Tag: music history
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A Celebration of Wham!’s Enduring Holiday Gem “This Christmas”
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Wham!’s “Last Christmas” arrived In December 1984 as a shimmering holiday treat, blending George Michael’s lush vocals with a heartbreak-laden melody against an irresistibly festive synth-pop backdrop. 40 years later, it remains a snapshot of a transformative moment in music, culture, and queerness and one of pop music’s enduring Christmas…
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Songs That Soundtracked the AIDS Crisis: Spice Girls “2 Become 1”
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In 1996, Frank Mendez was one of the most visible people living with HIV in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas along the US-Mexico border. At a time when the drag community had been impacted heavily by losses to AIDS, Frank was out about his HIV status both in…
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Songs That Soundtracked the AIDS Crisis: Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam’s “I Wonder If I Take You Home”
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Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam emerged in the summer of 1985, during the height of the Reagan era, as one of the first Latin freestyle groups to achieve significant crossover and commercial success. Their debut single, “I Wonder If I Take You Home,” not only exemplified the burgeoning freestyle genre—a…
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songs that soundtracked the AIDS crisis: boogie down productions “jimmy”
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“here is a message to the super hoes” whew, name a more iconic and sex-positive opening line of a hip-hop song released in 1998 – during the genre’s golden era? well, maybe i am being hyperbolic, but almost every lyric in “jimmy” by the pioneering new york hip-hop group boogie…
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my first queer club
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queer clubs were never places just to dance but sanctuaries for cultural expression and creativity. queer clubs have been spaces for escape, an environment where we could embrace our identities without fear, and before the advent of social media, queer clubs provided a physical gathering point to meet, connect, and…
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songs that soundtracked the AIDS crisis: sinéad o’connor’s “nothing compares to you”
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is she a skinhead or is she not? why is she bald? why is she all about? these were the questions i remember people asking upon the release of the video for sinéad o’connor’s “nothing compares 2 u.” without any historical context, these questions seem odd, but with sleekly produced…
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songs that songtracked the AIDS Crisis: aqua’s “barbie girl”
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The first time I heard the euro-pop sensation Aqua’s Barbie Girl was in the summer of 1997, at a party We The People organized in Clementon Park, New Jersey. The DJ was mixing bona fide house hits with contemporary jams. I remember this so vividly because I watched someone do…
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Songs That Soundtracked The AIDS Crisis: LaTour’s “People Are Still Having Sex”
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By 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had spent over $7,000,000 on mass media public service announcements since launching their HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign in 1987. However, despite these efforts, the AIDS crisis continued to escalate, with over 120,000 AIDS-related deaths reported since 1981. In this…
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When A Menudo Concert Paused Was in El Salvador
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When I pressed play on Menudo: Forever Young on HBO Max , the new docu-series on the iconic Puerto Rican boy band, I didn’t expect to learn something about El Salvador’s history. I was a little too young for Menudo, but for my big sister and others like her who…
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Still Special: 25 Years of “The Velvet Rope”
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One could talk for hours about the cultural significance of an album like The Velvet Rope: the way its composition and construction provide a direct throughline to the songs and albums soundtracking our current times or how Its accompanying visuals amplify the project’s various moods and tones. There’s a weight to…
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Songs That Soundtracked the AIDS Crisis: Miquel Brown’s “So Many Men, So Little Time”
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“So many men, so little timeHow can I choose,So many men, so little timeHow can I choose” On March 14, 1983, Larry Kramer published his now historic essay entitled “1,112 and Counting” in a bi-weekly gay newspaper, The New York Native. The blistering essay, which also served as an urgent call to…
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OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN
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olivia, i honestly love you. i remember the stereo with the big knob and bright neon dial. every morning i stared at it as my grandmother dressed me for kindergarten. i stared at the dial set on WCAU 98FM and wished the radio played at least one of my favorite…