Beefcake and Gay Topics in the Top Rock Songs

I've been going through contemporary music charts, to see if there are any gay themes or performers, or if it's all a wasteland of heterosexist boy meets girl lo-oo-oove.  And, incidentally, to see if any of the performers have been to the gym reently.  Previous posts covered rap, country, and pop, and today rock.

Wait -- how do rock and pop differ?
1. When I was a Nazarene, rock was strictly forbidden, but most pop was ok.
2. Rock favors groups, rather than individual vocalists..
3. Rock instrumentals are more elaborate.
4. Rock lyrics tend to be more complex.

So here's what's gay about the Top Rock Songs of June 1st.

1. Five Finger Death Punch featuring Kenny Wayne Shepherd, "Blue on Black."  The lyrics are poetic and rather obscure, but I think it's about someone who died, gender and relationship unspecified: Joker on jack, match on fire, cold on ice, as a dead man's touch, whisper on a scream, doesn't change a thing, doesn't bring you back.

According to an article in The Houston Press, the group performs "Bro Metal," praising men as aggressive sexual predators, "penis-measuring of the most insecure type."  Ivan Moody (center) seems to have an alpha-male physique.

2. The Black Keys, "Lo/Hi" More poetic, obscure lyrics: Out on a limb in the wind of a huricane, down at the bar like a star in the falling rain.  But I think it's about being lonely.

The Black Keys, formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, consists of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. They have won six Grammies.

In 2013 Patrick Carney was the subject of homophobic tirades from Justin Bieber's fans after he stated that the singer did not deserve a Grammy.  But he's married to a woman, so....

3. Bad Wolves, "Remember When."  Two  brothers remember their lost innocence and their descent into crime, and now they're tired of the violence, tired of the silence, and falling through the ice.

Bad Wolves is a heavy metal band formed in 2017.  When lead vocalist Tommy Vext was in another group in 2012, he released a song about two soldiers who have a secret gay relationshp.  So probably not homophobic.

He looks like he has some  muscles under the ink, too.

4. Badflower, "Heroin."  It's not actually about drugs, it's about a girlfriend  She's back in my life.  She's so poisonous that I'll die, but I can't stop myself.

Badflower only released their debut album in March 201.  Lead singer Josh Katz (pictured) has sort of an underfed emo thing going on.

I keep searching on these artists with the key word "gay," and getting the same article that has nothing to do with them, but mentions Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford coming out in 1998.  So I guess nothing specifically gay or homophobic in Badflower's opus.

5. Shinedown, "Monsters."  My monsters are real and they're trained to kill, and they're coming back.

Shinedown is an alternative rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. Nothing specifically gay or homophobic in their press.

Guitarist Zach Myers (right) may have seen a free weight or two.

6. Papa Roach, "Elevate."  I'm sinking down, and I want something to lift me up, to elevat me to the next level.

The lyrics seem rather like Christian rock, but Papa Roach is actually not an elderly man who smokes marijuana and sings about Jesus, but a group from Vacaville, California, formed in 1993.

None of the Beatles had tattoos, you know.

Papa Roach replied to a hater on twitter: "We're not gay, but you really shouldn't talk bad about gay people.  They can kick your ass."


7. Breaking Benjamin, "Tourniquet."  I won't save you, I won't change you, I won't fight the pain within, because I was born to live this hell.

Breaking Benjamin is a rock group formed in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1999 by Benjamin Burnley.  They have been criticized by haters as "a gay screamo band," whatever that is, and one of their lyrics refers to a "polyamorous friend."

8. Godsmack, "Under Your Scars."  You're like a shooting star in the rain, you're everything that feels like home to me, under your scars I could live inside you time and time again.

Now that's got to be Christian rock, living inside "the scars" of Jesus.

Godsmack, a band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, is so famous that the mayor of Boston declared March 6th Godsmack Day.  But one of its singers, Sully Erna, is a vocal proponent of Wicca, so if not Jesus, whose scars are they?

In 2010 Sully Erna used a homophobic slur against rock competitor Creed.

9. I Prevail, "Breaking Down."  Got a pain that I can't avoid, I think I'm breaking down.

"I Prevail" or "One Prevail" is a metalcore group formed in Southfield, Michigan in 2013.

Lead singer Eric Vanderberghe (the one who doesn't look like a nightmare ghoul) is gay, I think.

10. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, "Mind Your Manners."  I'm leaving you behind, I don't need you anymore, times change, so mind your manners and just stand there nicely.

Slash, born in 1965, was formerly lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Guns n  Roses.  Even I know that they were one of the more homophobic bands of the 1990s.

He performs with the nightmarishly ugly Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, the name of his backup performers.  I'm not even going to look them up.

Themes:  Only one of 10 songs specifically refers to romance (with a girl), and 4 others refer to people who could be romantic partners, friends, relatives, or God without specifying gender.  All of the songs angry or depressed, full of loathing for one's self and "this shitty world."

And people enjoy listening to them?

Gay Subjects:   Nothing mentioned in the lyrics, but five of the groups appear to be gay-positive.  The others appear to be homophobic.

Beefcake:  If you like skinny, sickly Emo or heavily-tattooed Alpha Male.