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Out's October issue features our first ever Top 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time, as calculated by polling over 100 musicians, actors, writers, performance artists, and critics.
To celebrate the achievement, we're rolling out the individual top 10 lists of some of our favorite respondents, including today's list submitted by Ari Gold. The rapper, singer, and dance musician has released several successful albums including last year's Transport Systems, which Gold himself proclaimed "the gayest album ever."
Ari Gold's top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time:
10. Christina Aguilera, Stripped: While it seems that the newer crop of pop stars prefer to sell albums by being safe, blank slates, Christina tried to have something to say about her own sexual freedom as a woman and made an album of both bangin' sexy club tracks as well as gorgeous and soulful ballads. Including a man on man kiss in the "Beautiful" video made the message of the song the "True Colors" queer anthem of a new generation.
9. Adam Joseph, How I Seem To Be: If perhaps we could watch the Grammys and see lots of LGBTQ artists being nominated, Adam Joseph would have at least been nominated for Best New Artist and probably would have taken home a slew of other awards for this accomplished debut. Soulful, honest and musically mature for such a young artist, this album remains one of my favorites and the fact that he is openly gay in both his life and lyrics is the icing on the cake.
8. Me'shell Ndegeocello, Peace Beyond Passion: Not many artists either in 1996 or in 2008 after achieving mainstream recognition would take the risk of releasing a first single off their sophomore album called "Leviticus: Faggot" but openly bisexual musician Me'shell Ndegeocello took that risk with a powerful song that dealt with religion and homophobia. Rapping, singing, writing, producing and playing bass, Me'shell remains a one of a kind groundbreaking artist and the music grooves and preaches hard.
7. Kevin Aviance, Box Of Chocolates: If rock 'n roll was truly still about challenging the norm and rebellion, bald and black Kevin Aviance would be the biggest star on the planet. No one else on the music scene blurs gender lines, gives you fashion, performance art, faggotry and keeps it all edgy like Kevin Aviance. This debut album spawned a bunch of #1 Billboard Dance hits but it is Kevin's avant-garde live performances of songs like "Cunty" and "Din Dad Da" at clubs all over the world and especially New York that made you feel like there was meaning and community to going out to the gay clubs. For better and for worse, many gay people find who they are through the club scene and Kevin's performances either make people face their own internalized fears and prejudices or make people feel welcome no matter how big a freak they feel they might be. Give Kevin the props he deserves!
Read Ari Gold's top 6 choices after the jump ...
6. Ari Gold, Transport Systems: When I was interviewed for Out magazine in September 2007, I told [Associate Editor] Jason Lamphier that I made the gayest album ever. With songs about gay relationships, having an affair with a married man on the down low, crystal meth addiction, gender identity, human rights and discovering the joy of being a bottom, I wanted to make a pop album that put LGBTQ people as its first and foremost subject and audience—not just something that gay people could read queer subtext into or as a niche market to exploit. I'm thrilled to report that since its release I've won a few independent music awards, received extremely positive reviews from both mainstream publications and queer ones (Including being a part of this magazines very own list of the 100 people who influence gay culture!), I've gotten a stamp of approval from none other than Clive Davis, and the first single, "Where the Music Takes You" (which includes a diva vocal hollering the line "there is no place like home"-queer much?) is currently #15 on the Billboard Dance chart. The animated video in which an interracial gay kiss saves the world was voted the #1 Video of the Year and the #1 Ultimate Queer Video on LOGO this week.
5. k.d. Lang, Ingenue: Incredible and distinctive voice, singing beautiful music written by an androgynous, out vegetarian lesbian. Need I say more?
4. Rupaul, Supermodel of the World: In 1993 it seemed like there was nothing cooler than to be gay. Pop stars were coming out left and right, dance and house music was the mainstream music of the time and a black drag queen named RuPaul was one of the most famous celebrities in the U.S. While men getting up in drag has always existed in entertainment, RuPaul never hid who he was as a gay man and broke both racial and gender barriers in a way no other pop star had before him. He turned queer lingo like "You better work!" into something the whole world was saying and also happened to make an underrated album of dance music that has more many more gems than just "Supermodel (You Better Work)." One does have to wonder, why in the last 15 years of moving forward in gay and transgender liberation have there been so few if any artists on the scene since Rupaul broke down these walls?
3. Boy George and Culture Club, At Worst...The Best of Boy George and Culture Club: At a time when "gay" was still the love that dare not speak its name, Boy George was the closest thing to being out and proud we'd ever had in pop music (save maybe Sylvester). He unabashedly cross-dressed and he talked, moved and sung like a proud sissy-boy. Great pop music made by one of the gayest artists ever and this collection has all the hits we loved.
2. Madonna, Erotica: While Like a Prayer was a religious experience upon first listen and remains my favorite Madonna album ever, never in my life had I felt like a straight artist made an album so much for the gays. Collaborating with gay club DJ/producer Shep Pettibone, Madonna made the kind of music that ruled the clubs in New York, back when gay people ran the clubs of New York. Madonna was in full exploring her sexuality mode with the simultaneous release of the Sex book and as a budding young queer teen, I had never heard a mainstream artist tell me it was OK to love who I love and have sex with who I want. She was doing interviews for the Advocate before every mainstream artist realized it was a good thing to exploit the gay market, she not afraid to put out images of man on man sex, she was talking about AIDS and safe sex and when she sang "why's it so hard to love one another" I knew she was on my side.
1. George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice Vol.I: George Michael may not have been out to the press when he released this album but looking back its clear what he meant at the time by "without prejudice." No pop stars were out in music in 1990, but in his lyrics George Michael was trying to tell us something that we needed to hear. In "Freedom" he confesses "Heaven knows I was just a young boy/didn't know what I wanted to be" and then goes on to say "I think there's something you should know/I think its time I told you so/There's something deep inside of me/There's someone else I got to be." When he was finally publicly outed, he was totally unapologetic and allowed us to watch him figure out how to be himself, flaws and all, in a homophobic world with no precedent of having out pop stars. The press can lambaste his personal life all they want, but his music has only gotten more honest and explicit. George Michael has always and continues to write and sing some of the greatest pop music ever.
For more top 10 lists, keep your web browser locked on Popnography all month long. And for more from our October music issue, including Scissor Sisters front man Jake Shears' interview with idol Carly Simon, head over to Out.com.
Previously > Bitch's top 10 > Nate Berkus' top 10 > Bruce Vilanch's top 10
Ari is the best !love his music !
Posted by: totalfunk81 | January 15, 2009 at 09:38 PM