Dumbek's Random Stuff

So I'm avoiding doing any real work this morning, hopping around on AllMusic I'm looking through some search results and notice that for some artist I've never heard of, their "genre" is listed as "Gay". That struck me as a bit odd. Further clicking on "gay" took me to the "Gay" genre page. Here's how allmusic describes it:

The term "gay music" is hardly derogatory -- it is simply a way to categorize all the music that is made specifically for a gay audience by gay musicians. Certainly, there have been gay musicians throughout recording history, from Noel Coward to Bob Mould, yet they usually don't identify themselves as "gay" -- they wrote for a broad audience. Gay music is different because it is music written and performed by gay musicians for a gay audience. Frequently, the music takes familiar forms, whether it's dance or punk, and adds homosexual themes. At times, the music is campy, at times it is sober, but it's all distinguished by its independence (almost all of the music is released and distributed by the artists themselves) and its ideology.

It goes on to breakdown the gay genre into 3 unlikely categories: Gay Comedy, Gay Country and Gay Gospel. The descriptions on these 3 sub-genre pages are pretty much the same. Substitute "gospel" or "comedy" for "country" and the descriptions are virtually identical.

Gay Country is straight-ahead country and country-pop music, but it has specifically gay topics and themes, and is performed by gay musicians for gay audiences.

That's a whole lotta gay going-on.

Things like this really annoy me. It almost implies that any song that references being gay takes you out of the overall picture and dumps you in the "Gay Music" genre. Their reference to Noel Coward and Bob Mould almost reeks of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

I'm not a musician, but if I was (were?), I can't imagine I'd want my music to be classified as simply "gay". It sort of overshadows everything else you put into it. Not to mention telling you nothing about what the music sounds like. Do you do showtunes? Or are you more like Pansy Division? That's much more useful info than "Gay."

The most popular CD in the "Gay" genre? "Club Verboten". A various artists compilation featuring the oh-so-gay antics of Carmen Miranda, Marilyn Monroe, The Duke Ellington Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. OK - Sylvester is on it too. I guess he qualifies.

Labels suck.