The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Pop Culture 1955-1979
Jon Savage, Faber
From his definitive punk history England’s Dreaming to his forensic examination of mid-60s pop culture 1966, Jon Savage’s work has long represented the gold standard of music writing. This may well be his masterpiece: an epic of meticulous research and analysis that’s fascinating in its unearthing of a frequently buried history. Beautifully written – its 800 pages absolutely fly by – it alternates between enthusiasm and righteous anger, and is utterly convincing in its relocation of queer artists to the dead centre of pop culture’s formative years. The Secret Public is brilliant on everything from Elvis Presley’s upending of traditional male stereotypes to the career of Dusty Springfield and the slow but inexorable rise of disco. The final paragraphs, which lovingly depict the audience at a 1979 Sylvester gig in San Francisco, partying “with no thought of what is to come”, are a quietly devastating testament to Savage’s understated skills as a prose stylist.
1984: The Year Pop Went Queer
Ian Wade, Nine Eight Books
... and for “what was to come”, look no further. Lighter in tone (the author’s witty, raised-eyebrow style marks him out as a teenage Smash Hits devotee) and narrower in scope than The Secret Public, Wade’s book nevertheless in effect picks up the story where Savage leaves off, identifying a year in which the British charts were unexpectedly flooded with gay artists – from Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Bronski Beat, Dead Or Alive and George Michael to a resurgent Elton John and Queen – even as the Aids crisis gathered pace. That pandemic, and the prejudice and marginalisation it provoked, provides a stark counterpoint to the taboo-busting fun and froth. There’s real erudition here, and umpteen sharp, if depressing, connections to the present day: its concluding argument suggests the same forces of reaction and dogmatic repression that underscored the queer pop explosion are once more abroad.
