8 Singing Elton’s song
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Daryl Leeworthy
Abstract
This chapter outlines the emergence and development of queer youth cultures in England and Wales from the aftermath of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 through to the cusp of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s. It explores how queer youth negotiated issues of privacy, space and musical taste. The long 1970s saw the emergence, largely for the first time, of specifically queer youth cultures, as the language and activity of queer liberation – itself closely identified with a younger, post-war generation – moved to the foreground of the campaign for civil rights. Different forms of music were adopted as signals of queerness, localised facilities and spaces enabled subtle regional variations of style, and the generations clashed over the meaning of freedom.
Abstract
This chapter outlines the emergence and development of queer youth cultures in England and Wales from the aftermath of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967 through to the cusp of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s. It explores how queer youth negotiated issues of privacy, space and musical taste. The long 1970s saw the emergence, largely for the first time, of specifically queer youth cultures, as the language and activity of queer liberation – itself closely identified with a younger, post-war generation – moved to the foreground of the campaign for civil rights. Different forms of music were adopted as signals of queerness, localised facilities and spaces enabled subtle regional variations of style, and the generations clashed over the meaning of freedom.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Figures and tables vii
- Contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction – Let’s spend the night together 1
- 1 Where were you? UK chart pop and the commodification of the teenage libido, 1952–63 16
- 2 The Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, the popular press and the moral standing of rock ’n’ roll in late 1950s Britain 38
- 3 ‘I’m different; I’m tough; I fuck’ 58
- 4 ‘We are no longer certain, any of us, what is “right” and what is “wrong”’ 75
- 5 Lovers’ lanes and Haystacks 94
- 6 Queering modernism 113
- 7 ‘You just let your hair down’ 132
- 8 Singing Elton’s song 152
- 9 ‘Nothing like a little disaster for sorting things out’ 170
- 10 ‘Everything gets boring after a time’ 185
- 11 Run the track, but no bother chat slack 205
- 12 ‘This could be a night to remember’ 220
- 13 ‘Mummy … what is a Sex Pistol?’ 238
- 14 The ‘style terrorism’ of Siouxsie Sioux 258
- 15 Coming of age Asian and Muslim in post-punk West Yorkshire 275
- 16 ‘I’m your man’ 293
- Index 310
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Figures and tables vii
- Contributors viii
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Introduction – Let’s spend the night together 1
- 1 Where were you? UK chart pop and the commodification of the teenage libido, 1952–63 16
- 2 The Jerry Lee Lewis scandal, the popular press and the moral standing of rock ’n’ roll in late 1950s Britain 38
- 3 ‘I’m different; I’m tough; I fuck’ 58
- 4 ‘We are no longer certain, any of us, what is “right” and what is “wrong”’ 75
- 5 Lovers’ lanes and Haystacks 94
- 6 Queering modernism 113
- 7 ‘You just let your hair down’ 132
- 8 Singing Elton’s song 152
- 9 ‘Nothing like a little disaster for sorting things out’ 170
- 10 ‘Everything gets boring after a time’ 185
- 11 Run the track, but no bother chat slack 205
- 12 ‘This could be a night to remember’ 220
- 13 ‘Mummy … what is a Sex Pistol?’ 238
- 14 The ‘style terrorism’ of Siouxsie Sioux 258
- 15 Coming of age Asian and Muslim in post-punk West Yorkshire 275
- 16 ‘I’m your man’ 293
- Index 310
