The Lambert Effect :: Is American Pop Queer-friendly?
When Adam Lambert made his man-kissing, leather-clad appearance on the American Music Awards late last year he subsequently ignited a backlash of viewer complaints, cancelled appearances and media criticism.
At the time, many in the music industry, including Lambert himself, questioned the degree to which the ensuing uproar had to do with his being openly gay, rather than simply overtly sexual. After all, numerous prominent, heterosexual female performers have performed equally, if not surpassingly, titillating displays on television in recent years. Unlike the provocative lineage these Madonnas and Britneys follow, Lambert does not enjoy the same luxury. When it comes to sexually explicit, openly gay American male pop performers, the precedent is practically nonexistent.
And yet, despite the controversy, it appears Lambert has weathered the storm, rendering the uproar an unlikely publicity victory. Over two months later, the American Idol runner-up remains a hot Hollywood commodity, recently appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show and registering album sales that continue to hold steady on the Billboard charts.
With all of this in mind, EDGE wanted to put the 1,500 viewer complaints received by ABC following Lambertgate into a new context. Through the fresh lens of the gay idol’s rising star, we ask what effect being openly queer continues for gay and lesbian musicians today? Are we heading away from the legacy of American pop closets? Or does a certain stigma still remain for musicians seeking mainstream success?
The label of "gay singer"
"I didn’t want to deny [being gay] because that’s not me, I want to own it," Lambert told Winfrey during his appearance aired Jan. 19. "But I chose not to give myself a label because that label would be attached to me from then on out.
"Because then people would say, ’There’s the gay guy?’" Winfrey asked.
"And now that’s what they say!" Lambert returned. "The gay part comes before the singer part, and I’m like, that doesn’t define who I am."
And yet, discomfort aside, when Lambert cashed in for the Rolling Stone cover story last fall confirming the rumors that he was, in fact, gay, it would be naive to be surprised with being branded with the "gay singer" label. Along with that label - and the increased national profile it allows - comes a certain degree of extra scrutiny beyond that already facing any public figure in today’s world of 24-hour news and Twitter trending topics.
Even before the AMAs controversy, Out Magazine aired Lambert’s dirty laundry via an editor’s note claiming the singer’s handlers were not thrilled with his appearance in the gay-centric publication. Following the show, criticism from within the gay community was layered atop the expected cries from social conservatives.
Gay club icon Kristine W. noted in an interview with EDGE that, while not commenting on the performance herself, none of her "thousands of gay boyfriends" she knew had enjoyed Lambert.
"They [felt] that many of them have worked really hard to lead a professional, classy life and not face the stereotype of being a sex-driven pervert. Sure, they have their parties where they get crazy, but that’s their parties. They don’t put those parties on national television and don’t invite their parents there. Their feeling was that it wasn’t appropriate."
Nadine Hubbs, University of Michigan associate professor of women’s studies and music and author of "The Queer Composition of America’s Sound," noted the gay community’s criticism of Lambert reflected a trend called "homonormativity" that has emerged as gays and lesbians progress toward increased legal protections. She compared the trend to the role civil rights struggles have had on public figures in other identity groups.
"Any minoritized group that remains minoritized as we are is going to have a respectability impulse come back to the fore when some member of our group does something provocative," Hubbs explained. "We’ve had a long history as queer people of different kinds of strategies for improving our situation and the respectability tactic tends to resurface when one of us gains attention through our sexuality."
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Watch Adam Lambert at the 2009 American Music Awards:
