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From Throbbing Gristle to SOPHIE: The Queerness of Industrial Music

From the sonic terrorism of Throbbing Gristle, through to the playful experimentation of modern acts such as SOPHIE, industrial music has formed a core aspect of the queer musical landscape. Through studying its history, we can see how this most challenging of genres has reflected the lives of queer people perhaps better than any other.  When performance art collective COUM Transmissions unveiled their Prostitution exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London in 1976, the resulting furore was almost inevitable. The show – which included artefacts ranging from used tampons to double ended dildos smeared with blood – led to Conservative MP Nicholas Fairbairn denouncing the troupe, and especially their sole female member Cosey Fanni Tutti, as ‘wreckers of civilization’. However, the show was also notably the moment COUM Transmissions made the full transformation into the equally challenging musical outfit Throbbing Gristle.  Drawing their name from Yorkshire slang for an
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Recent posts

Opinion: Why we Need to be Critical of the Casting of Drag Race UK

Anyone who’s read any of my previous blog posts will, hopefully, not be surprised to find out that I’m rather invested in queer culture. So much so, that I started a blog dedicated to queer analysis of films, books, music, celebrities…any way I can put a defiantly queer spin on any given topic, I get excited. It is a way I’ve found I can express my deep, emphatic love and pride for my community. But sometimes, being an outspoken queer activist (if I may be so bold to give myself that title – God knows there are many who are more deserving) means questioning and criticising things that happen within your own community. Our community is not perfect, and often things we hold sacred need to be challenged when they’re not up to task. For a while now, RuPaul’s Drag Race has been such a cultural phenomenon. The show has done wonders for introducing positive representation of queer and gender non-conforming people into the media landscape. It was perhaps the first show to portray drag pe
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The Sex Machine: How J.G Ballard’s Crash (1973) Predicted Our Obsession with Sex Through Screens

J.G Ballard’s infamous cult novel Crash shocked and dismayed many readers upon release. It depicts a world where the barriers between sex, cruelty and technology have been broken down, as a group of traumatised fanatics explore the latent sexual potential of the car Crash. In 1973, this assessment of the modern word seemed impossibly bleak. Now, in 2019, the inextricable link between sex and machinery has become a worrying reality. Introduction - 'A Brutal, Erotic Novel' ‘This author is beyond psychiatric help – do not publish!’ This infamous line, quoted in maybe every article written about Crash, is apparently the reaction from a publisher’s wife upon reading her husband’s edition of J.G Ballard’s definitive post-modern novel. As hysterical as this reaction may seem, it was indicative of the novel’s reception at the time. Crash is a wilfully challenging book – mixing graphic descriptions of car-crash sustained injuries with equally graphic sex scenes, all if which
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Men and Machines: How Kraftwerk’s Robotic Minimalism Redefined Masculinity in Popular Music

With their pioneering blend of electronic instrumentation, repetitive beats and simple yet effective hooks, Kraftwerk defied all expectations as a totally electronic German band that became a worldwide phenomenon in the early 1970’s. However, Kraftwerk not only rewrote the rulebook on what pop music could be, but also defied the tired hyper-masculine rock clichés of the 70’s - and redefined what it meant to be a man in pop. Before Kraftwerk broke through to mainstream critical acclaim in 1974 with their seminal track Autobahn , the perception of electronic music in the public consciousness could not be more different from what it is today.  Electronic music existed only on the fringes of popular culture, either as novelty records (Hot Butter’s ‘ Popcorn ’, 1972), cinematic scores, or the foil of avant-garde composers and installation artists. For electronic music to have become the staple genre and approach to pop consistently over the past 40 years is in itself a testament to th
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‘Where the Stars Don’t Shine’: The Moral Purpose of Immoral Art in 2019

Conversations around social justice and social awareness are more centralized in pop culture than ever before in 2019. In our fraught political climate, we have made a shift towards consuming art that is socially conscious, and we are beginning to hold our artists accountable for the intentions behind their work. So where in this approach do we canonise the long and troubled history of art which is purposefully shocking, debauched and intentionally immoral? Perhaps since man first daubed figures on cave walls, the greater purpose of art has been a central debate in societies throughout history and across the world. Across most cultures, we accept that art should serve some sort of moral purpose - it should enlighten us, educate us, comfort us or invigorate us – all of this, of course, relevant to the standards and moral codes of the society wherein the discussion is taking place. Running parallel to this set of beliefs therefore is the inevitability of art inciting moral panic – art
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Why Nigella Lawson is a Gay Icon: A Rumination on Gay Mens Obsession with Camp, Tragedy and Female Sexuality

Strong, powerful and slightly ridiculous women have a long-established role in queer culture, especially for gay men. These women are a mirror, reflecting our struggles and ambitions when positive representation was out of the question. So, if a gay icon is a woman who is resilient, glamorous, exaggerated and sexually empowered, it is time to induct Nigella Lawson into the pantheon. There has been something of a trend in recent years of awarding ‘Gay Icon’ status to questionable recipients. Now, I’m certainly not going to suggest that this is the most pressing issue facing our queer community at this current time, but it is certainly indicative of certain malaise surrounding gay culture as it becomes engulfed in mainstream (read straight) society and media. To award individuals like Taylor Swift gay icon status is to show an ignorance of what constitutes a gay icon. For a gay icon, and a star who champions gay people, can be mutually exclusive. Something more is required to bec
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