Out names the "100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time"

Any regular reader of Popnography or Out knows we mean "gayest" as a compliment, no matter what or to whom it's applied. (Our occasional commenters who take offense on behalf of their newly Googled objects of affection seem to miss that point quite often, though.)

So you should know that the task of assembling the 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time was not undertaken lightly -- it's the ultimate superlative in our books to be both of those at the same time. That hardly means we all agree what makes an album great, or what makes a great album gay. In addition to weighing the various editors' opinions on the subject, we polled more than 100 musicians, actors, writers and critics to create this groundbreaking list, which includes not only records by gay musicians but also any flamboyant, trailblazing, gender-bending, unforgettable albums that changed our lives. If it feels like a "greatest, gayest album," we reasoned, it probably is.

And that's how David Bowie's 1972 classic, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, ended up as #1. Our navel-gazing on the subject:

"It's ironic that an album with an opener forecasting Earth’s expiration and a closer tackling celebrity excess and self-destruction remains one of the most liberating, uplifting records of all time -- about as ironic as a straight man topping this list... When Bowie wails ‘Oh no love! You’re not alone!’ over a sea of theatrical strings, you know he was singing for every exiled, dejected, sexually confused young kid who longed for a world of greater possibilities."

Read more from Editor in Chief Aaron Hicklin about the list here. But you don't have to take our word for it. "At a time when social and sexual taboos were just starting to break down, Bowie as Ziggy created a world where the possibilities were limitless," said Boy George, whose personal top 10 list contributed to the album's ranking. “You could be whatever you wanted to be.” (Culture Club’s Colour By Numbers came in at #53 and Kissing to Be Clever ranked #95.)

Other judges included Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, Jake Shears, the Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray, Perez Hilton, John Cameron Mitchell, Darren Hayes and more -- and all month on Popnography you'll get to read their top 10 lists, often with lengthy explanations justifying the placement of each record.

And now, without further ado, the top 10 Greatest, Gayest Albums of All Time, as declared by Out in our October issue, on newsstands next week:

1. David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, 1972
2. The Smiths, The Smiths, 1984
3. Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman, 1988
4. Indigo Girls, Indigo Girls, 1989
5. Judy Garland, Judy at Carnegie Hall, 1961
6. The Smiths, The Queen is Dead, 1986
7. Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973
8. Madonna, The Immaculate Collection, 1990
9. Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual, 1983
10. Antony and the Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now, 2005

See the list of all 100 albums at Out.com.

Comments

[Larry-bob Roberts]

It seems like a real omission not to list Pansy Division... you did manage to get Fifth Column and Team Dresch in there to represent queercore... but also omitted Tribe 8. Meanwhile, there's an awful lot of straight musicians on your "gay" list.