“No
matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right
track baby, I was born to survive”[1]
To what extent has popular music culture successfully
created awareness of LGBT groups?
Although there have
been “advances in gay and lesbian visibility”[2] in
popular music culture, the representations of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transsexual) groups are “rampantly heterosexual”[3] as it appeals to the mass audiences that may not tolerate these
representations. In order for these artists to remain in the mainstream media
the artists’ music videos have to appeal to what the majority of people want to
see, rather than educating people and creating awareness of LGBT groups. It is important to note that during the 1980’s LGBT
groups were being portrayed in popular music culture during the same time as
the AIDS epidemic outbreak, which debatably elevated homophobia, prior to this
period of time the “invisibility”[4] of
homosexual representations lead to the marginalisation of the groups due to the
lack of awareness. In more recent times there is more visibility of homosexuals
in popular music culture due to the “progressive critique"[5]. With the emergence of a
new media or Media 2.0 and Web 2.0 popular music culture has seen a
rapid change in terms of the representations of LBGT groups as the new
technologies enable the audiences to become more active and also the use of
social networking sites have allowed artists like Lady Gaga to express their
pro-homosexual values and communicate with their audiences; whereas the
traditional media limited audiences to passive consume the representations of
LBGT groups that were visible in the media.
The 1980’s was arguably one of the most
controversial and pivotal eras musically in the 20th century for LGBT groups,
as there were many artists that conveyed their pro-homosexual values through
their music videos. One of the first groups to represent LGBT groups in Britain
during the 1980’s were Culture Club whose music video to the hit song ‘Do You
Really Want To Hurt Me’ “focuses on the misunderstanding of sexual diversity”[6] in
the different periods of time in which the music video is set. British society was gradually becoming more
exposed to LGBT groups yet Britain remained extremely conservative and
homophobic. Judith Butler’s Queer theory highlights the issues with gay
representation as does the music video, Boy George’s representation is limited
to his sexuality and therefore marginalised through the long shots of him
sitting in jail. In the court scenes of ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’ there
are numerous close up shots of people who collectively disapprove of Boy George
through their shocked and outraged facial expressions; the reasons for these
homophobic attitudes towards the gay character of Boy George could be because
of the laws such as the Local Government Act 1988. Section 28 of the Local
Government Act 1988 elevated homophobic attitudes across Britain as it clearly
stated that “promoting homosexuality by
teaching or by publishing material”[7]
is prohibited for local authorities, making it difficult to generate
awareness and tolerance for the LGBT community.
Though artists such as Madonna were not part of
LGBT groups, her music videos such as 'Express Yourself' challenged the gender
roles that the mainstream media had perpetually enforced through music videos.
Madonna’s behaviour, costume and dancing would have been deemed as ‘butch’ due
to the fact that a woman dressed as a man would be considered as “adapting the
mannerism of lesbianism”[8].
It could be argued that this alternative representation of women in ‘Express
Yourself’ created awareness of LGBT groups as it was described as "an
encouragement”[9]
for “all oppressed minorities"[10]
as the music video sought to empower women and LGBT groups. The long shots of
Madonna focus on her attire as she is dancing in a suit; this challenges the
gender roles through her actions of grabbing an implied crotch representing “Madonna’s rebelliousness
towards conventional, limiting notions of sex”[11] while she opens her jacket revealing her bra.
Madonna’s androgynous costume represents both females who take on stereotypical
male traits to become equal to men and homosexual groups as she has to “put on”[12]
both genders, which people thought homosexual men did at the time, which suggests
that Madonna’s view on gender is simply a “put on”[13]
rather than being fixed according to one’s sex.
From a Marxist point of view it would seem that
music videos like ‘Express Yourself’ and ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’
portray the oppression that the proletariat, in this case the “minorities”[14],
face in society and life from the bourgeoisie, the heterosexual masses. Marx
argues that in order to gain equality a “revolution is necessary”[15],
in terms of popular music culture there was debatably a revolution of LGBT
artists and change to gender roles in the music videos of the 1980’s. However, it could be argued that this did not create awareness
but rather presented them as “victims of
ridicule”[16],
through the outlandish make up of Boy George,
due to the fact that homosexual artists in the media was rare.
Thus the lack of diversity during this time formed society’s perception of LBGT
groups to be bizarre like the persona of the artists seemed.
Contemporary LBGT
pop artists like Lady Gaga advocate social and political change through the use
of her provocative, yet influential, music videos to convey her pro-homosexual
ideologies.
In Lady Gaga’s music video ‘Born This Way’ Gaga is portrayed as the
"Mother Monster"[17]
in the opening narrative to the music video literally giving birth to "the
new race”[18]
which “bears no prejudice, no judgment"[19]
through the use of a symmetrical long shot, which would connote the birth of
the “new race”[20]
as being equal. Like Madonna, Gaga subverts the stereotypical gender roles in
the music video ‘Alejandro’, the male characters have an androgynous costume as
they wear fish net tights and stilettos whilst sexually dancing like women on
beds. The blurring of masculinity with femininity represents LGBT groups
presenting the androgynous men in a sexualised manner arguably for a new gay
male audience. The fact that the men are turned into a fetish and sexually
objectified on the bed and by Lady Gaga in the reverse sexual positioning in
the long shots would evoke a homoerotic effect for the homosexual audiences
which Steven Neale would define as the Gay gaze. Nevertheless this did not
generate enough awareness of LBGT groups for the heterosexual masses in society
as there “is social prohibition against the feminization of men”[21], whilst a masculinisation
of women would be more acceptable for example the phallic symbols that Gaga has
on her costumes. The ‘Alejandro’ music video could be argued as being an
allegory of the failure of Patriarchalism through the use of the medium shots
of the stereotypical men being chained and the triumph of LGBT groups as the
androgynous men are free and uniform.
Not only does Gaga
use her music videos to create awareness of LGBT groups but also the use of
social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The ‘Born This Way’ music video was released on the
27th February 2011, promoting equality for LGBT groups in particular, after a
few months on 25th June 2011 the Gay Marriage Bill was passed in the state of
New York; it would seem that the ideas of “popular culture representations of
gayness became increasingly politicized."[22]. The emergence of Web 2.0 has “provided a key
platform for the mainstreaming of gayness"[23]
through the social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter which have
enabled artists like Lady Gaga to directly interact with her audiences around
the world about her views. For example
on the 25th June 2011, when the Gay Marriage Bill was passed in New
York, Lady Gaga tweeted “I can’t stop crying. We did it kids.”[24].
Gaga also won the ‘Outstanding Artist’ award in the 2012 GLAAD Media Awards for
her support and encouragement of marriage equality; on the 26th
March Gaga posted on Facebook “the zeitgeist continues to beckon for equality +
change”[25]
which would reinforce the alternative ideologies of men that Gaga portrays in
her music videos. Gaga is without doubt one of the most influential popular
music figures with her (approx.) 20 million followers on Twitter; it would seem
that "Lady Gaga has clearly mastered the new social network phenomenon”[26],
Gaga’s use of these social networking sites have contributed to her work on
tackling the prejudices against LGBT groups in popular music culture not only
in the USA but also on a global scale as it has in itself created a chain
effect for social equality for LGBT groups across the world.
In today’s society LGBT artists seem to have freedom of expression through music videos though there is still the fundamental issue of the majority of society, heterosexual groups, repressing the minority groups, in this case the LGBT groups which artists like Katy Perry portray through her music video ‘Firework’. Katy Perry tweeted on the 28th October 2010 that the music video of ‘Firework’; “@PerezHilton I am officially dedicating my new video to #itgetsbetter,”[27], the It Gets Better Project fights discrimination against LGBT Youth. Although fireworks connote freedom and celebration it is important to acknowledge that the music video intended to empower LGBT youth in particular, if this was the case then surely the gay kiss would have been shown? The homosexual character in ‘Firework’ is presented to be distressed by the fact that a heterosexual couple is kissing in the background of the medium shot but he cannot kiss a man openly. According to the philosopher John Stuart Mill there will inevitably be an issue with the acceptance and tolerance of the minority, the LGBT groups, in society as there is “tyranny of the majority”[28]. The “majority”[29], the heterosexual groups, oppresses and coerces the minority to assimilate with the majority which is what Katy Perry portrays through the implicit binary opposition of the homosexual man and society around him. Even when trying to create a positive representation of LGBT groups there is a problem as “mainstream pop culture”[30] has been criticised as being from a “rampantly heterosexual”[31] point of view.
It could be argued
that the censorship surrounding LBGT characters in music videos leads to a lack
of awareness in popular music culture as a whole then again the lack of
censorship in Rihanna’s music video to ‘Te Amo’ did not create awareness of
lesbianism but rather sexually objectified the women. When looking at the music
video from a Utilitarian point of view Jeremy Bentham would argue that the video would not need to
been censored as through his ‘hedonic calculus’ that it maximises happiness for
the greatest amount of people, the majority and lesbians. Whilst ‘Te Amo’ does
portray lesbianism, it arguably addresses lesbianism in an extremely sexual
manner through the medium shot of Rihanna controlling the other woman in
bondage from behind in a sexually provocative position which would be deemed as
pornographic. When looking at other music videos like Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This
Way’ and Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’, which do seek to create awareness of LGBT
groups, it would seem that these music videos are censored and more
controversial compared to Rihanna’s ‘Te Amo’; but why is this the case? Media
theorists such as Laura Mulvey would argue that the Male Gaze, the theory that
the role of women is to be sexually objectified for an acknowledged male
audience, the fetishisation of the women is the reason for the acceptance of
‘Te Amo’ as it creates an “erotic impact”[32]
for the predominantly male audiences.
Is popular music culture successful
at creating awareness of LGBT groups? There is still the question of what
society as a whole accepts and whether or not these music videos actually do
create awareness of LGBT groups. It would seem that the globalisation of social
networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have enabled societies to become
more aware of LGBT groups successfull. When
looking a Nietzsche’s Perspectivism theory posed in his ‘Beyond Good and Evil’
book there can never be one truth, or in this case representation of LBGT groups,
but rather it is there are many perspectives which become a foreground perspective or a dominant representation only
for a while. LGBT representations over time seem to change according to
society for example in ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’; the homosexual
representation of Boy George is amplified as being flamboyant, however this
perspective in today’s society Lady Gaga’s represents LGBT groups being
equal which is becoming a foreground
perspective in society. One could argue that the
“stereotypes
survive by undergoing change”[33],
however the LBGT representations is
problematic to challenge as the stereotypical gender roles have become
ingrained in our society through being perpetuated and enforced in popular
music culture and the media as a whole, thus popular music culture does not
create enough awareness of LGBT groups but rather tries maintain the gender
roles in the music videos which LGBT artists seek to change.
Word
Count: 1,974
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