OutMusic
opens a world of delight

By Ruby Lips
June 14, 2002
I am a cynical old bitch. For years I have heard of something called OUTmusic and I dismissed it as probably being ordinary unintelligible pop and rock that happens to be performed by gay and lesbian musicians and singers, and that it is in any case aimed at the younger yuppie crowd with money to spend on CDs with a queer cachet. Wrong! It is in fact a wide ranging array of deliciously clever lyrics and music composed and produced by a collaboration of brilliant people dedicated to a glbt genre that is still in its infancy. In a little over a decade they have taken an ideal idea and developed a vastly pleasurable compilation of queer songs which speak to the soul of being in the life.

Far from there being just rock and pop for this classical music snob to disdain, Out Music includes operatic works by the likes of Leonard Bernstein performed by accomplished baritone Robert Leuze, and gay coral works by the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus and others around the country. Mr. Leuze’s CD, ‘Songs of Our Lives – Operatic and Contemporary selections that reflect the Gay experience’, gives the gay connoisseur not the ordinary cognoscenti’s vicarious voyeurism of heterosexual melodrama, but rather sonorous serious songs reflecting gay passions and heart pangs. It gave me goose bumps and kvells of a kind of exultation I never thought I would live to enjoy. At long last I can hear two men en-duet proclaiming their love for each other, and be moved to tragic tears in memory of beloved lost to AIDS.

I was invited by a famous transgender friend to go to the 2002 OUTmusic awards at the Knitting Factory last Sunday afternoon. It was a somewhat small venue that seemed to mimic the grand extravaganzas of more mainstream music awards ceremonies as seen on TV. But, I immediately realized that with the upcoming advent of Gay TV channels this event will soon properly take its place amongst the visible recognitions available to other identified musical genres.

I was, frankly, prepared to suffer through stridently shrieking young women, but instead found myself standing on my chair to applaud the eloquently sung ‘Closet’ admonishment of Amy Fix in which she recites, in cleverly funny lyrics, the excuses people have for remaining invisible. Ms. Fix and her collaborators rightfully won several awards. Many of the performers were, in fact, devoting their mid-life years to making music for our glbt ears rather than taking the safer course of more steady means of earning a living. There were young people as well, and much to my surprise, I found myself even enjoying their melodic if incomprehensible sounds.

There is jazz, folk songs, and even rock fondly reminiscent of the early sixties all created by out glbt people like us. Many of the promotional CDs I received at the awards were by local artists with quite normal queer lives like the rest of us. Some had their phone numbers listed on the jackets. When I phoned one, for an interview, a male voice said somewhat bitterly, "he doesn’t live here anymore." Oh my, these really are people just like you and me. Its music one can feel connected to.