Exciting news!
Melissa Etheridge is in London next week for a gig at the Shepherds’ Bush Empire, and yours truly is going to it with a Twitter friend – who’s almost beside herself with excitement (about seeing Ms Etheridge, obviously) As I am of course.
Now, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I although I knew of Melissa Etheridge, the singer, I knew nothing of her music. Cue a frantic YouTube session and a M.E overload, until one song pretty much sounded like another, and I was all Melissa’d out.
But this did serve to show that my knowledge of lesbian singers/songwriters was almost non existent. It started with KD Lang and ended with Heather Peace, with a smattering of Dusty Springfield and Lesley Gore thrown in for good measure…altogether not the most comprehensive list, and not likely to gain me many points in the pot luck music round of lesbian life.
And this has only really become relevant because once I came out and started a relationship with a woman, the lyrics of songs that I had previously listened to have a completely different meaning to me now.
The usual offering of ‘man/woman’ love songs don’t quite resonate the same way anymore. The songs are still excellent, and the lyrics that extol the virtues of the singers’ requited, and unrequited love are still uplifting, or melancholy, or depressing…but generally they are not about a same sex couple, and unless the lyrics don’t actually specify a gender, it’s difficult to get past the ‘he/she/she/he’ meaning.
And so I found myself looking for songs that are aimed at lesbians, or at least, songs that are sung by women and not necessarily gender specific. Not as easy to find, but becoming more mainstream now, thankfully. And there are thousands of excellent songs out there by fantastic artists who – for the most part – write all their own stuff.
And it highlights of course – even in these more enlightened times – just how straight the music market is, which of course is ironic given how gay the music world is…but gradually, the markets gay is beginning to show.
Of course I still listen to the music I’ve always loved, it’s not like I’m going to listen to exclusively lesbian music from now on – and to be honest, some of the more… folky stuff really isn’t my cup of Darjeeling – but at least the rest of it has more relevance to my life and how I live, and love.
So I’ll be excitedly going to see Melissa next Monday, and no doubt telling you about it here, and I’ll be rocking along with a few thousand (mostly) lesbians…which by the way, is the first time I’ll have been enveloped by that amount of oestrogen in such a relatively small space.
Good Lordy, I may need a lie down with a Kalms and a chamomile tea before bed.
So, type ‘lesbian music’ into your search engine of choice and be amazed at the shapes and colours and overall gorgeousness that is out there…some of it is mellow and relaxing, and some of it is sexy as hell and you may need a lie down for all kinds of other reasons….
Oh, and one last thing. When I got married, I chose a Lesley Gore song as our walking out music…’Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows’…the gayest song in the world…
Have a great day!
H