The Early Days of LGBTQ Rock

This week, we dive into the Golden Age of Synthesizers, the period from the mid‑’70s to the mid‑’80s when synths became smaller, cheaper, and powerful enough to transform popular music forever. From early experimental machines that filled entire rooms, to the groundbreaking work ...  Show more

One of the many great things about music is that we can enjoy it anywhere…I’m talking about the recorded kind…everyone has a smartphone, and every smartphone has the capability of playing music, whether you’re listening to tracks stored in its memory or streaming something from a ...  Show more

The 1980s have a lot to answer for - spandex, for one.

It also saw the first new anti-gay law in Britain for over a century.

Against the backdrop of the HIV epidemic, and increasing homophobia across the media and politics, the law Section 28 was passed in ...

Will Young became a music sensation after winning Pop Idol in 2002 - and became one of the earlier pop stars to come out. We discuss his brilliant book To Be a Gay Man, about what it was like growing up gay in a profoundly homophobic society, about what he was up against when ...

Sexuality is a funny thing. It's a social construct just as much as, say, virginity is.

We use words like heterosexuality and homosexuality because they are convenient, more than because they're wholly accurate.

What roots do these words have in 19th centur ...

Music for sex, dancing, and watching the straight world go by… The explosion of Disco provides an extraordinary window into the tumultuous world of the 1970s, with its themes of sex, drugs, race and sexuality. By the start of the 1970s, America was a nation of dystopian gloom. ...  Show more