Breaking down the walls of heartache : how music came out
Martin Aston (Author)
Popular music's queer DNA is inarguable, from Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" to David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, from cross-dressing Kurt Cobain to "female Elvis" k.d. lang. Regardless, gay and lesbian performers have preferred the safety of the closet for generations, mainly due to the tenuous legal status of homosexuality and the rife homophobia that lives on in spite of the victories of Gay Liberation. Only in 2014 did an 'out' gay pop star, Sam Smith, top the US chart. Bearing this in mind, it comes as no surprise that there has never been a comprehensive general history of LGBTQ+ personalities and influences in and around popular music until now. Martin Aston's Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache: How Music Came Out is the first book to convey the protracted and, at times, torturous tale of popular music's queer past, present, and future
Print Book, English, 2017
Backbeat Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard, LLC, Milwaukee, WI, 2017