When a Norwegian con artist stole my boyfriend, "Material Girl" was playing.
When Alan met my boyfriend Raul, we were listening to "Open Your Heart."
When we ran into Fred and his Cute Young Thing during brunch at the French Quarter, "Live to Tell" was blaring from a car stopped at a red light on Santa Monica Boulevard.
When I was teaching Gay 101 at Juvenile Hall, three guys at a party started lip-synching to "Vogue."
But in the early 1990s, the Madonna fad started dying down.
In 1992, the book Sex bombed in West Hollywood. I knew only one guy who actually bought a copy.
By 1993, record store commercials had people complaining "I'm bored with Madonna!", and all of the cars stopped at red lights on San Vicente were blaring "I'm too sexy for my shirt!" instead of "Bad Girl."
Madonna is still expressing herself, still recording songs and performing for millions of fans, but she is no longer an inevitable part of daily life in West Hollywood.
Nearly thirty years later, I wonder why Madonna became a gay diva. Her songs had no gay subtexts: they were all about heterosexual women being touched for the very first time, living in a material world, picking up boys on the street, and asking "Come on, girls, do you believe in love?"
In 1992, the book Sex bombed in West Hollywood. I knew only one guy who actually bought a copy.
By 1993, record store commercials had people complaining "I'm bored with Madonna!", and all of the cars stopped at red lights on San Vicente were blaring "I'm too sexy for my shirt!" instead of "Bad Girl."
Nearly thirty years later, I wonder why Madonna became a gay diva. Her songs had no gay subtexts: they were all about heterosexual women being touched for the very first time, living in a material world, picking up boys on the street, and asking "Come on, girls, do you believe in love?"
Maybe because she was a gay ally, outspoken in her support of LGBT people, a rarity in the 1980s.
Maybe because she was constantly offending 1980s conservatives with her frank lyrics and suggestive dance moves. Gay people were constantly offending 1980s conservatives just by existing. It was a match made in heaven.
See also: Mae West, Gay Diva of the 1930s and Let's Hear it for the Boy.
Maybe because she was constantly offending 1980s conservatives with her frank lyrics and suggestive dance moves. Gay people were constantly offending 1980s conservatives just by existing. It was a match made in heaven.
See also: Mae West, Gay Diva of the 1930s and Let's Hear it for the Boy.
First time I saw Madonna was in "Revolver" video bar....she was doing "Burning Up" and it was before she hit big and I remember watching it and thinking ..."WHO is this exquisite creature??"...then....BAM...she was everywhere...all the time and it was her show, and we were just extras in it....
ReplyDeleteThe Like a Prayer video is about a black man saving a white woman, they fall in love, and he's lynched. Could the "forbidden romance" trope be why? I nean, in the days before "no chocolate, no rice" and storm queens like Milo Yiannopoulos.
ReplyDeleteThe guys in the Express Yourself video?
ReplyDeleteWhen Fox News acts like Generation X is their salvation, I go on a lengthy rant shoehorning in as many 80s song titles as possible, including Madonna songs?