Music

The 15 Queerest Music Moments of 2014

Recognizing a moment when you’re in the moment is a wild trip. Sometimes a moment is so undeniable, I tear up to an embarrassing level of crying-possibilities. When you’re a feminist who believes rock ‘n roll will save your soul, and that “girls to the front” should be the M.O. at every single concert, you tend to put a ton of loyalty into music, even when you’re not sure about its movement. In 2014, movement is what made music a queer space for expression, and evolution. This year, I found myself awestruck and bleary eyed in front of my TV or computer so many times I lost count, because-hello, we got gay married at the Grammys.

Whether 2014 brought with it a new wave in music-out musicians covering the genre spectrum from country to hip hop, throngs of independent female-fronted bands gazing our way, or we’ve spun the hexagon color wheel and landed on progression-music is feeling really gay. Queerness in music is like having a lucid dream, and you go off and fly, do cartwheels through walls, scream at the top of your lungs. You just go weird; you go for it, because it feels freeing to be yourself. By the way, did you know that songwriter Sia told Howard Stern she’ll only tour if it involves dogs and queers?

Whatever next year brings, we’ll have to meet with retrospect when the decade ends and pay our respects to ’14. We took back something-words, terms, labels, definitions, boundaries, and through music we gained even more-gender bending, queer-centric acts, performances, declarations and moments.

15. t.A.T.u. performed at the Sochi Olympics.

And we all buzzed about it for two days, having a nice laugh over their 15-minute reunion in the fame spotlight, because half our hearts went back in time to a middle school birthday party at the roller skating rink and the other half was like WTF? Of course, the pair, Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina, aren’t gay, and there’s been buttloads of backlash ever since they hit the headlines for their performance in unrelated instances for making alleged homophobic slurs. But-they’re not gonna get us! P.S. You may not have known that the Russian translation of their band name refers to the phrase, “This girl loves that girl”-a risky performance pick considering all the hostility in Russia against queers.

14. Debbie Harry came out as bisexual.

I was busy watching Little Darlings when this news-item came out, that’s my only excuse for being under a rock when it came to the Blondie rock star admitting to having feelings for the ladies. In April, the singer came out to the Daily Mail, expressing her openness toward dating women. My imagination immediately flashes to those legendary snapshots of Debbie hanging out with Joan Jett back in the day. Nudge, nudge. I’ll also never forget the first time I heard/saw Blondie-on a syndicated American Bandstand episode with Debbie singing “Heart of Glass,” surrounded by an airy aura of golden light. In her recent interview, the now 68-year-old said when questioned on those longtime rumors about her relationships with women, that, “Yeah, let’s say women are more sensual.” Sure, she had a long-term relationship with her bandmate Chris Stein, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fantasize about all the possibilities the 70s-icon sexed up when she was having her fun. Hey, maybe she still is. Call me? You can call me, call me-anytime.

13. Hunter Valentine stood up as trans allies and bowed out from MichFest.

Due to the festival’s “Womyn born Womyn” policy, disallowing trans women from attending the annual music festival, the all-female rock band we became acquainted with circa The Real L Word, decided against performing this year, thereby taking a strong queer stance on the controversial festival guidelines. In a statement on their Facebook page, the band wrote: “The issue with us playing Michigan Womyn’s Festival lies in how we do now, and always have believed that the term women includes transgender women. In our mind the term ‘trans’ should not be a label that alienates. We have always felt and identified as positive trans allies and feel that playing the festival would directly contradict our beliefs that a trans woman is a woman and should be seen, respected and treated as such.” Of all the big events HV has been a part of in 2014, this is considerably the queerest moment for the band-in which they took a stand, created a conversation, and expressed their feelings as true trans allies.

12. Melissa Etheridge went to the White House, made a new album and is creating a line of cannabis-infused wine.

The “I’m the Only One” singer recently released her first-ever independent album, This Is M.E. (Get it? ‘Cause her name’s-nevermind.) Never one to shy away from bold, brave moves, the album might nostalgically take you back to Yes I Am, “Come to My Window” days. The new album was released on September 30, but let’s please talk about Melissa’s “cannabis-infused fine wines” she’s launching. Her “wine tinctures” were discussed with CBS News, where she explained, “You feel a little buzzed from the alcohol and then get a delicious full body buzz.” Pot advice from Melissa Etheridge could be a best-selling coffee table book. Name suggestion: This Is Marijuana.

In all seriousness, Melissa is an advocate for the legalization of marijuana after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and since utilizing pot for medicinal purposes. She’s calling this her new “passion project” and it’s understandable-2014 has been a busy year for the singer. She performed at the White House for a PBS special in April, “In Performance at the White House: Women of Soul” alongside legendaries like Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle.

11. Angel Haze debuted her highly anticipated album Dirty Gold.

….A whopping THREE months before the record label planned to release it. (Technically it came out December 30, 2013, but it was huge in 2014.) In the hip-hop/rap industry, there’s always a battle-musically and otherwise. Out in the magical ethers of rappers you should listen to, there’s Angel Haze minding her own business when it comes to petty competitions, or rapping about cash, money, hoes. Oh, and she’s dating Ireland Baldwin, daughter of Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. In her interview with the Independent, when asked if she’s a feminist, Angel responded, “Sometimes. When I see a woman under fire just for being a woman, when a woman is told she can’t do something because she’s a woman… That’s dumb to me. That’s when I become the most radical feminist you’ll ever see, I’m willing to chew of the limbs of you and your family just to regain equality.” It’s good to be the Haze.

10. A bunch of queer artists were nominated for Grammys.

OMG you guys. For the second time, Tegan and Sara were nominated for a Grammy, which is already a major win considering their first-ever Grammy nom came in 2013 for their music DVD, Get Along. Yeah, they didn’t win-but they didn’t care because, hello! It’s the Grammys! This year, T&S are nominated for their song featuring the Lonely Island for the Lego Movie, “Everything is Awesome!!!” Other queer-centric artists up for nominations this year include: St. Vincent for Best Alternative Album, emerging country singer Brandy Clark for Best New Artist, and Sia’s “Chandelier” for literally a zillion awards, because it’s Sia and her music video featuring Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler is flawless and makes me cry a little bit. Naturally, heavy-hitters and other friends to the queer community like Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Iggy Izalea, Pink, Nicki Minaj, Jessie J and Miley Cyrus are nominated for their stellar year in music wow-ness as well. Clearly, everything really is awesome. Check out the entire list of 2015 nominations here, and tune in Sunday, February 8 for Gay Christmas-I mean, the Grammys.

7. An out country music star had a song performed at the GLAAD Media Awards for the first time.

Speaking of Brandy, history was made at this year’s GLAAD Media Awards when a country singer performed at the event for the first time, ever. Kasey Musgraves sang her hit, “Follow Your Arrow,” a progressive LGBT anthem co-written with Brandy that has lyrics that go: “Make lots of noise / Kiss lots of boys / Or kiss lots of girls / If that’s something you’re into.” The song is just a boot-stomping, knee-slapping awesome situation for country music in 2014, featured on Musgrave’s album, Same Trailer, Different Park.

I love what GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis had to say to the Advocate about this new era of country music: “America’s heartland is changing and support for equality continues to grow across party lines, in our faith institutions, and in country music.” This is perhaps one of the most underrated music moments in normalizing queer culture this year, and for years to come.

8. Sleater-Kinney reunited.

Get in your station wagons and head toward the land of Douglas Firs and Portlandia. In October, the Olympia, Washington-based band (we love and missed) announced a new album and a world tour to follow and we all died in the best way. No Cities to Love is set to drop on January 20 from Sub Pop. (Best first gift of 2015, I’d say.) Not long after, they’ll be setting out on tour from February through March-certainly not a show to miss!

They’ve already teased us with a lyrics video to the new track, “Bury Our Friends” created by the lovely, enigmatic Miranda July. If you were one of the lucky ones to grab Sub Pop’s newly-released discography box set Start Together, you might have been tipped off by the mysterious hint on the 7″-the date 1/20/15 with the song, “Bury Our Friends.” It was basically saying: You guys, WE’RE BACK. Carrie Brownstein has been making major strides this year in the acting biz-showing up as bisexual Syd in Amazon’s new hit series, Transparent along with her ongoing slapstick action on Portlandia. Fellow Sleater girls Corin Tucker, formerly of riot grrrl band Heavens to Betsy, and drummer Janet Weiss, whose first band The Furies was a huge influence on the Portland music scene in the ’90s, will also be back and ready to rock an entire new generation of show-goers.

7. Mary Lambert released her first major label solo album.

When Heart on My Sleeve was released in October, the out singer-songwriter reached a pivotal plateau in her career. For one, Mary Lambert’s been all over the red carpet at oodles of events all year long-from the AMAs to performing for the Grammys’ infamous “Same Love” ceremony, attending a panel at the UN on Human Rights Day, to speaking candidly to OUT about bipolar disorder. That frank honesty comes out in her single, “Secrets.” Then there’s “Ribcage”-which features Angel Haze on the track, and it’s damn sexy. Mary also started dating The Voice finalist, Michelle Chamuel this year-now that’s one wonderful mashup. Her new album dropped in at number 29 on the Billboard 200 list, and was part of The Advocate‘s “40 Under 40.” All in all, this list would be incomplete without our girl on this music roundup-her visibility continues to change the tone for out musicians, and she’s come such a long way since “Same Love.”

6. Members of Pussy Riot got slack from bandmates for attending benefit concert.

All the way back at the start of the year in February, you might remember there was a benefit concert in New York for Amnesty International-the first one in 16 years. The big deal that night was that two members of Pussy Riot would be in attendance-Nadezhda “Nadya” Tolokonnikova and Maria “Masha” Alyokhina. Pussy Riot had been imprisoned in Russia for two years. Madonna stood on stage with the pair, while other performers there that night included Tegan and Sara, Blondie, Lauryn Hill and Yoko Ono.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there: Soon thereafter, a letter was released by other members of Pussy Riot who said that the concert went against their female separatist collective, saying, “We never accept money for our performances…we only stage illegal performances in unexpected public places.” It’s hard to stay mad though when just this past December, Nadya and Masha had the chance to performed Le Tigre‘s “Deceptacon” at VICE’s 20th anniversary party, joining forces with JD Samson to collab on new music videos. So who got the last laugh?

5. Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway and Brie Larson dressed in drag in a Jenny Lewis music video.

Even if she wasn’t trying to show off her highly anticipated album release (the first solo Jenny Lewis album in six years!) she did just that with her music video debut for “Just One of the Guys.” Directed by Jenny herself, donned in her now-infamous My Little Pony-like rainbow pantsuit (as seen on the cover of her new album, Voyager) the video transforms Jenny alongside Kristen, Anne and Brie into sly, suave looking dudes in tracksuits and furry ’80s porn staches.

If it’s wrong to think K-Stew’s still way hot in whatever she wears, then I don’t want to be right. Besides, her popular resting bitch face is now gender fluid, baby. Jenny told GQ about the video shoot, “…Deep character exploration. [Anne Hathaway’s] dude is a bit more Backstreet Boy than the rest. Melancholy Backstreet Boy is what I think she was going for-he really feels things deeply and break dances like a motherfucker…My dude is clearly the gnarliest. He’s a total dick-like a mini [Danny Bonaduce/Fred Durst] hybrid.” There’s a power-element of “taking back the video girl” when the foursome dons their white pant suits and instruments. There in the machismo humor, the gender role play seems to own the moment by way of the feminine mystique. How? Don’t ask, just watch!

4. Honorary Lez Perfume Genius killed it this year.

I’d be remiss not to mention my old pal Mike Hadreas in a list of standout queer music moments for 2014. Sure, we’re a lez-centric website, but the queerest queen of all this year was the blue-eyed babe behind Perfume Genius who finally landed a permanent place in the mainstream music world with his third album, Too Bright. His single, “Queen” captures an evolving musician whose sound has evolved with him in the last four years since he was signed to Matador Records. Just two years ago, his music video for “Hood” was banned from YouTube because some conservation jerks thought it was inappropriate-a beefy bear porn star cradling Mike in his arms. Frankly, if you get banned, I think you’re doing everything right with your art.

I like this bit of interview from his talk this year with Wondering Sound: “I like to think there’s some kind of divine, spiritual, ancient reason for my being…So many women musicians I love seem to be part of some divine, mythical figure-Lilith, or some kind of demon-whatever. Like Diamanda Galas, when she’s just singing in tongues, I was trying to figure out where that would come from for me. So I created one, and it was me.” Besides, no one looks better donning a bright shade of lipstick than Mike.

3. A massive gay wedding was officiated by Queen Latifah at the Grammys.

It happened almost exactly a year ago-when we all heard that 33 couples, both gay and straight would be married at the 2014 Grammy Awards during Macklemore and Ryan Lewis‘ performance of “Same Love” featuring Mary Lambert and Madonna. GOOSEBUMPS FOR DAYS. The excitement was palpable when the performance/ceremony began. So when we’re old crones and we are telling our Forrest Gump stories to strangers on park benches, remember: The 56th annual Grammy Awards saw a “Same Love” wedding ceremony, and backstage, commissioner of the night, Queen Latifah professed, “Call me Queen Commish.” Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich says his daughter is a lesbian and apparently brought her dad word that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis sometimes host onstage nuptials at their concerts. While talking about the Grammy nuptials he said, “We’re serious about this.” Serious is right-this was one way to kick of 2014 that we’ll never ever forget.

2. Women musicians performed Nirvana songs at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early on in the planning, the surviving guys of Nirvana, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, who were set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 10 by R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe, decided they wanted all women to perform Nirvana songs. Krist spoke to Rolling Stone after the event, saying: “Joan Jett was first on my list to be out front. I spoke to Dave about it and he ran with the idea of having all women lead. We felt that would be a good tribute to Kurt and what Nirvana was about.” Since Kurt Cobain was a self-proclaimed feminist who first fell hard for feminist punk bands like the Breeders, Sonic Youth and Bikini Kill. Joan Jett ripped through “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Kim Gordon rocked hard to “Aneurism,” St. Vincent roared into the mic for “Lithium” and Lorde gave a melty rendition of “All Apologies.” Krist went on to say, “It was a good balance of females as Joan Jett and Kim Gordon are matriarchs of punk rock, while St. Vincent and Lorde represent the powerful up-and-coming women in rock. Every one of these performances nailed a Nirvana tune in their own way.” It was an amazing way to pay homage to Kurt-who wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. If you missed the induction, you can watch all of it here via Stereogum.

1. BEYONCE at the MTV VMA Awards.

First, let me get this out of the way-major love and respect to all the Bey fans out in the world, but I don’t listen to much Beyonce. (Make me a mix, convert me!) Yeah, duh-I think she’s fierce, fabulous and a queen in the world of feminist music-makers who empower girls everywhere. I just listen to punk rock more than I listen to pop rock, true story. That said, I can’t help but tune in every single year to watch the MTV Video Music Awards, for the same reason everyone else does: the performances. I heard stirrings that this year would be legendary. It was.

Beyonce made that stage her bitch and transformed the entire event into a Beyonce concert. We all went through some kind of heavenly vortex into her utopia, away from the throngs of other artists standing up from their velvet seats in sheer awe and excitement, singing and clapping along. About 10 minutes into her 16-minute opus of meticulously practiced, designed and synchronized theatric perfection, I began to cry so hard. Maybe it was the word FEMINIST emblazoned behind her on the stage. In fact, it’ll take a landslide to top that MTV performance in award show herstory. Why is this queer moment the top moment of the year? Because 2014 is the year of the feminist-making waves, taking stands, bringing ideas to the masses, creating and continuing conversation for young women, and what better place to project that message than on live television via MTV? Beyonce did something astronomically important for us, all of us-she reminded us that it’s good to be queer, it’s good to be a feminist, it’s good to be successful, bold, to take charge, and it’s good to be yourself. Welcome to a new generation, and a new era of thought-thanks to this empowering 16 minutes of music in 2014.

Who or what did I leave off the list? Of course there were plenty of standout queer moments in 2014 (in fact, there were TONS!) Share your favorite queer music moments in the comments below, or tweet me @the_hoff and tell me what your picks of the year were, too! ‘Til 2015-Happy New Year!

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button