From Sex to survival: How Madonna helped normalize queer desire in crisis - Queerty

"From the underground dancefloors of the Seventies to the global charts of the Nineties, LGBTQ+ artists and audiences shaped music's sound, style, and spirit. In Mighty Real, Walters chronicles its queer history from the Velvet Underground to the 21st century's dawn as he honors the artists who redefined gender, defied tradition, and dared to challenge sexual norms with the help of a record business that wasn't as straight as commonly believed."

"Drawing on his decades as a New York- and San Francisco-based music critic, Walters examines how LGBTQ+ musicians, music industry executives, and fans reshaped the mainstream. He connects the dots between David Bowie's dazzling reinventions, Grace Jones's androgynous glamor, Prince's boundary-shattering sexuality, and the radical candor of the Indigo Girls to prove they're all doing the same thing: fighting oppression."

"With exuberance, insight, and encyclopedic knowledge, Walters brings to life the songs and society that filled dancefloors, bedrooms, and streets as he uncovers yesteryear's coded queer messages that paved the way for today's unabashedly queer hits. Mighty Real is a masterful love letter to the music that liberated generations, and it's written in a page-turning, personal way that blurs distinctions between chronicle and memoir."

"This is the rare and revolutionary music history told to help you laugh, cry, and then rally against lingering inequality. If you were an LGBTQ person of a certain age and sensibility, you had to see Sex. Topping the New York Times Best Seller list for three weeks and selling one and a half million copies, it was the first best-selling book that lifted the curtain on queer sexuality in a participat"

LGBTQ+ artists and audiences influenced music’s sound, style, and spirit from the 1970s underground dancefloors to the 1990s global charts. The history traces queer contributions from the Velvet Underground into the early 21st century, emphasizing artists who redefined gender and defied tradition. It connects figures such as David Bowie, Grace Jones, Prince, and the Indigo Girls to show shared efforts against oppression. The narrative also credits a record business that was not as straight as commonly believed, involving musicians, industry executives, and fans in reshaping mainstream culture. Coded queer messages in earlier songs helped pave the way for openly queer hits, while the work aims to inspire emotional engagement and continued resistance to inequality.

Read at Queerty