"Holy crap!http://www.thespoonsexperience.com/archives/2005/08/holy_crap_1.phpMig is straight?!?"
Pretty much my thought as well there hoss...
"In the midst of all this, MiG is a little disappointed with his encore reward -- a phone call from his wife in London. He's sure she's going to show up at the house and knows she's hiding somewhere. Talking on the phone, he tells her he "looked behind every wall," but, obviously, he didn't check the stairways, because she climbs up one behind him and taps him on the shoulder. The smile on MiG's face is more eloquent than words."Man, there goes my "Mig, Marty, and Ty are all gay" theory. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Actually I posed the question to Spoons last week "I think that all three of them are gay, and as far as their rockstar future goes do you think it will matter to the public, or to the band"
Creditably, no-one thought it would matter to the band, but I think it may still matter to the public (in which case it probably WOULD matter to the band).
And theres an interesting social question in that. While in general public acceptance of gays in the arts as a whole is .. if not total, at least significant; this doesnt necessarily apply to popular music. There have only been a couple of openly gay country artists, and it has certianly hurt their careers. I can think of no successful openly gay rap or hip hop artists, and very few R&B. There are certainly a hell of a lot of gay pop, alternative, and metal artists (not a lot of folks actually gave a damn about halford for example); but for the most part mainstream rock has... at least publicly... remained straight.
Kinky and debauched certainly, but gay men pretty much not allowed. Lesbians on the other hand are a mixed bag, seemingly based on how much the perspective audience may want to sleep with and/or watch said lesbian having sex with another woman.
This is probably because mainstream rock (along with Rap which I also mentioned is almost exclusively straight) is one of the few musical markets that is strongly dominated by straight men. Most musical segments sales are actually strongest among teenage girls, who buy from two-four times as much new music as any other single group (depending on how you count the stats etc...).
Which not coincidentally is why pop music sucks so hard, and generally has throughout history. They are writing for teenage girls, whose taste is... questionable.
Anyway back to the point at hand; would the lead singer of a mainstream rock band being openly gay hurt that bands career and sales? I'm not so sure it would matter to INXS who have always been on the alternative edge of things; but what about a real rock band (none of this emo shit), not yet established, who are targeting adult males as their audience?
I can't think of any right now so I'm not including examples.
Now, as to song selection...
This week is a major "Oh shit" moment. Lesse singinging their own "original" (not very original really but hey who's counting) tunes will be Mig and Deanna... or maybe not....
Ty is doing some kind of power ballad, which the band doesnt seem to like, and Deanna is doing a straightforward blues tune.
Prediction, Deanna is eliminated this week.
Jordis - Aerosmith "Dream on" : Great tune, one of my favorites from Aerosmith (who I have seen live more thna 10 times, including at mamakins and the house of blues), but I've never heard a woman sing it properly (and I've heard a few try). Aactually this would have been a better one for deanna... I have no doubt that Jordis can do a competent job of it, but great? I jsut don't think so.
That said, I think she's safe for the week.
J.D. - Foreigner "Hot Blooded": Wow... kind of a funky choice, but I can dig it. "Foreigner.. DUDE!! ... hey man, first album.... Aaaaalright ok yeah" sorry, pop culture reference. Hot blooded could work out really well for J.D. actually, if he doesnt try and elvis it up.
I'm guessing he'll be in the bottom three though.
Suzie - Rolling Stones "Start Me Up": And she doesn't want to do the song? I think her voice is good for it, I think she's got the energy for it.. she just needs some confidence and some strut to pull it off.
She will round out the bottom three with J.D. and Deanna
Ty - Tina Turner/CCR "Proud Mary": Yeah, this ones a gimme. Just from the song selection he's gonna get the encore on this one. He'll do the Ike and Tina version on speed, and the energy will jsut be insane. I'm picturing sweat flinging about the crowd at this point, and a grin six miles wide.
Marty - Live "I Alone" : These song selections are from the message boards so I dunno how accurate they are, but I love the song... I dont know if Marty has the vocal power for it, but he can certainly scream, and I can't wait to hear it. If he does it right HE may get the encore not Ty.
