Country Music Is Gay: How an Impossible Subculture Was Born (and Thrived)
16 March 2018
Cultures are a set of norms, values, and functions of a particular group of people that tend to guide and enforce their behaviors and ideals, which may be manifested from identities like sexuality, industries like country music, and ideologies such as political belief and affiliation (Eyerman, Jamison 449). Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, authors of Social Movements and Cultural Transformation: Popular Music in the 1960s, discussed the idea of culture as a rigid structure that has difficulties quickly adapting its core principles. What are the core principles of country music from its start in the American south in the 1920s to its current values as a global market, and how has this affected and born subcultures? Subcultures, in this context, are any social groups centered around shared interests and practices by inverting its parent culture in any form (Shuker 333). If we look at country music as a parent culture, gay country music would be its subculture, born in similar styles, but disassociated in specific practices and identities. Embedded in the country music culture was a prominent social conservatism, which tended to disagree with queer cultures, so the blending of the two to create gay country music was an inherent act of defiance and inversion on the parent culture, as seen as protest music. The critical history of gay country music as a subculture will be explored through chief gay and gay ally country singers contextualized within their respective industrial and social impacts.
To begin understanding gay country music as its been historically situated in its parent culture, we must understand how protest music acts as a defiance and inversion of specific norms. R. Serge Denisoff, author of Songs of Persuasion: A Sociological Analysis of Urban Propaganda, popularized the common definition of a “persuasion song” or “protest song”. He believed a protest song’s function was to communicate any social, cultural, political, or economic values tied to a movement or ideology, either during the song’s birth or an after-the-fact reclamation of the song (Denisoff 582). Denisoff outlined six goals that protest songs must consider, which include: gains outside support, emphasizes values of its movement, creates unity of movement, recruits potential members, explains solutions, and highlights issues that spurred the movement (Denisoff 582). Songs do not need to meet every aspect of Denisoff’s working list, but, rather, they should understand or supplement a particular movement.
The origins of gay country music date back to the origins of country music. However, due to the societal persecution of homosexuality, only allies and potentially closest artists could carry the subgenre at the turn of the nineteenth century. One of the first examples came from the Carter Family, a sister-in-law/cousin duo of Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter with occasional accompaniment from Sara’s husband A.P. Carter (Berlatsky). Their 1937 song “Hello, Stranger” was sang with the sisters using male personas, which was not uncommon for female country singers in this time period, but rather took “flirtatious banter” to an extreme for male personas (Berlatsky). Playing with gender was a way for artists to incorporate these queer culture values in their music.
In 1967, Elvis Presley covered a 1912 gospel song entitled “In the Garden”, which lyrically discussed the singer’s love for Jesus (Berlatsky). Like playing with gender, another way to express queer sentiments in early twentieth century music was to write “love songs” to Jesus, replacing a romantic love for a platonic love at surface level. This allowed male artists to sing “And he walks with me / And he talks with me / And he tells me I am his own / And the joy we share / As we tarry there / None other has ever know,” openly and freely due to the structure and genre of the song (Berlatsky). Presley released country music throughout his career, even though he was known for rock and roll (in fact, the King of Rock and Roll), which also adds to the sexual awakening and character-development of country music by association.
In 1971, Dolly Parton released “Coat of Many Color”, which has been welcomed by many queer fans (Berlatsky). Although the rainbow flag as a queer symbol wasn’t popularized and standardized until the late 70s, the message of being bullied and unaccepted and the discussion of poverty resonated with many marginalized fans. Examining a problem within the community (poverty, harassment) is part of Denisoff’s criteria for protest music. Parton herself is not queer, but an ally nonetheless, as she’s be attributed as a gay icon, partially for her songs and lyrics, but also because of the persona she presents. Her large hair, breasts, and nails are similar to then and contemporary drag queens, which acts as an inspiration and excuse to many fans (Berlatsky). How a country music performer presents themselves is key to understanding how gay country music acts as a subculture.
In 1973, the first openly gay country music album was released by Patrick Haggerty, changing the subgenre from a potential ally’s perspective and reclamation to the queer community itself (Thomson). Haggerty’s Lavender Country is most notable for its song “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears”. It was one of the first times in the subgenre of gay country music where a song’s lyrics were so explicit, both in identifying with the queer community, but also within the problems queer people face on a daily basis (Thomson). Haggerty begins the song with “I’m fighting for when there won’t be no straight men,” where he continues explaining his frustration with the homophobic men in power, but, ultimately, he “won’t spend [his] life, sir / Crying these cocksucking tears”. We can see this more align with Denisoff’s criteria for music than within the aforementioned allies’ songs, as Haggerty highlights issues within his community by saying, “‘Cause you all have a common disease / Can’t give very much loving and such / But you take it wherever you please / You all rap a story, you tell that glorious / Galahad’s gallop is near / But your lies can’t deceive me / … / It seems you’ve forgotten your daydreams are rotten”. He paints a clear picture of the enemy with his lyrics, and he checks off other criteria too: shares values with the movement and creates unity. In Haggerty’s interview with The Guardian, he explains how “rabid” and “mad” he was about the queer treatment in his time (Thomson). This frustration is unique to members of the queer community that provides a unity and understanding to any queer listeners that wasn’t possible with ally performers. And the use of the derogatory term “cocksucking/cocksucker” as a reclamation, similar to Black rap artists reclaiming their own racial slurs, provides insight to the values and future of the queer movement this song is a part of.
Haggerty allowed for a start in the conversation of in- and out-group artists participating in a social movement with their music. Just a few years prior, Bunny Jones spearheaded “I Was Born This Way” in the gay disco scene (Lynskey 286). With critical success, Motown offered her a deal, much to Anita Bryant’s, a singer herself, dismay. Bryant’s campaign triggered anti-gay discrimination laws and ordinances to be passed, as well as an increase in queer hate crimes (Lynskey 287). This in tandem with the 1979 Disco Demolition Derby at a Chicago White Sox game led to a toxic environment of the mainstream’s opposition to queer culture and cohesion in the media and music (Lynskey 296). Even within the queer community, tensions and issues of equity arose when white, elitist, gay clubs like the Tenth Floor in New York sprung up leaving, particularly, Black gay men without a safe space to go to (Lynskey 285). As a result, clubs like Planetarium and Better Days had to cater specifically to Black gay men, resulting a divide within the queer community – something that, perhaps, a song about moral, cohesion, and a culture’s values could begin to aid (Lynskey 285). Dorian Lynskey, author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute, explained that, “The mainstream failure of ‘I Was Born This Way’ demonstrated that disco was not the most suitable vehicle for overt messages,” (Lynskey 288). Haggerty’s fans soon came to realize this too.
A DJ lost her license for playing Haggerty’s “Cryin’ These Cocksucking Tears”, which epitomizes the power of censorship a homophobic and socially conservatism held at the time (Thomson). Overt lyrics that Haggerty pioneered with his 1973 album caused an uproar of queer and straight factions in America, sparking physical action and discussions. Nearly a decade later, the Parents Music Resource Center, led by Mary Elizabeth Gore, Susan Baker, Pam Howar, and Sally Nevius (wives of D.C. bigwigs), went to Congress to plead for censorship on “inappropriate” music that was shaping “malicious behavior” in children (William 503). However, Frank Zappa, author of Statement to Congress, 19 September 1985, pointed out that the “PMRC rating system restrains trade in one specific musical field: rock. No ratings have been requested for comedy records or country music,” (William 505). The major takeaway of the Senate hearings was the implementation of the parental advisory sticker from the Recording Industry Association of America, which received major pushback from stores and musicians. Even though this didn’t directly affect country and gay country music, it impacted the environment of the production of music entering the modern era (the same way music was reproduced for headphones versus the radio). It was now common for music to be created in two versions: clear/edited/radio and explicit. Zappa continued as an opposing witness in the Senate hearings by claiming, “The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of Moral Quality Control Programmes based on ‘Things Certain Christians Don’t Like’,” (William 504).
The idea of rating based on the morals Christianity is at the forefront of why gay country music is seen as an impossible subculture. Looking back at Eyerman and Jamison’s idea of culture and social movement, they explained that, “Social movements emerge in particular times and places; they are the products of specific socio-political conditions as well as of deeper and more long-term historical and cultural traditions,” (Eyerman, Jamison 450). Effectively, they imply that social movements must be looked at by their processes. How has the queer community merged with or embraced country music, and how have the chief actors in the culture of country music reacted to the growing gay country subgenre? In 2011, the Foo Fighters released a music video for their song “Keep It Clean (Hot Buns)” “marrying two incongruous types, the redneck and the queer,” (Hubbs 1). Although the video didn’t gain traction, when the Foo Fighters played this song across the street from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church just a month after the video was released, it went viral (Hubbs 2).
Why can’t “the queer” and “the redneck” merge? Nadine Hubbs, author of Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music, explained that “embracing country, with its emphasis on working-class themes and its significantly working-class constituency, can help to define one as working class,” where she continued by discussing how in other media like film and television, soundtracks culturally associate country music with rural or southern visuals (Hubbs 3). This constant use of association ties back to Eyerman and Jamison’s definition of culture, where values and forms such as these visuals and the people it represents enforces a particular behavior upon them. It has been spoken (and sung) into existence. Therefore, country music, from a feedback-loop of self-formation, put out products and brought in consumers in this vein. The same has occurred for the queer community and artists in a smaller sense. Country music became the home for “the redneck” and some of their social conservatism of the nuclear family, racism, and anti-gay sentiments. The culture has been homogenized in this respect. Looking at country music songs with explicit anti-gay lyrics, this sentiment can be carried further, as seem as early as Billy Briggs’ 1952 song “Sissy Song” saying, “When I get sissy enough to wear a moustache and a bowtie / And wear those pretty suede shoes that a lot sissies buy” to as recent as Taylor Swift’s 2008 song “Picture to Burn” saying “So go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy / That’s fine, I’ll mine / You’re gay, by the way”.
Therefore, within this culture and genre of country music, any artist who is gay and/or writes explicit pro-queer lyrics to their music is inverting the norms which they reside, spawning a subculture and subgenre, in this case: gay country music. Gay artists within this parent, umbrella culture are inherently political. Their existence violates the established norms of their culture, yet they still exist. So, what chief gay country music artists are existing (and thriving) today?
Trixie Mattel and Steve Grand are two contemporary gay country artists. Mattel is a drag queen from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who self-identifies as a folk musician first, and a drag queen second. She has released two albums as of March 2018, Two Birds and One Stone, where she performs in drag for the first album, but not prominently in the second (Build Series). In an interview with Build Series, Mattel claimed she, “would’ve done it [release a folk album] sooner, but [she] honestly thought no one would want that,” continuing by saying, “Boy, was I stupid,” (Build Series). John Street, Seth Hague, and Heather Savigny, authors of Playing to the Crowd: The Role of Music and Musicians in Political Participation, argued how music and performance as a physical action act as inherent politicization (Street, John, et al 3). Drag has a long history of performance and music, where Mattel said, “Drag is inherently political,” on repeat during her Build Series interview (Build Series). It is a performance similar to the Carter Family’s “Hello, Stranger” use of male personas or Dolly Parton’s oversexualized and campy persona that attached specific political actions to their music. The fact that Trixie Mattel is Brian Firkus in makeup, a dress, and padding is a physical representation or embodiment of values stemming from the queer community’s history with drag and gay night clubs. Mattel carries these cultural values into her music when she performs in drag live on stage. However, Mattel interestingly doesn’t incorporate an accent or “attempted-female-voice”, so her performance on-stage is incredibly different than hearing her recorded album, where the average listener couldn’t tell a drag queen was singing without looking at the album art. The physical action and performance is stripped away from the recorded audio, so two different politics are enacted in these instances of consumption. However, other non-drag politics are occurring during the recorded audio versions. Mattel utilizes gay cultural norms and behaviors within her lyrics, which still translates into a solely auditory experience of her music. In her 2017 song “Bluegrass”, she sings, “Nothing sadder than a picture / Of a catcher and a pitcher / Counting on each other for the catch”. Her 2017 song “See My Man” is a play on “semen”, even though the song has a somber, non-sexual tone. And many of her songs, like her 2018 hit “Wind up Man”, use male pronouns when referring to their narrative love interests, so Mattel singing as a man in her 2018 songs furthers this idea of a disassociated drag performance, but rather as a gay country artist (where female-passing doesn’t shade its inherent queerness). Her presence refutes the claim that “rednecks” and “queers” cannot merge by her existence, thereby creating a performance and space for it.
Steve Grand performs similarly to Mattel’s second album as his debut single went viral on YouTube as a small-town country boy, who happens to be gay. Grand’s 2013 song “All-American Boy”’s music video breaks stereotypical gay men portrayals, as we see two “country boys” get flirty. What’s notable about this is its reference and seemingly parody to Carrie Underwood’s 2007 “All-American Girl”, which harkens back to political performance as seen in reclamations and parodies of existent staples in its parent culture. Grand and Mattel both enforce values, morals, and a sense of unity with their music as protest by providing a silenced perspective within the larger country genre.
James Carey, author of A Cultural Approach to Communication, explored two forms of communication consumption: the transmission and the ritual (Carey 15-8). While the transmission view of communication focuses on sending a message over time and space, the ritual view encompasses the structure, maintenance, and representation of the culture and message (Carey 18). Music for a lot of people tends to be ritualistic in the sense that music can be a community experience. Especially looking at “rednecks” and “queers”, because the behaviors behind going to a folk or country music performance in your truck in your small town where you know everyone who will be there is as ritualistic and communal as Catholic mass; this is in the same vein as queer people flocking to tour shows of their favorite drag queens or queer artists like Troye Sivan or Hayley Kiyoko for a safe haven to enjoy a concert where they can be unequivocally and unapologetically themselves. So, we can see that gay country music tends to be consumed via ritual communication in that chief artists, like Trixie Mattel, amassed their following during events like weekly Ru Paul Drag Race screenings or live performances during their concerts (although recorded songs can act as ritualistic consumption depending on the individual). Steve Grand went viral, practically overnight, which was a national, shared experience that constitutes a representation and interaction with a culture more so than the specific understanding and processing of his lyrics. How listeners relate and connect with music as communication alters the values and messages associated in its respective culture.
In conclusion, gay country music as a subgenre was born inherently political as a deviance to its parent culture’s norms and behaviors but has since exponentially grown into its own hegemony of media, consumers, and politics. Looking at its humble start alongside country music in 1920s southern America, it has grown from the help of allies like the Carter Family and Dolly Parton until the burst of the sexual revolution and the turn of the twentieth century, which has seen contemporary artists like Trixie Mattel and Steve Grand lead a new era and demographics into their own country culture.
Works Cited
Berlatsky, Noah. “A Brief History of Gayness in Country Music.” The Establishment, The Establishment, 16 Feb. 2016.
Build Series. “Trixie Mattel & Katya Zamolodchikova Chat About ‘The Trixie & Katya Show’.” YouTube, 1 Nov. 2017.
Carey, James. “A Cultural Approach to Communication.” Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
Denisoff, R. Serge. “Songs of Persuasion: A Sociological Analysis of Urban Propaganda Songs.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 79, no. 314, 1966, pp. 581–589., doi:10.2307/538223.
Eyerman, Ron, and Andrew Jamison. “Social Movements and Cultural Transformation: Popular Music in the 1960s.” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 17, no. 3, 1995, pp. 449–468., doi:10.1177/016344395017003006.
Hubbs, Nadine. Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music. University of California Press, 2014.
Lynskey, Dorian. 33 Revolutions per Minute. Faber, 2011.
McKeen, William, editor. “Statement to Congress, 19 September 1985.” Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay: An Anthology, by Frank Zappa, W.W. Norton, 2000, pp. 501–508.
Shuker, Roy. Popular Music: The Key Concepts. 4th ed., Routledge, 2017.
Street, John, et al. “Playing to the Crowd: The Role of Music and Musicians in Political Participation.” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, vol. 10, no. 2, 2007, pp. 269–285., doi:10.1111/j.1467-856x.2007.00299.x.
Thomson, Graeme. “Country Music's Gay Stars: 'We're Still Kicking down the Closet Door'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 Apr. 2014.