Subject: SUBMISSION: Hultberg on Gay Music
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 21:15:54 -0400

A Submission From

THE NEW LESBIAN 
AND GAY VOICE

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Washington, DC 20009
Telephone: (202) 483-1311
Facsimile:  (202) 265-9737
Internet: [email-masked]

2005 words, Review of Gay Music by Jesse Hultberg
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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                                           1

The musings of an American gay male pop musician             
	
	The American music industry is a paradox. Of all the arts industries in this
country, music pretends to be the most cutting edge. The voice of our youth:
popular cultures witness to the winds of change. In fact, no other industry
has re-
packaged these concepts and sold them back to us as successfully than the
music industry.  
	With the recent and fast-growing presence of out queer boys and girls in
pop music, history is being made. This is not a statement of self-importance.
It's
just a fact. In a few years or maybe sooner, you'll turn on the local radio
station
and hear a romantic love song from one man to another and not bat an eyelash.
Until that time however there is this transitional period which is happening
right
now and to me (a gay male musician or should I say a male musician who
happens to be gay) it's exciting and frustrating. 
    		Gay people are paradoxes too. We are republicans and radicals. We
are and we are not 'just like heterosexuals'. We are Euro, African, Asian,
Latino,
physically challenged, male and female. Sometimes we are not even always gay.
	Let's play a game. Think of the first name that pops in your head that fits
these criteria: openly gay, American male ( wearing mens clothes), pop/rock
singer with lyrics that do more than just imply his orientation, signed to a
major record label. Got one..? Who? Michael Stipe? He's bi, right? And what
about the lyrics? Boy George? Sorry, he's English. RuPaul? Clothing,
clothing.
Morrisey!! ...shit, he's English too. Wait a minute, there's got to be one.
Well.......
there isn't. There is not even one who sings opera, disco or Broadway (unless
you
count Michael Feinstein) and those are the music genres gays are suppose to
love so much. Hard to believe? End of game? No, actually it's just the
beginning.
By the time this goes to print (I'm such an optimist) there will probably be
at least
one. 
	I know what your thinking. What's the big deal? Musicians should stand on
their own musical merits regardless of sexual orientation. Who cares if
you're gay,
straight, black, white, bla, bla, bla?  I agree, but..... why do we make big
budget
films with gay themes? Why are there gay books being made into television
mini-
series? Why are there high-profile gay dance companies and Broadway plays
that
leave no doubt to the subject at hand? If we don't care, why aren't there
already
famous American, gay male musicians who's lyrics use same-sex pronouns? It's
because we do care. It means something. It implies the beginning of an end to
exclusion. As a songwriter who does not skirt the issue, I would love sexual
orientation to be a non-issue, but it's more complicated than I'm willing to
be,
pretending or obscuring I'm anything other than myself. 
	Of course inclusion isn't always popular among those in the counter-
culture. Today's anarchic pop music scene is a place where musicians balance
a
fine line between mainstream and rebellion. Always ready to exploit a
lucrative
market, the music industry is commercializing counter-culture with a glut of
coma-
producing  product that renders a person's true nature' as irrelevant, so
long as
the packaging doesn't appear mainstream. If you don't believe me just turn on
Alternative Nation on MTV. I think you'll get my drift.
	So why have none of the majors or major independents taken the plunge
and backed an American male queer pop singer? The reasons are many-fold but
there is one reason that rings truer than all the rest. Record companies are
looking
for artists who have big enough followings to produce a profit on their
investment. A business concept so simple it eluded even me. They like artists
who have done a lot of audience building or one that fits a tried and true
formula
so that guess-work (i.e. money spending) is minimized. The 'coming out' of
lesbian superstars like kd lang and Mellissa Ethridge certainly helped. Not
only
did they continue to sell albums but they even won Grammies. RuPaul's rapid
rise may have catered to the mainstream's penchant for drag but it also
ushered in
our first openly gay American man with a hit on his hands. My guess is we'll
be
seeing Ru more and more in men's clothes. 
	 Although the events in recent years have had their impact, we all know that
nothing exists without a history. The last twenty years has seen a number of
lesbian and gay-identified musicians who carved out a niche for themselves
and
consequently helped establish the ones we know of today. To put things in
perspective here is a sketchy timeline of the ones that were significant to
me. It is
utterly incomplete and of course our music history is older than twenty years
but
hey, I'm not that old. 
	The first same-gender story I heard in a song was in 1976: Sweet Woman
by Cris Williamson (a woman) from The Changer and the Changed (Olivia
Records, 1975). Out of Oakland California, Olivia Records was the homebase of
the mythic and much maligned (mostly by gay people themselves) lesbian folk
scene. While the Olivia coterie did not lure me away from my Joni Mitchell
and
Patti Smith albums, I'll never forget the impact that song had on me. Still a
sensitive teenage boy wading through a blurry sexuality, I can only imagine
the
effect it had on adult lesbians of that era.  
	Ironically, two years earlier, Steven Grossman's Caravan Tonight on
Mercury Records was the first American major label release by an openly gay
man. A completely out album with a Randy Newmanish, Tom Waitsy sound. This
record didn't reach me until 1993, years after his death. 	
	Just after that, we all witnessed the phenomenon called The Village
People. Worthy of a college dissertation in gay studies, their kooky success
still 
manages to fascinate me in regards to gay identity. Did those thousands of
record-buying, hustle-dancing kids know they were queer or not? I didn't and
my
gut feeling says they didn't either. In that sense the Village People do not
really
qualify as openly gay. But lyrically and stylistically they were and still
are the best
reflection of 70s urban gay male culture and should not be excluded from this
timeline. 
	Before the end of the decade we heard The Tom Robinson Band. Hailing
from England, Robinson at first appeared to be the gay punkish rock star that
non
disco-listening queers were waiting for with his brooding song Glad To Be
Gay.
But he drifted into obscurity with subsequent albums that were perhaps too
brooding for the American public. There were others in the 70s as well that
didn't
reach my suburban environment although I vaguely remember a poppy disco tune
called Everybody In L.A. Is Gay or something like that.
	For the next decade, most music by gay men came from England or at
least it seemed that way from my vantage point. Exceptions were Romanovsky
and Phillips, Michael Callen and the Flirtations whose independent albums
went directly to gay book stores vis a vis the woman's music scene, which by
that
time had already become a thriving niche market, spawning a not-for-profit
distributor called Ladyslipper (whose catalogue is still the best way to get
some
insight into the independent gay music world even now, especially for women).
With little radio play or music industry support these artists were unable to
reach a
large audience. 
	Phranc represented the quintessential punk/folk singer breaking the
pattern of the lesbian folk stereotype. She managed to garner a lot of
attention and
a contract at Island Records but the British Invasion superseded all of them
with
major label support and the advent of video. 
	Bronski Beat broke the ice first with Smalltown Boy  and then came
Erasure. Both Jimmy Sommerville and Andy Bell admitting their gayness and
actually selling it was certainly a change in approach. England had already
given
us David Bowie and Elton John whose bisexuality was admitted, even if it  was
pretended or over-exaggerated. but there was something more identifiable for
me
in the new crop. Morrisey, Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and
Culture Club also sold gayness but they were cagier about it. A sort of
eighties Dirk Bogard, Village
People and Liberace. Boy George's latest release Cheapness and Beauty has 
a lot more to say.
	The 90s may appear like a renaissance in gay outness for musicians. But
that's just something I call 'gay ghetto syndrome'. When a neighborhood
sprouts a
few boutiques and cafes that are gay-owned, it's referred to as a gay ghetto.
We
are either invisible or taking over with no inbetween. A renaissance may be
occurring but it's definitely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.    		
	Ironically, the music industry validates us (lesbians and gays) by not
treating us as a unified market. Music is not furniture. It cannot be sold to
a wildly 
diverse community with clever, inclusive advertising or making nice-nice with
gay
employees. What we've seen instead is the industry dabbling around for the
elusive gay market. 
	For about two years there have been one compilation CD after another with
names like Knock Out or Outspoken. They are backed by major labels such as 
Atlantic and Sire and arrive free with a subscription to Out Magazine. These
CDs
usually contain songs by mostly heterosexual bands that music execs are
hoping
gay people will like. The impression you're left with is the industry lurking
about
trying to pin us down. 
	It was on one of these compilations that I first noticed Jill Sobule (I
kissed
A Girl) and The Lemonheads (Big Gay Heart). Apparently, openly gay lyrics are
a
marketing dream as long as they come from e hetero-identified artist. 
	More recently, there have been independent compilations with actual
queers such as Outloud, This Way Out, A Love Worth Fighting For (I guess the
word out is no longer in), and Free (I appear on this one). Some of them are
good, some of them are not, but at least it's an attempt by the artists to
build their
followings which will eventually make the difference when the majors come
calling. And they will. Atlantic Records has already created a "gay marketing
division". Which could mean anything from marketing Bette Midler albums to
actually signing a gay band. In October of 95, New York's OutMusic
organizers,
who do an annual festival of gay music, hosted it's first Gay and Lesbian
American
Music Awards (the GLAMAS) at the glamorous Supper Club. What started out as
a vague concept snowballed in just a few months into a high-profile event
involving known celebrities such as Harvey Fierstein and Me Shell
N'degAocelo.
What the awards ceremony will eventually be is unknown.
	What I do know is that there is not one gay musician out there who doesn't
feel the buzz. In some ways it pits us against each other as though we are
afraid
there won't be enough room to support all of our music (notice how I haven't
named many current musicians). This feeling is compounded when the industry 
tries to sell our music to each other just because we're queer and not to
straight
folks as well. Any gay recording artist will tell you how hard it is to sell
a rock
album to an opera lover or a folk album to a disco bunny. Visibility tends to
highlight our differences and in the slow slide to assimilation, things are
getting
messy. Hey, maybe there's a song in that? 
	Frankly, I'm excited by the future and the possibility of an out-gay
presence
in pop music even if it makes us a little humdrum (I don't think it will).
I'm excited
because I don't think your sexual orientation is enough reason to feel
yourself
special or to be left out (damn, there's that word again). In the meantime
I'm forced
to consider myself special and I continue writing songs and putting out my
little
CDs on my little indy label just like the rest of us.

Jesse Hultberg
copyright 1996

Biographical Material

In the 80s, Jesse Hultberg along with David Wojnarowicz (the visual artist
who
wrote Close To The Knives and Tongues Of Flame), led the coolest art-pop band
in
New York. With the release of "No Motive" on Point Blank Records, the group, 
3 Teens Kill 4, secured itself a place in East Village history.

Jesse went on performing with the Fingerlakes Trio (a comic "chamber music"
ensemble that played only disco and pop songs from the 70s). Their career
climaxed
when they appeared in the American Playhouse film " Longtime Companion"
singing
the Village People classic Y.M.C.A..

Hultberg also appeared in the Wigstock documentary as Peter, Paul & a Big
Mary.
The scene was cut due to refusal of permission to use the song Puf The Magic
Dragon which Hultberg had changed to Poof The Magic Drag Queen. 

After an extended hiatus in France, Jesse returned to New York and in 1994/95
released his eponymously titled debut solo album and created Wild Monk
Records. 

Billboard Magazine gave Hultberg's version of  "If I Can't Have You"a critics
choice review declaring it as one of the Top Ten singles of 1995.

The song "Constant Thing (I Was Raised A Straight Boy) from the Album Jesse
Hultberg was used as the closing theme on Party Talk, the nationally
syndicated gay cable show.

To hear a song from "Jesse Hultberg" call the Ladyslipper listen line at
919-644-1942 selection number for Jesse Hultberg is 0183. To contact Wild
Monk Records call 212-631-4286 or e-mail [email-masked].