Here and Queer: A Playlist

To walk through the Getty exhibition $3 Bill is to witness the many facets of queer history in the 20th century.

These were decades when sexuality and gender identity came to be understood as diverse and variable, and the ensuing movements advocating civil rights for LGBTQ+ folks took on as many forms as there are people who participated or saw themselves represented in them. What better way to celebrate the protests, advocacy, and love than with music? Experience the multitudes of genres and approaches to queer identities with this playlist, selected by artists whose work is featured in the exhibition.

Ma Rainey, “Prove It On Me Blues” (1928)

An ad for this song by blues legend Gertrude “Ma” Rainey shows the masculine-dressed singer openly flirting with two women, despite a cop glaring at them disapprovingly (cross-dressing was criminalized at the time). Says artist and designer Shana Agid, “I used to listen to this in high school and college, part of both an obsession with blues, but especially queer blues women.”

Johnny Mathis, “The Twelfth of Never” (1959)

Artist Bruce Yonemoto writes of this classic crooner: “I’m not sure if I knew Johnny was gay, but [my older brother] Norman would endlessly play his records, with others of course, like Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand! No wonder I ended up gay! I love that he mentions flowers in his song.”

Louis Armstrong, “What a Wonderful World” (1967)

There was a lot of social upheaval going on in the 1960s when this song came out. Painter Gary H. Brown selected it because it “carries a deeply positive and inclusive message, making it resonate with queer interpretations of hope, resilience, and the beauty of diversity…The song’s universal message of wonder and harmony allows for an interpretation where all identities and expressions are not just accepted but celebrated, making it a quietly powerful anthem of queer positivity.”

Cris Williamson, “Dream Child” (1975)

Artist Nancy Angelo writes of this folksy piano ballad: “There were a number of lesbian feminist musicians who composed, recorded, and performed their songs through Olivia Records and other labels outside of the mainstream. This erotic song was much loved by women-loving women who had never had access to this kind of music ever before. Women in the closet and those navigating the world in more public ways enjoyed this.”

Diana Ross, “No One Gets the Prize / The Boss” extended mix (1979)

LA-based photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya says: “Of course disco is gay, and Ross is a queer icon, but there was also something about driving around Southern California in 1999 with this mix blasting as I navigated my own feelings, first romances, making my first photographs and dreaming of a fantasy in New York in approximating Studio 54…Ross sings that she thought she ‘could turn emotions on and off…But love taught [her] who was the boss!’ There was no sense in rationalizing. No use fighting. Emotions and drives have to be tamed but we’re never the boss.”

Eurythmics featuring Aretha Franklin, “Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves” (1985)

“We’re comin’ out of the kitchen” proclaim Annie Lennox and Aretha Franklin in this ode to the 1980s career woman. Artist Jerri Allyn was also working to normalize queer women in the workforce with her “Lesbian Occupations” videos. She selected this song, saying: “A great one that came out a few years after we produced the PSAs in the show!”

Sting, “Fragile” (1987)

This song’s message about the precarity of life in the face of violence has had continued relevance over the decades. Artist Martin Gantman compares it to his work in the exhibition, 2001 AIDS Chronicles, made in collaboration with the Institute of Cultural Inquiry: “My piece falls into the period that also includes 9/11, and so in addition to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, I was also making reference to the World Trade Center tragedy as well as a peripheral reference to the fracturing of the news industry. It is also ironic, as well as intensifying, that the exhibit is occurring during these excruciating political times.”

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, “The Only Living Boy in New Cross” (1992)

Who doesn’t love a punk anthem about not fitting in? Artist Leopoldo Bloom, who chose this song, writes: “The vague yet specific lyrics make this 1990s Britpop song the mood music for coming of age as a weirdo:

Hello, good evening, welcome to nothing much
A no-holds-barred half nelson and the loving touch
The comfort and the joy of feeling lost…”

Robin S., “Show Me Love” (1993)

House music picked up where disco left off in the late 1970s. It was born out of gay clubs and drag culture, and helped bring these communities into the spotlight with its pumping beats. Thanks to musicians like Honey Dijon, Kaytranada, and Beyoncé, the genre has recently experienced a renaissance and its queer origins are finally being celebrated. Says photographer Naima Green, who selected this track: “This is my favorite club song. I instantly feel free whenever I hear it.”

The Dicks, “Saturday Night at the Bookstore” (1995)

Artists Nick Vaughan and Jake Margollin write: “There’s something in Gary Floyd’s rough street drag, his needling rage and sly sense of humor, in the sheer audacity of The Dicks as radical queer socialists in the overwhelmingly heteronormative world of late ’70s/early ’80s punk that is so deeply inspiring. The song does not ask for permission or understanding or empathy; it’s a demand for space voiced in sheer spiritual/visceral force, and it’s one of the reasons we fell in love with Texas.”

Sezen Aksu, “Erkek Güzeli” (1998)

Artist Beldan Sezen, who chose this song, explains: “[Sezen Aksu is] a famous Turkish singer, also a gay icon and at least bisexual (never out, but the community knows)...The title can be translated as ‘Male Beauty,’ and since the Turkish language does not know gender, her text was meant (intentionally or not) for butch lesbians, too. I remember many beautiful moments in the late ’90s with this song.”

Perfume Genius, “Queen” (2014)

Artist and activist Donald Moffett raves at how the lyrics of this erotic slow-burn of a song turn right-wing homophobia in on itself: “The brazen provocation and threat to norms in the repeated lines, ‘No family is safe / When I sashay’ just cheers me up. Queer Power! Don’t fuck with us.”

Brandi Carlile, “The Mother” (2018)

Photographer Jess T. Dugan, who selected this song, says that it “resonated with me deeply because it’s one of the few representations of queer parenting I’ve seen on such a mainstream scale. As a parent of a young child, I particularly loved seeing another queer parent make art about their experiences.”