Gay singers singing 'straight love songs'

Freiheit

Just realised that Dusty Springfield, of whom I'm a fan was a lesbian or at very least bi, although probably simply 'l'. So she sang songs which were ostensibly about heterosexual love, videos featuring men. Yet she preferred woman. Same with George Michael in the past, 'last christmas' where he feigns love with a woman, I'm sure there are many other examples. How sad though I wonder did they feel a sense of conflict performing those songs or at least those videos? Products of their time but nonetheless sad.

stoneill

I guess, apart from the inner conflict it was just business. It is their job and they were doing it.

DazMarz

I think a lot vocalists in bands have sang songs that were ostensibly about straight love (usually)before said singers have come out. There is then the experience of realisation after that vocalist has come out that the song may or may not have been about straight love.

There are also many songs that find new meaning when it becomes apparent that the singer of the song is gay. The most prominent amongst these for me would be Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Arguably the ultimate metal band (they arguably invented the stereotypical "metal" look of leather and studs and so on), the metal community's collective jaw dropped in the early-1990's when Halford came out as gay.

It was pretty obvious when you looked at it and listened to some of Judas Priest's songs. And even the general look of heavy metal (especially in the 1980's) was/is steeped in sexual ambiguity (long hair, leathers, tight trousers, make-up, etc.). It is seen by many as the ultimate "masculine" musical genre, and yet no other genre has such an ambiguous image as heavy metal. Ironic enough, when you think about it.

L1011

That new light on Judas Priest tracks does make you wonder whether Breaking The Law was about the same topic as Young Offender by the Pet Shop Boys (UK unequal age of consent at the time), yet one is a regular on old-bloke radio and the other isn't

Aurongroove

As a singer who has sung many gigs, and of course probably 97/98/99% Heterosexual songs. I put it down doing being good at what you do, it's like a sort of acting. you need to get into the role and emotionally connect to it.

When you're singing 'Summer of Sixty-nine', you didn't get your first real 6 string at that time and your fingers didn't bleed.
There is no difference when singing a love song, or a song written by an African American slave, or any lyrics perscribing activities the song writer may have done, but you as the singer have not.

I do sometimes change around the sexes in songs for a laugh, but only for a laugh. really when you think about it if people started changing around the sexes to suit their orientation and sex (in my case leaving love songs written by woman about a man and switching around the love songs written by a straight man about a woman) where does the buck end? completely rewriteing the song to make it literally true for the performer?

For gay people writing songs themselves from the point of view of a straight person, it can be down to just maintaining consensus (liek when people use the male sex for he/his in stead of she/her, in a sentence like "where one might build his house")
It's just a choice, it is less noticeable to hear a male voice sing about a girl, and vice versa, some do it to please fans, some wish to avoid the statement. but that's it: it's not really a statement to not write for your orientation, and there are several different reasons (some better then other) why a songwriter would choose to do it.