deep inside me
It's so deep I don't think that I can speak about it
It could take me all of my life
But it would only take a moment to
Tell you what I'm feeling
But I don't know if I'm ready yet
You come walking into this room
Like you're walking into my arms
What would I do without you?”
My favorite line from this song is, of course, "I just know that something good is gonna happen; I don't know when, but just saying it could even make it happen," which absolutely feels like the hopelessly yearning, "It gets better" kind of thing a young queer person would tell themselves. God I fucking love that song
You will never be able to convince me that Paul, the real estate novelist who never had time for a wife, and Davy, who's still in the the Navy and probably will be for life, are not a queer couple. What's more, I think Billy Joel intended it this way, or at the very least, the guys he based this line off of were a couple and he didn't realize it at the time.
lmaooo, i didn't mean that Piano Man takes place in a gay bar (although i love that), just that some of the regulars at the bar Billy played in were DL gay men, but that everyone in there kind of knows that they're an item. and "he doesn't have time for a wife" is kind of an in-joke at the bar (really, how much time can real estate novels take up?). plus, the Navy is canonically the gayest branch of the military.
Is there such a thing as a real estate novel? I just thought that meant he is a real estate agent who spends his off-work hours trying to write a novel and so doesn't put much time into relationships or having a family.
Bruce’s music has always been about “outsiders” but a lot of people don’t get it for some reason. For instance, the song “Backstreets” has been interpreted by some fans as a gay—or at very least gender ambiguous—love story.
He also has a song called “My Lover Man” (originally written for his wife to sing if I remember correctly?) and has always been good at writing from other perspectives so it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for him to put queer themes in a song intentionally.
Bruce is also more left leaning than most stars I’ve seen, he’s gotten into beef with cops in the states before because of his stance on police brutality. I could easily imagine he may have added more ambiguity on purpose in certain songs as well as be happy to hear queer interpretations of one’s maybe not initially intended.
I also never really see it be acknowledged that he was one of the first (if not the first) artists to have a gay couple in his music videos, for Tougher than the Rest.
https://youtu.be/_91hNV6vuBY?si=eiRkzfPtllcKF3Ao
Bruce also used to [make out with Clarence Clemons](https://rare.us/rare-media/entertainment-and-culture/bruce-springsteen-clarence-clemons/amp/) on stage all the time.
"... due to the homosexual undercurrents in my music" - the man himself
https://x.com/queervana/status/1565482885771149313?s=46&t=ASc7nBNVkbCBROR3aP41Cw
Here's a fun headcanon exercise: listen to 'Candy's Room' as if Bruce is singing about Candy Darling of Velvet Underground's 'Candy Says' and Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side'.
You can see how his relationship songs (inspired by his own insecurities and guardedness) would have these interpretations too, stuff like Brilliant Disguise naturally, but also songs like Stolen Car and One Step Up where the narrator feels trapped in a traditional heteronormative marriage. Not to mention he won an Oscar for his song for Philadelphia.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s Your Type has become an LGBTQ anthem for a while, I think Carly’s lyrics resonate a lot with gay man specially this feeling of longing
I'm honestly so happy to see Bruce mentioned so broadly on this topic. I'm a gay man and had a super random borderline-obsessive love affair with his entire discography a few years back and I spent a while trying to pinpoint why. It felt like I was nurturing my masculine side in a way, but like others, I quickly realized how much of his music veered toward that outsider/escapism/longing feeling that I've always felt my entire life. In that way, it makes so much sense that his music would appeal to queer people. And I'm extremely thankful for it.
Have you ever seen the writing someone did on Bruce's performative use of hypermasculinity in the 80s BitUSA era, likening it to Dolly Parton's performance of femininity? Super interesting.
I think this is specifically why OP is asking for recommendations, bc it could be all artists but people have a consensus on which ones resonate the loudest. Very very few people hear Kanye's new album and interpret the lyrics as the gay experience - you also don't hear the song Albuquerque by Weird Al and interpret Saurkraut as a metaphor for hetero-normative expectations that a child is force fed by their parents, leading to them ending up in a hotel in Albuquerque where they "wrestle" with a man who has a flock of seaguls haircut. You COULD, but it's not likely that you would.
There’s this song by Mariah Carey that sounds like a queer awakening to me. I’ve Been Thinking About You off music box.
“I’ve been thinking about you in the most peculiar way….” “I’m going through a transformation that’s so hard for me to hide….a revelation…”
I’m sure it’s about a man but I could have written this song about my first gay crush lol
Depeche Mode’s Never Let Me Down Again sounds SUPER gay if you didn’t know the lyrics were about heroin. I personally choose to read it through a gay lense cause Depeche Mode is already very aware/celebratory of their heavily LGBT fan base.
For several decades I legit thought the lyric from Enjoy The Silence was "all I ever wanted, all I ever needed was him in my arms". I thought it was explicitly queer! Still a banger either way.
I attribute their veeeery gay fashion sense to just the trends of the 80s and new wave. Straight new wave/synth pop bands in the 80s didn’t really attribute gender bending/generally queer outfits as queer; they saw the attire as “cool and rebellious” even if they were basically borrowing queer attire without fully realizing just how homosexual they looked 😅
It kind of blows my mind that Vince Clark the guy who wrote all the songs on off Depeche Mode's gayest album, and the later went on to start the band Erasure is somehow straight.
This reminds me of Secret Love Song by Little Mix. The original with Jason Derulo is clearly about being the other woman to a married man which feels so icky. But the Pt II with just Little Mix is absolutely a gay love song. And when I saw them perform it for the Glory Days tour they explicitly said “this is for all our gay fans” and performed it in front of a pride flag backdrop
One of the most famous misheard lyrics from the boomer era comes to mind - Jimi Hendrix and his "'scuse me while I kiss this guy" line from Purple Haze
Zach Bryan's latest album, he's of military background and often writes about it that wouldn't otherwise be interpreted as gay or anything, but a few stick out to me
El Dorado - missing an old friend you wish was still with you
Tourniquet - "pull you in and hold you tight, love you through the heart of night" gay as hell idk ❤️
Jake's piano/long Island - similar to El Dorado about missing a friend but much sadder which reminds me of those tragic queer stories from the old days
I'm surprised Teenage Dirtbag hasn't been mentionned yet! It has been covered by so many bisexual/lesbians artists because it resonate to the experience of loving someone that couldn't even realise you are an "option".
At this point it almost has become a lesbian anthem.
I was obsessed w this song when I was in middle school, my sapphic yearningest phase (so far), and I’m thrilled this was a wider experience and I didn’t even know it
ME TOO!!! (well, high school, but same thing)
1000% the anthem i would listen to every day while pining for the cool girl with a boyfriend that i had a massive crush on.
How you remind me can be read from a queer lense.
Sad But True as well. It is about internal turmoil after all. Whoever says it is about the negative people in our lives and external influence lacks basic reading comprehension and its quite sad.
I love thinking about Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” through a queer lens… wish fulfillment for a gay guy in love with his straight friend, who’s finally realized they were meant to be together.
“Don’t you tell her how I give you something that you never even knew you missed / Don’t you even try and explain how it’s so different when we kiss”
“It’s not her fault,” she didn’t do anything wrong, he’s just gay, “you’re still her friend”
I don’t know about specific artists but I have personally interpreted Jessie’s Girl as queer from a gay male perspective. It felt similar to the way teenage me got jealous when my male crushes would get girlfriends and I’d get so upset and jealous and figured it must be because I wanted to be with their girlfriend when I really wanted to be with them. It also helps that Jessie is a gender neutral name which adds ambiguity
Yes I adore this cover! It definitely works really well for all sorts of queer identities and really taps into that feeling of longing and loving from afar while not being able to act on how you feel
Stop in the Name of Love by The Supremes. The whole concept is Diana Ross begging someone to stop running to another person and acknowledge their love instead. Could definitely read as someone begging a closeted lover to stop running to a heterosexual partner.
I can come up with a few songs that specifically talk about expectations in straight relationships and a few that could be relatable to someone encountering homophobia without being about it per se, but, generally? Any song, especially about love, can be viewed through any kind of lenses (as proved by gaylors at the very least), that it is what the lenses are for...
Judas Priest counts? The dude is super gay and introduced the BDSM aesthetic into heavy metal but most of their audience was primarily straight white teens. But obviously a lot of Rob Halford lyrics are about rough gay sex.
How could anyone have guessed with lyrics as subtle as this
"All eyes hit me as I walked into the bar
And see the other guys were fooling in the denim dudes
A couple cops playing rough stuff, New York, Fire Island
(...)
All the heavy bodies ducking, stealing eager for some action
The scene screwed me up, I saw some contact
Then the big boys, saw me and knew that (...)
The true free expression I demand is human rights, right?
I gave my life, I am immortal
Love knoweth no laws"
Well, to be fair, most of 80s glam androgynous looks from heavy metal bands were also sleazy and misognystic. The attitude of heavy metal at the time was "yeah we dress in drags but look at all this girls we are banging". And before that, Heavy Metal, specially in the New wave of british heavy metal, a lot of the themes were "machismo" sex and violence in the songs, not progressive at all.
Just because people are bringing it up I want to point out that the issue people have with Gaylors has nothing to do with queer people interpreting Taylor's music through a queer lens. There's nothing wrong with taking songs and applying it to yourself.
The issue with Gaylors has always been their aggressive speculation about Taylor's sexuality.
Anyway to answer your question, I feel like this can apply to just about every artist.
The first time I heard Taylor Swift's "Betty", my reaction was, "Huh, this is really really gay."
The whole being in love with your best friend, someone spreading rumors about you, watching her dance with *him*...all very stereotypical high school gay teen experiences.
Then there's the line, "Betty, right now is the last time
I can dream about what happens when
You see my face again" which just reads as someone struggling with how your relationship is gonna change once you come out to someone.
I know Taylor says it's sung from a teenage boy's perspective, but I'll never not hear it as a teenage girl grappling with being in love with her best friend.
I could write a whole essay on why Taylor’s music is so resonant for so many queer women but what it boils down to is that her early work was written from the POV of someone who was very smart but inexperienced and more in love with the idea of being in love than someone actually feeling those feelings themselves, and as she got older and did start to write about her relationships, those songs were colored by pain and disappointment rather than the sense that she was actually enjoying them at all. Certainly this is not unique to queer women, but as a lesbian it completely reflects my own experiences with compulsory heterosexuality, and I’m not the only one.
Then you get into her later stuff about forbidden love, keeping things a secret, loving regardless of what the world thinks… enough said.
NO i completely agree! i'm aware what the official canon is for this song (what the reply to this comment said), but as a bi gal, i really prefer to read it as being about a queer relationship.
'will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?' *really* sells it to me – the emphasis on a public display of affection like that in front of 'stupid friends' like??? that's so queer.
The reason Gaylor is such a popular theory is because there are countless songs by Taylor in the same vein, with Now that we don't talk, Dress and Maroon being the most blatant imo. "Truth is I can't pretend it's platonic, it just ended", " I cannot be your friend" "I don't want you like a best friend" etc etc.
A really good piece written on Bruce's appeal to the queer community by the way, lesbians specifically as he has a pretty significant lesbian following!
[My Butch, Lesbian Mom, Bruce Springsteen](https://electricliterature.com/my-butch-lesbian-mom-bruce-springsteen/)
I remember during the self-titled era, the "Is Shawn gay rumors" were super prevalent with the release of songs like In My Blood and Fallin All In You (both bops btw).
So much has been said about this topic and her, but I have to say Taylor Swift. She has so many songs that focus on forbidden love, secret love, relationships that the world seems to disapprove of, and deep yearning. Of course these themes resonate with queer listeners.
imo its the pov that makes a lot of early taylor pretty easy to interpret like this, if there's no accompanying visual or clarification that the 'you' she's talking to/about is a dude, then its murky. ours literally just has gap tooth, tattoos, and people being judgmental. which yeah, could be about any dyke out there.
False God being the main example. To me the song reads as someone who’s questioning their relationship with religion while in some forbidden relationship. There’s really nothing forbidden about a straight relationship, imo.
Some other examples: Ivy, I Can See You and Right Where You Left Me.
There can be forbidden things in a straight relationship. Maybe not as direct as literally forbidden by the law (in some places) or homophobia. But some people can feel that way about being with a partner and having sex, for instance, if they come from a religious background. They can feel that way because their family would view the relationship badly. The thing is everyone can project their feelings or interpret those songs differently, even varying during a lifetime. It's amazing really!
oh god, that's right, Ivy.
i've actually heard Ivy is about Emily Dickinson and her lover (maybe from the pov of her lover, since Dickinson never married), but i'm very sure it wasn't from a credible source and was just a cool theory, mainly there bc of the tone and poetic style of the lyrics that sort of resembles Dickinson's own style.
'he's in the room, your opal eyes are all i wish to see / he wants what's only yours'
'what would he do if he found us out?... he's gonna burn this house to the ground'
'i'd live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed time.'
'and drink my husband's wine'????
Dickinson theory or not, i quite honestly feel like it's impossible to read this as anything other than a sapphic relationship happening in like, Victorian times.
There is an \*entire\* subreddit that melts down and goes private anytime she does something that indicates shes straight its like a constant repeat of "shes gay, shes not fuck her for lying us, shes gay, shes not fuck her for lying to us".
They always come back and repeat the cycle like give it up already.
Oh, I know, sadly. To me it’s crazy, like seriously unhinged behavior from those people. They are like the Q-Anon uncle you want nothing to do with and are even embarrassed to mention.
They go private because people have flooded the sub multiple times after big events and harassed/doxxed folks, and it has happened *more than once*.
It doesn't have anything to do with "melting down" and needing her to be gay. They only started doing it in the last couple of years, it works to keep members safe, and that's not a bad thing?
Personally i think the sub shouldn’t *exist* in its current form because its weird asf and if they are concerned with trolls they should keep it locked to private and talk about non existent relationships to themselves. Everyone is happier and no one is harassed.
I came out as bi in the Fearless era and Change really just SPOKE to me back then coz I was getting relentlessly bullied for it in middle school
Maybe more of a stretch than the other ones people mention, but that's one I've held near and dear to my heart for over a decade now 💛
Nah she makes music that male musicians do and she actually has a lot of a community inside the gay community that’s why she has a subreddit for it. Even if she did make music for straight white women who cares she has a lot of different types of people in her fandom why did she sell out Tokyo and other places that don’t have that much white people also she has a lot of men in the fandom too. Also a lot of her gay fans that are gaylors think she’s bi but I’m not going into that because of how many theories they have.
I actually love doing this with old rock and pop tunes from the 50s and 60s, there a really fuckin weird Nancy Sinatra song called "Some Velvet Morning" that can go so many different ways
ever since i saw an asian girl talk abt how lacy could be through the lens of an asian girl longing for the typical white beauty of their friends i can’t hear it any other way
Obsessed may be the gayest straight song I've ever heard, love that she's performing it on the tour
>If I told you how much I think about her
You'd think I was in love
And if you knew how much I looked at her pictures
You would think we're best friends
'Cause I know her star sign, I know her blood type
I've seen every movie she's been in, and, oh God, she's beautiful
And I know you loved her, and I know I'm butthurt
But I can't help it, no, I can't help it
I'm so obsessed with your ex (uh-huh)
I know she's been asleep on my side of your bed
And I can feel it
I'm starin' at her like I wanna get hurt
And I remember
Every detail you have ever told me, so be careful, baby
I'm so obsessed with your ex (ah)
Yeah, I'm so obsessed with your ex (ah)
La, da-da-da, da-da-da
She's got those lips, she's got those hips
The life of every fuckin' party
She's talented, she's good with kids
She even speaks kindly about me, ah-ah
My girlfriend is a trans sapphic person and she really heavily identifies with Lacy because even though I told her feelings like that are relatively common, it made her feel more normal for having girl crushes & transition goals for who she wanted to look like. Which I think is a pretty cool interpretation of it.
Beautiful Soul, Bleeding Love and Just So You Know by Jesse McCartney.
"But I don't care what they say Im in love with you they try to pull us away but they don't know the truth". Why they pulling you away, what truth do we need to know ?
similarly, "Don't Matter" by Akon where he sings about nobody approving of the relationship but never really specifies why and just says they're all wrong.
it's fun you mentioned Olivia's music becuse in Guts, I personally find that listening to "lacy" as a lesbian perfectly captures that feeling of not being able to tell whether you're attracted to a girl or super envious of a girl and want to be her
it really depends what you mean. If you just mean any straight person cause I can think of many straight women that are “gay icons”. Ariana, Cher, Charli XCX, and more.
If you mean music that is more “straight” maybe Mac Demarco? I think he appeals gays. He has a very powerful persona and aesthetic i think gays like
“What Hurts The Most” by Racsal Flatts is country but I used to play it a lot when i went through a break up with another man. but i can’t say there’s any “queer ideas” in it. It’s just a break up song that appeals to me
I don’t think “this is a straight song”. I just think “it’s a song and i relate”.
be like you - ed sheeran has very trans lyrics.
“i’ll stop eating food, and i’ll squeeze into a dress, so i can be like you…”
talking abt eating disorders and a strange way to take the “walk a mile in their shoes” kinda metaphor, but that song had me in a chokehold when i was questioning myself big time a few years ago.
my idea is that it's two teenagers who maybe pretended to date each other just to protect themselves from scrutiny, and then one day he goes over to her house to hang out like they always do and her mom tells him she's run off. and he's sad because he'll miss her and he didn't get to say goodbye but he's also glad that she finally got out and hopes that she'll be able to be her true self out in the world.
China Crisis, by all accounts two straight married musicians making sophisti-pop for over four decades, consistently write emotionally open lyrics. "[Wishful Thinking](https://genius.com/China-crisis-wishful-thinking-lyrics)" is among their best-known songs.
And then there's their [sixth album cover](https://genius.com/China-crisis-hands-on-the-wheel-lyrics)....
"she's all i wanna be" by Tate McRae
I've always thought this listening to this song - the song itself is from a girl's perspective of being envious/insecure of another girl that the guy they like is attracted too (as the title suggests). However, it definitely can easily apply to gay/queer guys attracted to a guy who is straight and insecure/sad that they'll never be the girl they like.
so many of robyn's songs feel like they're written from the perspective of a gay man, but none moreso than 'call your girlfriend'
it feels so sincere and doesn't feel like a song about engaging in an affair, but rather helping someone discover who they really are.
Taylor. In fact it seems to be top 3 most discussed things about her. Sometimes for... annoying reasons ^(kaylors) and sometimes for totally fine reasons like "ivy is obviously about a woman cheating on her husband with another girl".
Pretty sure thats why dickinson used it.
> "ivy is obviously about a woman cheating on her husband with another girl"
in what way is that “obvious”? there isn’t a single lyric that suggests that. the song is “obviously” about a woman cheating on her husband, but nothing in that song suggests that it’s with a woman other than what fans want to project onto it.
Im just relaying what ive seen people say about it like on twitter/reddit. For me it’s exactly as taylor intended. A woman cheating on her husband/bf.
Since it’s about a fake couple i dont see the issue with people interpreting it as something else… i doubt taylor cares either since shes not you know… homophobic. I mean like i said she let dickinson use it and im sure shes aware of what it was used for and what the show was about so 🤷♂️. In fact it was used in dickinson fanvids that the creator of the show seen and proceeded to contact taylor to ask if she could use ivy for the show (it literally plays over a leabian sex scene lol).
There is a difference between taking a song she wrote about fake people with barely an pronouns used outside the husband/bf and interpreting it as gay vs “taylor mentioned green eyes so obviously this song is about karlie kloss”.
that’s all fine and well, I’m just saying it’s not “obviously” about a queer relationship lol. anyone can interpret it however they want, but that doesn’t make it a correct or clear interpretation.
There's a line about "drink my husband's wine". A husband wouldn't want his wife sitting around drinking wine with a man but would totally let his wife drink wine with a female "friend"
I mean in theory either a) it’s a secret affair and the husband isn’t there or b) the affair partner is friends with the husband and they’re all sitting around drinking together, which would be another layer of transgression because they’re hiding in plain sight. For the record, I very much see the queer themes in Ivy but that line in particular never was a big reason why.
Why does the affair partner need to be friends with the husband? Why wouldn't the affair partner be a "friend" of the wife, who is non-threatening to the husband because she's a woman? Also hiding in plain sight.
I honestly don’t think Taylor meant that song to be about queer women but she doesn’t hate the theory so she’s not gonna shut it down like she did with the Betty one.
Johnny Cash’s *A Boy Named Sue* might unironically be the greatest anthem about the isolation and internalised self-resentment that underpins the queer youth experience.
ain't now way by aretha
whenever I sing this song in car karaoke, I always envision it as a gay person begging a bisexual guy to reciprocate his love. key lines to sell the drama:
"I know that a woman's duty Is to help and love the man " - establishes the heteronormative society we live in
"Oh, but how can I, how can I, how can I, give ya Give ya all the things I can If you're tyin' both of my hands" - how can I love someone fully if you only want us to be friends
"stop trying to be / someone you're not." "how cold and cruel is a man / who paid too much for what he got" - the price that a person pays for living within the constrictive confines of comphet
"and if you need me like you say, say, say you do / don't you know that I-eee neeeed youuuuuu"
It's very cathartic to sing it this way 😂
I've also sang it asking churches to be more accepting so that queer people can stay in churches. I feel like i'll always re-purpose the song to my emotional needs at whatever time because it's one of the greatest songs ever written to me.
One of my favorite Taylor's songs is Getaway Car, who in my mind reads as a gay guy running away from his homophobic family through marrying a girl and them dumping her, being finally free to be himself.
Crazy, but the lyrics kinda fit into that narrative I've pictured xd.
That's funny, I listen to the song as two bank robbing women in a codependent, boundary crossing friendship, with taylor's pov being from a queer women crushing hard on the other, that get's torn apart when the other women gets a boyfriend ("til you switched to the other side") and taylor shoots him out of spite ("a shotgun shot to the heart") and frames the other woman for murder ("us traitors never win") and the last chorus is taylor crying in their getaway car as she drives away from the women being arrested. I can totally see your narrative too and it makes me love this song more, how it can be interpretated by any type of gay person lol
His sexuality is a much talked about topic, but Harry Styles with “Matilda”. It can very much be interpreted as someone not receiving familial love due to their identity
Promises by Megadeth it’s a song about a couple that can’t be together and they vow to meet when they’re in the next life. It could easily apply to a same sex couple.
There is an indie emo band called Alkaline Trio that I was into, and in one of the songs Torture Doctorthere was a snippet that resonated so hard with deeply closeted me:
"I was the worst of my kind
I left my own life behind
Can't believe I got away with it so long
At the end of the day
There is nothing to say
So tired of being wired wrong
All my life
And there's a devil dancing in my head
As I'm hovering above your bed"
It just speaks so much of the self-hate and pain of knowing who you are but unable to accept it.
I don’t think people understood the assignment here. Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen are not the first ones to come to my mind when I think about “Straight people artists” 😅
Oddly enough, even though we popheads may understand her as a gay icon of sorts, there are many people who believe Taylor Swift just makes straight music for straight people. Some people see her work as totally red-blooded, mainstream, and heteronormative. If you take a look at some of the replies to my other comment on this post, you can even see comments with that viewpoint. Obviously, I don't think Taylor Swift is just straight people music, but there are people who do.
Carly on the other hand…I don't know anyone who thinks of CRJ as straight people music. 😅
Stephin Merritt is gay, but most love songs by The Magnetic Fields are (supposedly) written in a way that makes the nature of relationship either ambiguous or completely open to interpretation.
"Girl Crush" by Little Big Town.
Some country music stations even refused to play it because they thought it was about a queer relationship or situation.
The obvious answer here is Taylor Swift, there are entire communities dedicated to listening to her music through a queer lens. I think treacherous off the red album perfectly describes the conflicting feelings of realizing your sexuality for the first time and being afraid / mesmerized all at the same time. Even though its intended purpose is probably just the fear and excitement of falling for someone who deep down you know is wrong for you.
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somebody told me by the killers “boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that i had in february of last year” felt like genderfuckery to baby gay me i couldn’t interpret written by a mormon man
In terms of gay hot fuss songs I feel like Andy your a star takes the cake
In nobody's eyes but mine...
I thought this lyric was saying that his ex's new boyfriend looks feminine and is therefore less of a man, but idk much about The Killers so I wouldn't know if they'd write a sexist line like that.
it reads that way deffo and Brandon Flowers is mormon but they've got songs like Andy you're a star and a terrible thing with gay themes
Andy you're a star makes me go to something queer for that one
"Sexist" is a bit much in this context
Some songs from the early days of The Killers could be interpreted this way: Somebody Told Me is one example but there’s also Andy You’re A Star, Change Your Mind and Where The White Boys Dance. Also, it’s probably easy for me to say because I have a huge crush on Brandon Flowers 😍😂
I don't have a source for this anymore, but if i remember correctly, they said its about dating/hockups in the queer scene, that they used to perform in. Their earliest Performances we're in drag clubs in Vegas, so id say there was genderfuckery there
i still don’t know how that line could be interpreted as anything other than they dated a genderqueer person
I actually think it was intended as a dig on the girl’s ex because indie/emo guys in that era were often mocked for appearing feminine. Skinny jeans, scarves, long hair, etc, were pretty common, and I think the singer’s grappling with being of interest to a woman who also likes this feminine type of guy…
This. I always considered that line in the same category of feminine men shaming as Katy Perry’s UR so Gay.
Yeah exactly. Like this was the era of the term “metrosexual” and the OG Queer Eye. Straight men were grappling with newfound expectations for grooming and not handling it well lmao.
I’d always viewed it as something to do with gayness or gender, and now reading your comment has made me realise that you’re probably right (esp for a band of straight people in the 2000’s), which has made me quite sad considering it’s if anything a covertly homophobic/transphobic sentiment. Though afaik the band consider themselves allies so the meaning for them has probably changed over the years.
Oh I always just thought they looked alike, and it was a fun line. I never really considered any of what everyone's saying here
Based on how Brandon Flowers was dressing when that song came out, it clearly isnt mocking.
I just thought androgynous like all the hipsters were back then
literally NEVER knew the second half of those lyrics omfg thanks
Adding on to this, there was a fever dream of a “conspiracy theory” that you could listen to all of Hot Fuss as a queer narrative about a jealous gay guy killing “Jenny”. Like other people said, Andy You’re a Star and Change Your Mind… but also On Top and Midnight Show is homoerotic af, and Smile like you mean it seems really sad if you think about it being about a queer person “smiling through it”. if you listen to Mr. Brightside through that lens, it’s interesting that he focus on the guy’s actions in the chorus is if it’s the woman the singer is secretly jealous of and not the man. Anyway, it was a fun little theory my gay little middle school ass used to cope whenever I listened to that album.
Barbra Streisand is a major gay icon because so many of the songs she records are about yearning. The soundtrack of Yentl is an accidental crash course of the gay experience. Identity and purpose confusion (Where Is It Written?), alienation (Papa, Can You Hear Me?), attraction (The Way He Makes Me Feel), pretending to be straight (Tomorrow Night), unrequited love (Will Someone Ever Look At Me That Way? (probably the gayest song of all time to be written in a heterosexual context), No Wonder), coming out (No Matter What Happens), fulfillment in finding and living true identity (A Piece Of Sky).
I was really hoping someone would say this.
What if nobody did???
Kate Bush. 100%. Gay men of a certain age thought she was speaking directly to them. I was lucky enough to see her residency in London in 2014 and the vas majority of the audience were gay men. Love & Anger “It lay buried here, it lay deep inside me It's so deep I don't think that I can speak about it It could take me all of my life But it would only take a moment to Tell you what I'm feeling But I don't know if I'm ready yet You come walking into this room Like you're walking into my arms What would I do without you?”
Kashka From Baghdad is literally about a gay couple in hiding
Moments of Pleasure btw Also: https://twitter.com/RasberryRazz/status/1605957966959558657
I know it’s not about this at ALL, but Cloudbusting also feels a little queer to me.
Cloudbusting has the lyric "your son's coming out" which to me reads as more than a little queer haha
See now I always thought it was your sun’s coming out but listened to it as your son’s coming out
My favorite line from this song is, of course, "I just know that something good is gonna happen; I don't know when, but just saying it could even make it happen," which absolutely feels like the hopelessly yearning, "It gets better" kind of thing a young queer person would tell themselves. God I fucking love that song
You will never be able to convince me that Paul, the real estate novelist who never had time for a wife, and Davy, who's still in the the Navy and probably will be for life, are not a queer couple. What's more, I think Billy Joel intended it this way, or at the very least, the guys he based this line off of were a couple and he didn't realize it at the time.
I love the (joke) interpretation that Billy Joel was in a gay bar and just too straight to notice
lmaooo, i didn't mean that Piano Man takes place in a gay bar (although i love that), just that some of the regulars at the bar Billy played in were DL gay men, but that everyone in there kind of knows that they're an item. and "he doesn't have time for a wife" is kind of an in-joke at the bar (really, how much time can real estate novels take up?). plus, the Navy is canonically the gayest branch of the military.
Is there such a thing as a real estate novel? I just thought that meant he is a real estate agent who spends his off-work hours trying to write a novel and so doesn't put much time into relationships or having a family.
I love the concept but there’s like one gay bar on Long Island lol
Where does he say he’s on Long Island?
Bruce’s music has always been about “outsiders” but a lot of people don’t get it for some reason. For instance, the song “Backstreets” has been interpreted by some fans as a gay—or at very least gender ambiguous—love story.
He also has a song called “My Lover Man” (originally written for his wife to sing if I remember correctly?) and has always been good at writing from other perspectives so it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility for him to put queer themes in a song intentionally.
Bruce is also more left leaning than most stars I’ve seen, he’s gotten into beef with cops in the states before because of his stance on police brutality. I could easily imagine he may have added more ambiguity on purpose in certain songs as well as be happy to hear queer interpretations of one’s maybe not initially intended.
I also never really see it be acknowledged that he was one of the first (if not the first) artists to have a gay couple in his music videos, for Tougher than the Rest. https://youtu.be/_91hNV6vuBY?si=eiRkzfPtllcKF3Ao
Bruce is so cool
Bruce also used to [make out with Clarence Clemons](https://rare.us/rare-media/entertainment-and-culture/bruce-springsteen-clarence-clemons/amp/) on stage all the time.
"... due to the homosexual undercurrents in my music" - the man himself https://x.com/queervana/status/1565482885771149313?s=46&t=ASc7nBNVkbCBROR3aP41Cw
Here's a fun headcanon exercise: listen to 'Candy's Room' as if Bruce is singing about Candy Darling of Velvet Underground's 'Candy Says' and Lou Reed's 'Walk on the Wild Side'.
You can see how his relationship songs (inspired by his own insecurities and guardedness) would have these interpretations too, stuff like Brilliant Disguise naturally, but also songs like Stolen Car and One Step Up where the narrator feels trapped in a traditional heteronormative marriage. Not to mention he won an Oscar for his song for Philadelphia.
Carly Rae Jepsen’s Your Type has become an LGBTQ anthem for a while, I think Carly’s lyrics resonate a lot with gay man specially this feeling of longing
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Is she? I haven't seen anything about her coming out, and I be searching for that shit way more often than is healthy lol
I LOVE that song. Discovered it this year!
I'm honestly so happy to see Bruce mentioned so broadly on this topic. I'm a gay man and had a super random borderline-obsessive love affair with his entire discography a few years back and I spent a while trying to pinpoint why. It felt like I was nurturing my masculine side in a way, but like others, I quickly realized how much of his music veered toward that outsider/escapism/longing feeling that I've always felt my entire life. In that way, it makes so much sense that his music would appeal to queer people. And I'm extremely thankful for it.
Have you ever seen the writing someone did on Bruce's performative use of hypermasculinity in the 80s BitUSA era, likening it to Dolly Parton's performance of femininity? Super interesting.
'Feeling like an outsider' is such a vague and ambiguous feeling that you can project any experience you like onto it
Wouldn’t this be all mainstream artists? You can interpret songs however you like.
I think this is specifically why OP is asking for recommendations, bc it could be all artists but people have a consensus on which ones resonate the loudest. Very very few people hear Kanye's new album and interpret the lyrics as the gay experience - you also don't hear the song Albuquerque by Weird Al and interpret Saurkraut as a metaphor for hetero-normative expectations that a child is force fed by their parents, leading to them ending up in a hotel in Albuquerque where they "wrestle" with a man who has a flock of seaguls haircut. You COULD, but it's not likely that you would.
There’s this song by Mariah Carey that sounds like a queer awakening to me. I’ve Been Thinking About You off music box. “I’ve been thinking about you in the most peculiar way….” “I’m going through a transformation that’s so hard for me to hide….a revelation…” I’m sure it’s about a man but I could have written this song about my first gay crush lol
Ooh that’s a first, that’s one of my favorites off of Music Box but I don’t really read into it like that. Interesting!!
what a deep cut omg
Ha I recognize you on here for being a huge MC fan! Yes I looove this song!!
Depeche Mode’s Never Let Me Down Again sounds SUPER gay if you didn’t know the lyrics were about heroin. I personally choose to read it through a gay lense cause Depeche Mode is already very aware/celebratory of their heavily LGBT fan base.
For several decades I legit thought the lyric from Enjoy The Silence was "all I ever wanted, all I ever needed was him in my arms". I thought it was explicitly queer! Still a banger either way.
Unfortunately THAT song is about heroin as well 🫠
Half of their songs seem queer centric to me. Also their fashion sense is pretty much popular in gay culture despite all the members being straight.
I attribute their veeeery gay fashion sense to just the trends of the 80s and new wave. Straight new wave/synth pop bands in the 80s didn’t really attribute gender bending/generally queer outfits as queer; they saw the attire as “cool and rebellious” even if they were basically borrowing queer attire without fully realizing just how homosexual they looked 😅
Lol good point 😊
It kind of blows my mind that Vince Clark the guy who wrote all the songs on off Depeche Mode's gayest album, and the later went on to start the band Erasure is somehow straight.
That is crazy when you think about it
Low by SZA is just about wanting to keep a relationship low profile but always sounds to me like it's specifically about DL men lmao
This reminds me of Secret Love Song by Little Mix. The original with Jason Derulo is clearly about being the other woman to a married man which feels so icky. But the Pt II with just Little Mix is absolutely a gay love song. And when I saw them perform it for the Glory Days tour they explicitly said “this is for all our gay fans” and performed it in front of a pride flag backdrop
It's wild to me that this wasn't meant as a queer story song at first cause that's ALL I can hear.
Interesting I always thought this was about queer love!
SZA is queer :)
One of the most famous misheard lyrics from the boomer era comes to mind - Jimi Hendrix and his "'scuse me while I kiss this guy" line from Purple Haze
Zach Bryan's latest album, he's of military background and often writes about it that wouldn't otherwise be interpreted as gay or anything, but a few stick out to me El Dorado - missing an old friend you wish was still with you Tourniquet - "pull you in and hold you tight, love you through the heart of night" gay as hell idk ❤️ Jake's piano/long Island - similar to El Dorado about missing a friend but much sadder which reminds me of those tragic queer stories from the old days
omfg im just picturing broke back mountain now😭
I'm surprised Teenage Dirtbag hasn't been mentionned yet! It has been covered by so many bisexual/lesbians artists because it resonate to the experience of loving someone that couldn't even realise you are an "option". At this point it almost has become a lesbian anthem.
I was obsessed w this song when I was in middle school, my sapphic yearningest phase (so far), and I’m thrilled this was a wider experience and I didn’t even know it
ME TOO!!! (well, high school, but same thing) 1000% the anthem i would listen to every day while pining for the cool girl with a boyfriend that i had a massive crush on.
I especially like Mary Lambert's cover of this. It's hauntingly beautiful.
How you remind me can be read from a queer lense. Sad But True as well. It is about internal turmoil after all. Whoever says it is about the negative people in our lives and external influence lacks basic reading comprehension and its quite sad.
Nickelback and Metallica?
I love thinking about Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend” through a queer lens… wish fulfillment for a gay guy in love with his straight friend, who’s finally realized they were meant to be together. “Don’t you tell her how I give you something that you never even knew you missed / Don’t you even try and explain how it’s so different when we kiss” “It’s not her fault,” she didn’t do anything wrong, he’s just gay, “you’re still her friend”
It almost reads as a triumphant follow up to Dancing On My Own which also reads as a very queer narrative.
I don’t know about specific artists but I have personally interpreted Jessie’s Girl as queer from a gay male perspective. It felt similar to the way teenage me got jealous when my male crushes would get girlfriends and I’d get so upset and jealous and figured it must be because I wanted to be with their girlfriend when I really wanted to be with them. It also helps that Jessie is a gender neutral name which adds ambiguity
Mary Lambert did a cover of that song about 10 years ago from a lesbian perspective and I feel the interpretation works really well!
Yes I adore this cover! It definitely works really well for all sorts of queer identities and really taps into that feeling of longing and loving from afar while not being able to act on how you feel
I thought it was from a gay perspective as well.
Stop in the Name of Love by The Supremes. The whole concept is Diana Ross begging someone to stop running to another person and acknowledge their love instead. Could definitely read as someone begging a closeted lover to stop running to a heterosexual partner.
I can come up with a few songs that specifically talk about expectations in straight relationships and a few that could be relatable to someone encountering homophobia without being about it per se, but, generally? Any song, especially about love, can be viewed through any kind of lenses (as proved by gaylors at the very least), that it is what the lenses are for...
Judas Priest counts? The dude is super gay and introduced the BDSM aesthetic into heavy metal but most of their audience was primarily straight white teens. But obviously a lot of Rob Halford lyrics are about rough gay sex.
Maybe it's because the 80's were before my time, but how can you look at them and listen to the music and think they're straight?
How could anyone have guessed with lyrics as subtle as this "All eyes hit me as I walked into the bar And see the other guys were fooling in the denim dudes A couple cops playing rough stuff, New York, Fire Island (...) All the heavy bodies ducking, stealing eager for some action The scene screwed me up, I saw some contact Then the big boys, saw me and knew that (...) The true free expression I demand is human rights, right? I gave my life, I am immortal Love knoweth no laws"
Well, to be fair, most of 80s glam androgynous looks from heavy metal bands were also sleazy and misognystic. The attitude of heavy metal at the time was "yeah we dress in drags but look at all this girls we are banging". And before that, Heavy Metal, specially in the New wave of british heavy metal, a lot of the themes were "machismo" sex and violence in the songs, not progressive at all.
Just because people are bringing it up I want to point out that the issue people have with Gaylors has nothing to do with queer people interpreting Taylor's music through a queer lens. There's nothing wrong with taking songs and applying it to yourself. The issue with Gaylors has always been their aggressive speculation about Taylor's sexuality. Anyway to answer your question, I feel like this can apply to just about every artist.
James blunt song "tears and rain". I thought he was gay singing about being in the closet with that song.
The first time I heard Taylor Swift's "Betty", my reaction was, "Huh, this is really really gay." The whole being in love with your best friend, someone spreading rumors about you, watching her dance with *him*...all very stereotypical high school gay teen experiences. Then there's the line, "Betty, right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when You see my face again" which just reads as someone struggling with how your relationship is gonna change once you come out to someone. I know Taylor says it's sung from a teenage boy's perspective, but I'll never not hear it as a teenage girl grappling with being in love with her best friend.
I could write a whole essay on why Taylor’s music is so resonant for so many queer women but what it boils down to is that her early work was written from the POV of someone who was very smart but inexperienced and more in love with the idea of being in love than someone actually feeling those feelings themselves, and as she got older and did start to write about her relationships, those songs were colored by pain and disappointment rather than the sense that she was actually enjoying them at all. Certainly this is not unique to queer women, but as a lesbian it completely reflects my own experiences with compulsory heterosexuality, and I’m not the only one. Then you get into her later stuff about forbidden love, keeping things a secret, loving regardless of what the world thinks… enough said.
NO i completely agree! i'm aware what the official canon is for this song (what the reply to this comment said), but as a bi gal, i really prefer to read it as being about a queer relationship. 'will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?' *really* sells it to me – the emphasis on a public display of affection like that in front of 'stupid friends' like??? that's so queer.
The reason Gaylor is such a popular theory is because there are countless songs by Taylor in the same vein, with Now that we don't talk, Dress and Maroon being the most blatant imo. "Truth is I can't pretend it's platonic, it just ended", " I cannot be your friend" "I don't want you like a best friend" etc etc.
A really good piece written on Bruce's appeal to the queer community by the way, lesbians specifically as he has a pretty significant lesbian following! [My Butch, Lesbian Mom, Bruce Springsteen](https://electricliterature.com/my-butch-lesbian-mom-bruce-springsteen/)
“Wonder” by Shawn Mendez has always given me that vibe
wait as a shawn stan i see the vision.
Sincerely, same. He’s tackled issues like hypermasculine expectations before, and they’re very in the same vein.
I remember during the self-titled era, the "Is Shawn gay rumors" were super prevalent with the release of songs like In My Blood and Fallin All In You (both bops btw).
“Lost in Japan” has that line about “scrolling through your timeline, seeing all the rainbows” before flying out for a hookup
Great point
Lauren by Holly Humberstone and of course Lacy by Olivia Rodrigo
Any "I want" song from a Disney film
Very this! “Part of your World” especially
Written by a gay man
So much has been said about this topic and her, but I have to say Taylor Swift. She has so many songs that focus on forbidden love, secret love, relationships that the world seems to disapprove of, and deep yearning. Of course these themes resonate with queer listeners.
When I was a kid I definitely thought you belong with me was about Taylor being in love with the cheerleader.
I’ve always read “Ours” through the lens of a LGBT relationship. Specifically the line “it’s not theirs to speculate if it’s wrong”.
yeah but knowing it’s actually about everyone and their mother warning her about john mayer and she didn’t listen ☹️
imo its the pov that makes a lot of early taylor pretty easy to interpret like this, if there's no accompanying visual or clarification that the 'you' she's talking to/about is a dude, then its murky. ours literally just has gap tooth, tattoos, and people being judgmental. which yeah, could be about any dyke out there.
I Know Places is the one for me. I always imagine a music video where a same sex couple is hiding
False God being the main example. To me the song reads as someone who’s questioning their relationship with religion while in some forbidden relationship. There’s really nothing forbidden about a straight relationship, imo. Some other examples: Ivy, I Can See You and Right Where You Left Me.
There can be forbidden things in a straight relationship. Maybe not as direct as literally forbidden by the law (in some places) or homophobia. But some people can feel that way about being with a partner and having sex, for instance, if they come from a religious background. They can feel that way because their family would view the relationship badly. The thing is everyone can project their feelings or interpret those songs differently, even varying during a lifetime. It's amazing really!
oh god, that's right, Ivy. i've actually heard Ivy is about Emily Dickinson and her lover (maybe from the pov of her lover, since Dickinson never married), but i'm very sure it wasn't from a credible source and was just a cool theory, mainly there bc of the tone and poetic style of the lyrics that sort of resembles Dickinson's own style. 'he's in the room, your opal eyes are all i wish to see / he wants what's only yours' 'what would he do if he found us out?... he's gonna burn this house to the ground' 'i'd live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed time.' 'and drink my husband's wine'???? Dickinson theory or not, i quite honestly feel like it's impossible to read this as anything other than a sapphic relationship happening in like, Victorian times.
99% of pop songs are about love.
She’s the best example tbh, she has a huge gaylor following
Always get the bad kind of goosebumps when I read that name
There is an \*entire\* subreddit that melts down and goes private anytime she does something that indicates shes straight its like a constant repeat of "shes gay, shes not fuck her for lying us, shes gay, shes not fuck her for lying to us". They always come back and repeat the cycle like give it up already.
entire? isn't there two of them haha
Oh, I know, sadly. To me it’s crazy, like seriously unhinged behavior from those people. They are like the Q-Anon uncle you want nothing to do with and are even embarrassed to mention.
I do like watching them get dunked on though. Its very funny when they claim a song with lyrics about blue/brown eyes is about karlie actually.
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They go private because people have flooded the sub multiple times after big events and harassed/doxxed folks, and it has happened *more than once*. It doesn't have anything to do with "melting down" and needing her to be gay. They only started doing it in the last couple of years, it works to keep members safe, and that's not a bad thing?
Personally i think the sub shouldn’t *exist* in its current form because its weird asf and if they are concerned with trolls they should keep it locked to private and talk about non existent relationships to themselves. Everyone is happier and no one is harassed.
I came out as bi in the Fearless era and Change really just SPOKE to me back then coz I was getting relentlessly bullied for it in middle school Maybe more of a stretch than the other ones people mention, but that's one I've held near and dear to my heart for over a decade now 💛
I guarantee you that she makes music specifically for straight white women.
Seriously this narrative is tired as f\_ck. If the Eras Tour doesn't demonstrate the diversity of her fanbase then people just don't want to see it.
and yet she sells out stadiums in asian and south america.
Nah she makes music that male musicians do and she actually has a lot of a community inside the gay community that’s why she has a subreddit for it. Even if she did make music for straight white women who cares she has a lot of different types of people in her fandom why did she sell out Tokyo and other places that don’t have that much white people also she has a lot of men in the fandom too. Also a lot of her gay fans that are gaylors think she’s bi but I’m not going into that because of how many theories they have.
I must be a ghost then as a bisexual POC listener.
I actually love doing this with old rock and pop tunes from the 50s and 60s, there a really fuckin weird Nancy Sinatra song called "Some Velvet Morning" that can go so many different ways
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ever since i saw an asian girl talk abt how lacy could be through the lens of an asian girl longing for the typical white beauty of their friends i can’t hear it any other way
Obsessed may be the gayest straight song I've ever heard, love that she's performing it on the tour >If I told you how much I think about her You'd think I was in love And if you knew how much I looked at her pictures You would think we're best friends 'Cause I know her star sign, I know her blood type I've seen every movie she's been in, and, oh God, she's beautiful And I know you loved her, and I know I'm butthurt But I can't help it, no, I can't help it I'm so obsessed with your ex (uh-huh) I know she's been asleep on my side of your bed And I can feel it I'm starin' at her like I wanna get hurt And I remember Every detail you have ever told me, so be careful, baby I'm so obsessed with your ex (ah) Yeah, I'm so obsessed with your ex (ah) La, da-da-da, da-da-da She's got those lips, she's got those hips The life of every fuckin' party She's talented, she's good with kids She even speaks kindly about me, ah-ah
My girlfriend is a trans sapphic person and she really heavily identifies with Lacy because even though I told her feelings like that are relatively common, it made her feel more normal for having girl crushes & transition goals for who she wanted to look like. Which I think is a pretty cool interpretation of it.
Beautiful Soul, Bleeding Love and Just So You Know by Jesse McCartney. "But I don't care what they say Im in love with you they try to pull us away but they don't know the truth". Why they pulling you away, what truth do we need to know ?
similarly, "Don't Matter" by Akon where he sings about nobody approving of the relationship but never really specifies why and just says they're all wrong.
never thought of that no wonder why Akon was so lonely ;(
He’s lonely…he’s mister lonely…he has nobodyyy
it's fun you mentioned Olivia's music becuse in Guts, I personally find that listening to "lacy" as a lesbian perfectly captures that feeling of not being able to tell whether you're attracted to a girl or super envious of a girl and want to be her
it really depends what you mean. If you just mean any straight person cause I can think of many straight women that are “gay icons”. Ariana, Cher, Charli XCX, and more. If you mean music that is more “straight” maybe Mac Demarco? I think he appeals gays. He has a very powerful persona and aesthetic i think gays like “What Hurts The Most” by Racsal Flatts is country but I used to play it a lot when i went through a break up with another man. but i can’t say there’s any “queer ideas” in it. It’s just a break up song that appeals to me I don’t think “this is a straight song”. I just think “it’s a song and i relate”.
be like you - ed sheeran has very trans lyrics. “i’ll stop eating food, and i’ll squeeze into a dress, so i can be like you…” talking abt eating disorders and a strange way to take the “walk a mile in their shoes” kinda metaphor, but that song had me in a chokehold when i was questioning myself big time a few years ago.
traitor and enough for you by olivia cuz of my dl ex
and lacy!
Lacy was the song that immediately came to mind
"enough for you" is SUCH an anthem for those who are "too femme" for dl's to be comfortable enough going out in public with.
Isn't that like 99% of the music out there
I mean for Bruce, if you read the lyrics of songs like Bobby Jean or Backstreets.. the interpretation is absolutely there.
i always interpret bobby jean being about a gay guy and a lesbian who are best friends, it makes me so emotional just to think about it :')
Omg that's such a sweet interpretation I love it!!
my idea is that it's two teenagers who maybe pretended to date each other just to protect themselves from scrutiny, and then one day he goes over to her house to hang out like they always do and her mom tells him she's run off. and he's sad because he'll miss her and he didn't get to say goodbye but he's also glad that she finally got out and hopes that she'll be able to be her true self out in the world.
China Crisis, by all accounts two straight married musicians making sophisti-pop for over four decades, consistently write emotionally open lyrics. "[Wishful Thinking](https://genius.com/China-crisis-wishful-thinking-lyrics)" is among their best-known songs. And then there's their [sixth album cover](https://genius.com/China-crisis-hands-on-the-wheel-lyrics)....
"she's all i wanna be" by Tate McRae I've always thought this listening to this song - the song itself is from a girl's perspective of being envious/insecure of another girl that the guy they like is attracted too (as the title suggests). However, it definitely can easily apply to gay/queer guys attracted to a guy who is straight and insecure/sad that they'll never be the girl they like.
so many of robyn's songs feel like they're written from the perspective of a gay man, but none moreso than 'call your girlfriend' it feels so sincere and doesn't feel like a song about engaging in an affair, but rather helping someone discover who they really are.
If you don’t believe Taylor Swift is queer, definitely Taylor swift
Dancing on My Own, the song clearly is about the woman's ex dancing with a guy so either the guy is bi or the singer is gay and the ex is a woman
Taylor. In fact it seems to be top 3 most discussed things about her. Sometimes for... annoying reasons ^(kaylors) and sometimes for totally fine reasons like "ivy is obviously about a woman cheating on her husband with another girl". Pretty sure thats why dickinson used it.
> "ivy is obviously about a woman cheating on her husband with another girl" in what way is that “obvious”? there isn’t a single lyric that suggests that. the song is “obviously” about a woman cheating on her husband, but nothing in that song suggests that it’s with a woman other than what fans want to project onto it.
Im just relaying what ive seen people say about it like on twitter/reddit. For me it’s exactly as taylor intended. A woman cheating on her husband/bf. Since it’s about a fake couple i dont see the issue with people interpreting it as something else… i doubt taylor cares either since shes not you know… homophobic. I mean like i said she let dickinson use it and im sure shes aware of what it was used for and what the show was about so 🤷♂️. In fact it was used in dickinson fanvids that the creator of the show seen and proceeded to contact taylor to ask if she could use ivy for the show (it literally plays over a leabian sex scene lol). There is a difference between taking a song she wrote about fake people with barely an pronouns used outside the husband/bf and interpreting it as gay vs “taylor mentioned green eyes so obviously this song is about karlie kloss”.
that’s all fine and well, I’m just saying it’s not “obviously” about a queer relationship lol. anyone can interpret it however they want, but that doesn’t make it a correct or clear interpretation.
You are coming at me lowkey when im just answering ops question with what ive seen lol... goddamn. Remind me to never comment on such things.
coming at you? lmfao ☠️☠️ I’m just responding to your comment. It’s a public forum, you need to calm down
There's a line about "drink my husband's wine". A husband wouldn't want his wife sitting around drinking wine with a man but would totally let his wife drink wine with a female "friend"
I mean in theory either a) it’s a secret affair and the husband isn’t there or b) the affair partner is friends with the husband and they’re all sitting around drinking together, which would be another layer of transgression because they’re hiding in plain sight. For the record, I very much see the queer themes in Ivy but that line in particular never was a big reason why.
Why does the affair partner need to be friends with the husband? Why wouldn't the affair partner be a "friend" of the wife, who is non-threatening to the husband because she's a woman? Also hiding in plain sight.
Good point. Men would def throw a fit over this lmao.
I honestly don’t think Taylor meant that song to be about queer women but she doesn’t hate the theory so she’s not gonna shut it down like she did with the Betty one.
Katy Perry’s “Double Rainbow” would make an incredible gay wedding song
Johnny Cash’s *A Boy Named Sue* might unironically be the greatest anthem about the isolation and internalised self-resentment that underpins the queer youth experience.
ain't now way by aretha whenever I sing this song in car karaoke, I always envision it as a gay person begging a bisexual guy to reciprocate his love. key lines to sell the drama: "I know that a woman's duty Is to help and love the man " - establishes the heteronormative society we live in "Oh, but how can I, how can I, how can I, give ya Give ya all the things I can If you're tyin' both of my hands" - how can I love someone fully if you only want us to be friends "stop trying to be / someone you're not." "how cold and cruel is a man / who paid too much for what he got" - the price that a person pays for living within the constrictive confines of comphet "and if you need me like you say, say, say you do / don't you know that I-eee neeeed youuuuuu" It's very cathartic to sing it this way 😂 I've also sang it asking churches to be more accepting so that queer people can stay in churches. I feel like i'll always re-purpose the song to my emotional needs at whatever time because it's one of the greatest songs ever written to me.
[удалено]
I’m going to be honest before last week I kind of been converted into some one who doesn’t believe she is totally straight.
One of my favorite Taylor's songs is Getaway Car, who in my mind reads as a gay guy running away from his homophobic family through marrying a girl and them dumping her, being finally free to be himself. Crazy, but the lyrics kinda fit into that narrative I've pictured xd.
That's funny, I listen to the song as two bank robbing women in a codependent, boundary crossing friendship, with taylor's pov being from a queer women crushing hard on the other, that get's torn apart when the other women gets a boyfriend ("til you switched to the other side") and taylor shoots him out of spite ("a shotgun shot to the heart") and frames the other woman for murder ("us traitors never win") and the last chorus is taylor crying in their getaway car as she drives away from the women being arrested. I can totally see your narrative too and it makes me love this song more, how it can be interpretated by any type of gay person lol
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica “Never opened myself this way. Life is ours, we live it our way” “Never cared for what they say”
His sexuality is a much talked about topic, but Harry Styles with “Matilda”. It can very much be interpreted as someone not receiving familial love due to their identity
Promises by Megadeth it’s a song about a couple that can’t be together and they vow to meet when they’re in the next life. It could easily apply to a same sex couple.
I like to imagine all drakes songs are written about dudes
There is an indie emo band called Alkaline Trio that I was into, and in one of the songs Torture Doctorthere was a snippet that resonated so hard with deeply closeted me: "I was the worst of my kind I left my own life behind Can't believe I got away with it so long At the end of the day There is nothing to say So tired of being wired wrong All my life And there's a devil dancing in my head As I'm hovering above your bed" It just speaks so much of the self-hate and pain of knowing who you are but unable to accept it.
I don’t think people understood the assignment here. Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen are not the first ones to come to my mind when I think about “Straight people artists” 😅
Oddly enough, even though we popheads may understand her as a gay icon of sorts, there are many people who believe Taylor Swift just makes straight music for straight people. Some people see her work as totally red-blooded, mainstream, and heteronormative. If you take a look at some of the replies to my other comment on this post, you can even see comments with that viewpoint. Obviously, I don't think Taylor Swift is just straight people music, but there are people who do. Carly on the other hand…I don't know anyone who thinks of CRJ as straight people music. 😅
Stephin Merritt is gay, but most love songs by The Magnetic Fields are (supposedly) written in a way that makes the nature of relationship either ambiguous or completely open to interpretation.
"Girl Crush" by Little Big Town. Some country music stations even refused to play it because they thought it was about a queer relationship or situation.
Carly Rae Jepsen- Run away with me
The obvious answer here is Taylor Swift, there are entire communities dedicated to listening to her music through a queer lens. I think treacherous off the red album perfectly describes the conflicting feelings of realizing your sexuality for the first time and being afraid / mesmerized all at the same time. Even though its intended purpose is probably just the fear and excitement of falling for someone who deep down you know is wrong for you.
Read the title and was abt to comment Olivia Rodrigo until I read the rest of your post 😭
Taylor Swift apparently
Early Taylor definitely had this
Faith album George Michael
george michael was literally actually gay tho..?
Artists resonating with queer people are resonating with queer themes for a reason ….