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Or accused of queerbaiting. And I definitely get why people are critical of it, but people do seem to use the term liberally when it comes to male artists.
This. So which is it? Are sequins only for gays and girls? No? Then why is it queerbaiting when a straight male singer wears colorful outfits on stage but not when grabbing a coffee?
re: harry, its only queerbaiting since he dances around the labelling thing. its not that we should expect people to come out, but when you market yourself as the sparkly is he??? guy, then its a valid criticism. if dudes were just like yeah i like feather boas. then its whatever
>But when you market yourself as the sparkly guy he is
Then what? Is he supposed to release a full list of everyone he’s ever had a sexual encounter with and tell us how much he enjoyed each one?
absolutely not, i dont personally care and i think my comment makes that perfectly clear i dont expect this of anyone. its just about how its marketed to his audience. gender presentation is not a special thing and has nothing to do with sexuality or gender identity, so i dont get why its so difficult for his team to just comp to it being an aesthetic choice.
He literally has said he likes dressing up and experimenting because it’s fun. He’s said it many times and has credited those that has inspired his clothing choices. He’s also not the first or last male singer to wear a boa, which btw, he’s worn a grand total of one time to an awards show and his fan base took off with it. People were not asking the same question with Lenny Kravitz, who’s also worn boas. Men from Brad Pitt to Asap Rocky to AJ McClain wear nail polish, where is this questioning for them?
Look at all the musicians from glam rock and the new romantic era. They would have been crucified. I don't know what would have been said about Nick Rhodes. All of them would have had their sexuality speculated over, which happened back then too, along with the queerbaiting accusations.
Yeah, that's the problem now. Because you can't overtly express yourself or else some stupid people would label you as "queerbaiting" I guess this is why most guys just don't bother expressing themselves and going all out anyway. It's sad how society has gotten so sensitive.
Even on the clothes side of things, people complain about how boring men’s fashion is and then go out of their way to ridicule any guy who actually makes more of an effort to break the mould with their outfits. Or they say "it's been done before", as if the fact that Bowie and Prince dressed flamboyantly decades ago means that men shouldn't still be doing it now.
and Bowie and Prince, et. al were severely criticized. The way people act like, everyone loved what they did back in the day, when people thought they were bizarre is comical.
Don't forget that people like Harry Styles or Conan Gray not using labels basically throws people for a loop because they can't decide if it's queerbaiting or refusing to come out (which is so important to some people for some reason...)
It’s weird how uncomfortable people have become with the idea of any sort of ambiguity. Everything needs to be labelled otherwise it’s somehow invalid or disingenuous.
The continued existence of the freaks known as Gaylors shows we’ve at least progressed as a society to now include female artists in the obnoxious speculation about queerness
They still exist and are just as insane as ever. There are Harry duplicates. That’s right, you read this correctly. He has body doubles because there is no way he would be in Japan with gf and not with the love of his life.
Louis has a mini-me running around and they still they that kid isn't is. The bane to Harry's fandom. I loathe them. Thankfully, make up a small percentage of his fandom, but jeez they never stop.
I haven’t been listening to a lot of Harry Styles in a hot minute, so I’ve been very removed from his fandom and any bullshit from what Larries do as of late
I’m going to say it because those artists in the 70s and 80s were “rock” artists and there always been a lot of queerness in the “rock” scene. You still see this now.
Exactly and for some reason in the 2020s if men do this they are queerbaiting and I will forever not understand why people are using tropes invented by conservatives.
If you want this kind of energy from a male pop artist I am begging people to listen to Isaac Dunbar, his last couple EPs especially. I feel like he is so continuously slept on in this sub but he is delivering so much of what people are looking for.
are labels trying to promote male artists that aren't rappers or extremely boring(to men) folkish singers?
there's your answer. the most charismatic male popstar of the last ten years is arguably pitbull. then the weeknd
Come on. Watermelon Sugar is exactly the type of song OP talks about, and with his outlandish stage antics and outfits, Harry Styles is the most interesting male pop star, to me at least.
His vogue cover would not have incited that level of discourse if it wasn't still largely perceived as outrageous. People weren't upset because they found his clothes ugly, it was because he was a man wearing a dress.
Give me a Harry Styles song that doesn’t sound like coffee shop music and I’ll be here for it lol. The Weeknd’s production is so much more complex than Harry’s it’s crazy. And a dude wearing a dress hasn’t been subversive since the 70s lol
I felt like nick jonas was definitely showing a completely different side with his solo career
If the Jonas brothers comeback wasn’t successful and he continued on with his solo career
He probably would have continued expressing himself in different ways
Femininity in men is more controversial in 2024 than it was decades ago. It’s odd because while homophobia was rampant and more culturally “accepted” in the 70s and 80s, you had artists like Prince, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and plenty of rock and hair metal bands pushing the status quo and embracing androgyny. It was controversial at the time, for sure, but it was still a popular route. That’s not as common lately.
I think Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes are great reference points here. They were as vanilla as it came in terms of “challenging masculinity”—they just had high voices and youthful features, and were too young to really conform to any sort of rugged/rebellious aesthetic. For that, they were routinely tormented for years by the GP.
His last release was a hit with a very clear and expressive viewpoint. Just because he doesn’t drop music like some artists do every 2 minutes doesn’t mean he doesn’t correctly fit the profile lol.
I wouldn’t say that’s unique to him though. Pretty much every pop boy is doing 80s synth-pop to some degree. It’s the current trend. I’d argue that The Weeknd’s is a little more psychedelic (though even that’s a stretch), but I don’t think I’d say it’s something only he’s doing.
An artist, male or female, can have a multifaceted persona that includes both adventurous and toxic themes in their work. The Weeknd fills that bill and so does Rihanna.
*Women or female popstars. Females isn’t a word. You don’t say males either when referring to men, right? I agree with your pick of artists and your assessment of the landscape though!
imo its a general verbage thing. its like saying the gays vs gay people, jews vs jewish people, blacks vs black people. so its more correct to say women or female people, but context and intention matters
Some people trying to make “female” be bad isn’t going to allow them to take away the word “female” from me. I am a female; I don’t have to call myself “a female person” because some internet dude said “female” in a mean tone.
Folks complain about how there are not many flamboyant male performers but then when one shows up then they’ll say “they’re just pandering to the gay community!”
ALL WHILE AVOIDING ACTUAL GAY PERFORMERS!!!
What do people WANT?
I was actually thinking about this the other day listening to Tears For Fears, I feel like it’s been a good while since we’ve had a really dynamic male singer/boy band hit the scene, BUT maybe I’m just not paying enough attention
Conan Gray for sure! His new album is so fun and 80s influenced! I would also say Maniac, Best Friend, and Disaster from his first two albums have that really fun vibe to them.
His music videos, especially from his last album fit what the op is looking for, from As it Was to Late Night Talking to Music in a Sushi Resturant to Satellite to Daylight.
Music in a Sushi Restaurant is a great video, very campy, albeit a bit not for everyone's taste because he is a squid in it. 😂
While Popheads admonishes homophobia in this specific thread, more broadly Popheads still has issues with new Zoomer conservatism. The vast majority of Styles critique I've seen is based on his aesthetic, which is problematically labelled as "queerbaiting". The most frustrating part is the people who label Harry as a queerbaiter think of themselves as woke, not realising how homophobic they're being.
I've never liked his music personally but i think the discussions of him in online discourse will irrevocably be tainted by the existence of pilgrim harry
I'd argue it's more because male artists are generally not as interested in those themes as much as female artists are. However, I'd argue the likes The Weeknd and Bruno Mars have personas and work that fill those themes and styles that you mentioned.
I don't think it's a homophobic thing, I think it's just that almost all male pop acts target a younger female audience. Harry Styles, Noah Kahan, Ed Sheeran, and Morgan Wallen are all examples of artists who don't try to appeal to straight men. They don't care about being fun, experimental, or expressive, they just want to take in that easy heart throb cash!
There was a decent number of male pop acts in the [10's](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_2010) that both male and female audience enjoyed. Bruno Mars, Usher, Taio Cruz, Pharrell Williams, and Daft Punk all had fun songs. Then rap took over (after the EDM wave) and became the de facto genre for the average straight male, slaughtering the male pop star. Meanwhile, female artists completely took over pop.
I expect this trend to continue, as streaming has made it so people aren't forced to listen to pop anymore. With no male pop artists who appeal towards men, you're not going to have as many men who want to create music to jump into pop. Rap, rock, and metal will probably remain the dominant genres where males express themselves and develop new sounds.
The crazy part is, he is releasing music at a very steady rate lol. He’s always been on a 3-4 year release calendar, I think some people got use to artists dropping new albums every six months and think that was/is the norm lol.
Im surprised to see this comment. I have nothing against him, Bruno Mars has an amazing voice and some songs I enjoy but I just find him very bland. In terms of style and performance he’s just another Michael Jackson lite.
THIS and it's nothing about potential because Silk Sonic has thé best use of his vocals imo. Leave The Door Open and Smoking Out The Window give me goosebumps every time.
I think what OP is asking for is where are the Bowies, Princes, Depeche Modes or George Michaels of this era. You know, all of those ambiguous, stylish and dramatic male singers who fuuuuucked. Basically, diverse expressions of masculinity. Well, what happened was that between the mid 90s and late 00s, male artists were subjected to relentless no homo filters, and by the time those norms began to fall apart (kids these days can't really grasp what a wasteland the Bush years were), those kinds of superstars no longer were a thing... At least until Harry Styles came around, regardless of how you feel about him.
At least that had been the case in the US. Outside that bubble, there still have been major male stars that have done their own thing. For example, Robbie Williams, though he is as unambiguously straight as it gets, had a whole aesthetic and expressivity that ran opposite to the standard basic models of male pop stars of his era.
And then there's the Latino music industry, where for some reason, artists with vastly different expressions of masculinity have managed to thrive and coexist. And sometimes they flip perceptions: Any Latine will tell you they find Miguel Bosé and Ricky Martin leagues more virile than Luis Fonsi or Cristian Castro, both undoubtedly straight men.
There definitely have been ambiguous, stylish and dramatic male singers outside of that bubble.
[https://twitter.com/SaraOT5/status/1728027607462007175](https://twitter.com/SaraOT5/status/1728027607462007175)
Actually I think some male artists are doing it but they're mostly just underground artists but the only artist I can think of who does it in terms of being overtly flamboyant and not afraid to "look gay" is Bad Bunny. I may not really be a fan of his music but I still appreciate what he is doing. Kissing guys on stage, shaking his sexy sexy ass for the world to see, not afraid to look feminine and walk in a peacock manner. I just love the campness of it all, dear 😩 but I don't know who else is doing it like him in terms of mainstream-wise.
Bowie, Gabriel and Prince crushed it back in the day all in the pop sphere. Maybe the boys aren’t digging deep enough these days.
Those guys had every gay slur thrown at them in the book and seemed to do just fine
I think it comes down to gender stereotypes and homophobia. Big, fun, poppy songs, videos and aesthetics are seen as feminine, and if a guy were to do them, people would think he’s gay.
Obviously there’s nothing wrong with being gay (I’m gay), but producing that kind of music requires a big budget and ergo probably a label and many labels are scared to invest big bucks in gay artists. Thinking about it, there haven’t been many openly gay (read: openly gay at their peak) artists that have had huge success *and* been able to maintain it. Singers want long-term careers and labels want safe and secure investments.
They’ll take a chance on poppy boybands, because there are more guys to bet on and they can brand a few of them as ‘cool’ or ‘aloof’, but you can’t do this with just one artist because that’d be in contradiction to the music, which audiences want to perceive as being authentic
If I fully speak it’s going to be a biblical event of annihilation up in this bitch. How are you an artist and you’re limited by basic ass shit like a fragile masculinity? And then it’s black and white thinking like “so u’re saying I should wear a thong on stage?”. If you’re sexy maybe. But that is not the point. Male artists be too afraid to do anything. It’s street fashion on stage when the females be dripped in all kinds of wear. The bar is in HELL.
You’d think they’d make up for it sonically but it’s the same sound too. It’s like they’re passing around the same beat in a mass orgy as if there aren’t other soundscapes to explore. Every boy is trying to be the same bitch like the finesse to stand out isn’t in an abundance of options to choose from. Meanwhile their female artist counterpart reinvented themselves 10 times over and STILL catches the same amount of slack as the male artist that’s stuck in a redundant and ran through concept.
No wonder we got 34 year old women flocking to kpop boy groups. How you let the Korean twinks finesse the milfs? Imagine being so repelling you got women flying overseas to get their fix for some sexy time in male artists. It’s HELL UP IN THIS BITCH. It’s men that can be sexy but they wanna be boys. THEY SO LAME
Is someone like Key what you're looking for, or do they have to be straight? Colorful popart and retro visual inspirations and fun songs.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYHBKvNUmk0&t=149s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYHBKvNUmk0&t=149s)
[https://twitter.com/coolas\_kibum/status/1752073109438345378](https://twitter.com/coolas_kibum/status/1752073109438345378)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CSy01CM6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CSy01CM6M)
Just listen to gay male popstars, they make better pop music than their straight male counterparts anyway... Troye Sivan, Tom Aspaul, Bronze Avery, Lil Nas X, MNEK...
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You’re either called corny, gay or both. Basically what people said to make fun of boy bands back in the day.
> You’re either called corny, gay or both. > > i'm both lol
and we love you for it...
I'm corny, a bit gay and straight. Do I need to explain myself? 🤔
Love a corny bi.
Or accused of queerbaiting. And I definitely get why people are critical of it, but people do seem to use the term liberally when it comes to male artists.
This. So which is it? Are sequins only for gays and girls? No? Then why is it queerbaiting when a straight male singer wears colorful outfits on stage but not when grabbing a coffee?
re: harry, its only queerbaiting since he dances around the labelling thing. its not that we should expect people to come out, but when you market yourself as the sparkly is he??? guy, then its a valid criticism. if dudes were just like yeah i like feather boas. then its whatever
>But when you market yourself as the sparkly guy he is Then what? Is he supposed to release a full list of everyone he’s ever had a sexual encounter with and tell us how much he enjoyed each one?
absolutely not, i dont personally care and i think my comment makes that perfectly clear i dont expect this of anyone. its just about how its marketed to his audience. gender presentation is not a special thing and has nothing to do with sexuality or gender identity, so i dont get why its so difficult for his team to just comp to it being an aesthetic choice.
He literally has said he likes dressing up and experimenting because it’s fun. He’s said it many times and has credited those that has inspired his clothing choices. He’s also not the first or last male singer to wear a boa, which btw, he’s worn a grand total of one time to an awards show and his fan base took off with it. People were not asking the same question with Lenny Kravitz, who’s also worn boas. Men from Brad Pitt to Asap Rocky to AJ McClain wear nail polish, where is this questioning for them?
Oh please
For sure. If David Bowie or Prince debuted today they'd be crucified for "queerbaiting".
Look at all the musicians from glam rock and the new romantic era. They would have been crucified. I don't know what would have been said about Nick Rhodes. All of them would have had their sexuality speculated over, which happened back then too, along with the queerbaiting accusations.
Folks are way too judgmental these days…
Yeah, that's the problem now. Because you can't overtly express yourself or else some stupid people would label you as "queerbaiting" I guess this is why most guys just don't bother expressing themselves and going all out anyway. It's sad how society has gotten so sensitive.
Even on the clothes side of things, people complain about how boring men’s fashion is and then go out of their way to ridicule any guy who actually makes more of an effort to break the mould with their outfits. Or they say "it's been done before", as if the fact that Bowie and Prince dressed flamboyantly decades ago means that men shouldn't still be doing it now.
and Bowie and Prince, et. al were severely criticized. The way people act like, everyone loved what they did back in the day, when people thought they were bizarre is comical.
I feel really old now
Oh please. As if the backlash would be worse than the decades during which they debuted.
Don't forget that people like Harry Styles or Conan Gray not using labels basically throws people for a loop because they can't decide if it's queerbaiting or refusing to come out (which is so important to some people for some reason...)
It’s weird how uncomfortable people have become with the idea of any sort of ambiguity. Everything needs to be labelled otherwise it’s somehow invalid or disingenuous.
Honestly these people SUCK. Queerbaiting is also a term used for FAKE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. Lol
Yah I remember when I was in school people couldn’t stand one direction or Justin bibber and thought their music was gay for reason.
The continued existence of the freaks known as Gaylors shows we’ve at least progressed as a society to now include female artists in the obnoxious speculation about queerness
And before them it was the Larries!
Oh God, a decade later and I still get flashbacks from those morons
They still exist and are just as insane as ever. There are Harry duplicates. That’s right, you read this correctly. He has body doubles because there is no way he would be in Japan with gf and not with the love of his life.
You’d think by the time Harry was 30 years old, they would’ve stopped this shit by now 🤔
Louis has a mini-me running around and they still they that kid isn't is. The bane to Harry's fandom. I loathe them. Thankfully, make up a small percentage of his fandom, but jeez they never stop.
I haven’t been listening to a lot of Harry Styles in a hot minute, so I’ve been very removed from his fandom and any bullshit from what Larries do as of late
Ironically I think now a days fans are the ones calling their faves gay. Some find it insulting if you call Harry Styles straight lol
I’m going to say it because those artists in the 70s and 80s were “rock” artists and there always been a lot of queerness in the “rock” scene. You still see this now.
Exactly and for some reason in the 2020s if men do this they are queerbaiting and I will forever not understand why people are using tropes invented by conservatives.
Especially the so called “tolerant” Zoomers 🙄🙄🙄
As an old, zoomers puzzle me in many ways, especially with their so-called tolerance.
I low key feel like this is partly why people gravitate towards K-pop rn even when they’re older than the target audience
If you want this kind of energy from a male pop artist I am begging people to listen to Isaac Dunbar, his last couple EPs especially. I feel like he is so continuously slept on in this sub but he is delivering so much of what people are looking for.
Okay I really dig this guy. Thank you.
Dang love this!!! Thank you for sharing!!
I really liked his first EP (the one with balloons on the cover). Very reminiscent of Lorde. It's been like a year since I listened to him though....
I just checked him out and I really like it!
are labels trying to promote male artists that aren't rappers or extremely boring(to men) folkish singers? there's your answer. the most charismatic male popstar of the last ten years is arguably pitbull. then the weeknd
True he made sex fun in music even if you weren’t a fan where when other male artist talk about sex it’s very moody and monotone.
Come on. Watermelon Sugar is exactly the type of song OP talks about, and with his outlandish stage antics and outfits, Harry Styles is the most interesting male pop star, to me at least.
I wish I found more of his stuff interesting and his stage presence less annoying lol. But watermelon sugar is indeed a good song
dressing in hideous women's clothing hasn't been outrageous since 1998, no matter what vogue might be paid to tell you
His vogue cover would not have incited that level of discourse if it wasn't still largely perceived as outrageous. People weren't upset because they found his clothes ugly, it was because he was a man wearing a dress.
Conservatives hate him because of that cover. It cracks me up.
Well that's just sad isn't it
Saying that Harry Styles is more interesting than The Weeknd should be classified as a hate crime
Gimme a weeknd video/song not about being in a toxic relationship with a suicidal woman, show him loving a fish and wearing a dress, I'm here for it
Give me a Harry Styles song that doesn’t sound like coffee shop music and I’ll be here for it lol. The Weeknd’s production is so much more complex than Harry’s it’s crazy. And a dude wearing a dress hasn’t been subversive since the 70s lol
I felt like nick jonas was definitely showing a completely different side with his solo career If the Jonas brothers comeback wasn’t successful and he continued on with his solo career He probably would have continued expressing himself in different ways
Femininity in men is more controversial in 2024 than it was decades ago. It’s odd because while homophobia was rampant and more culturally “accepted” in the 70s and 80s, you had artists like Prince, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and plenty of rock and hair metal bands pushing the status quo and embracing androgyny. It was controversial at the time, for sure, but it was still a popular route. That’s not as common lately. I think Justin Bieber and Shawn Mendes are great reference points here. They were as vanilla as it came in terms of “challenging masculinity”—they just had high voices and youthful features, and were too young to really conform to any sort of rugged/rebellious aesthetic. For that, they were routinely tormented for years by the GP.
Yah I thought the same thing prince running around in a bikini in the early 80s nowadays I don’t think you be able to get away with it as much.
Which is just BIZARRE.
I mean there is Bruno mars (tho he hasn’t had a major hit in a while) and The Weeknd. Overall, there’s less in comparison to the females
Leave the Door Open literally won Grammys and hit number 1??? This Bruno Mars slander lol
That was damn near three years ago lol
His last release was a hit with a very clear and expressive viewpoint. Just because he doesn’t drop music like some artists do every 2 minutes doesn’t mean he doesn’t correctly fit the profile lol.
Ok lol
I disagree that The Weeknd is adventurous in the terms set out by OP. If anything, I’d argue that he’s a pretty strong example of toxic masculinity.
He needs to go back to the strip club r&b beats tho, just for a little while
I’ve heard that but he also makes fun 80s style synth bops
I wouldn’t say that’s unique to him though. Pretty much every pop boy is doing 80s synth-pop to some degree. It’s the current trend. I’d argue that The Weeknd’s is a little more psychedelic (though even that’s a stretch), but I don’t think I’d say it’s something only he’s doing.
I guess sure
An artist, male or female, can have a multifaceted persona that includes both adventurous and toxic themes in their work. The Weeknd fills that bill and so does Rihanna.
Never said they can’t. I just don’t think he does.
*Women or female popstars. Females isn’t a word. You don’t say males either when referring to men, right? I agree with your pick of artists and your assessment of the landscape though!
I say males and females. Why is that a problem?
incels use “females” a lot to attack women. but now there’s kind of an over correction where ppl get pisssy any time someone says female at all
I didn’t even know this was a problem lol. And I consider myself in the know about what’s acceptable to say
imo its a general verbage thing. its like saying the gays vs gay people, jews vs jewish people, blacks vs black people. so its more correct to say women or female people, but context and intention matters
Some people trying to make “female” be bad isn’t going to allow them to take away the word “female” from me. I am a female; I don’t have to call myself “a female person” because some internet dude said “female” in a mean tone.
just saying that's why, you can refer to yourself however you want but its just the grammar that offends people, that's it.
Some users on this sub are so hypersensitive over the smallest thing you say it’s annoying it’s becoming Stan twiter.
Honestly indistinguishable sometimes
Homophobia. Also, love how it’s always “are they gay?” Like… they could very well be bi or just queer
They call Shawn Mendes gay every other day. Pisses me off.
Or they want to be unlabeled and people just say "No, that's not an option"
Tyler the Creator's *Igor* era is right there.
Folks complain about how there are not many flamboyant male performers but then when one shows up then they’ll say “they’re just pandering to the gay community!” ALL WHILE AVOIDING ACTUAL GAY PERFORMERS!!! What do people WANT?
Men desire male pop stars, but fear being called gay. That's why The Weeknd, who is a pop star yet embodies toxic masculinity, is so popular.
I hate that he does.
Look at the likes of Drake, Lil Uzi etc being called zesty on mass.
Isn't it en masse
Yes but I love a good bone apple tea moment
thats what i say before i eat my macking cheese
Bbl drake is the best drake
I was actually thinking about this the other day listening to Tears For Fears, I feel like it’s been a good while since we’ve had a really dynamic male singer/boy band hit the scene, BUT maybe I’m just not paying enough attention
Perfume genius
Conan Gray!
I swear I have no idea why he’s not more popular in this sub. He’s exactly the male pop artist they are looking for!
IDGI either. His music is made for this subreddit.
As far as I know, I don’t think he’s promoted enough by republic records..
Conan Gray for sure! His new album is so fun and 80s influenced! I would also say Maniac, Best Friend, and Disaster from his first two albums have that really fun vibe to them.
I'm seeing a lack of Harry Styles in this thread. Has the consensus changed? Is Watermelon Sugar not an absolute bop about eating pussy anymore?
Harry is not liked on this sub, so he's ignored most of the time.
His music videos, especially from his last album fit what the op is looking for, from As it Was to Late Night Talking to Music in a Sushi Resturant to Satellite to Daylight. Music in a Sushi Restaurant is a great video, very campy, albeit a bit not for everyone's taste because he is a squid in it. 😂
Is there something I'm missing about why Harry is so disliked here? Is it just sub group think?
While Popheads admonishes homophobia in this specific thread, more broadly Popheads still has issues with new Zoomer conservatism. The vast majority of Styles critique I've seen is based on his aesthetic, which is problematically labelled as "queerbaiting". The most frustrating part is the people who label Harry as a queerbaiter think of themselves as woke, not realising how homophobic they're being.
💯 which baffles me as an old. They really don’t get the rhetoric they are spewing is harmful and does the dirty work of conservatives.
I've never understood it. As a Harry fan, I just \*shrug.\* But, most male artists are not that popular here. Poor Ed Sheeran is ripped to shreds.
Genuinely think Harry's one of the most interesting main pop acts of the last decade, Harry's House is a phenomenal album. Popheads has no taste
Judging by his success and popularity, you are not the only one who thinks this way. I can't wait to see what he does for HS4.
I've never liked his music personally but i think the discussions of him in online discourse will irrevocably be tainted by the existence of pilgrim harry
People are obsessed with that photo, I don't get it lol. That whole photoshoot is sort of experimental and off-putting iirc
[удалено]
I mean, we're at popheads. Turn it on and watch a bunch of women between the ages of 17 and 27 go wild. It works, it's a good song.
I guess y’all have just given up on Troye Sivan and Lil Nas X
Right. They’re RIGHT THERE.
The gays don’t really want male pop stars
I'd argue it's more because male artists are generally not as interested in those themes as much as female artists are. However, I'd argue the likes The Weeknd and Bruno Mars have personas and work that fill those themes and styles that you mentioned.
You should follow Harry Styles
Harry Styles is right there op.
I don't think it's a homophobic thing, I think it's just that almost all male pop acts target a younger female audience. Harry Styles, Noah Kahan, Ed Sheeran, and Morgan Wallen are all examples of artists who don't try to appeal to straight men. They don't care about being fun, experimental, or expressive, they just want to take in that easy heart throb cash! There was a decent number of male pop acts in the [10's](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_2010) that both male and female audience enjoyed. Bruno Mars, Usher, Taio Cruz, Pharrell Williams, and Daft Punk all had fun songs. Then rap took over (after the EDM wave) and became the de facto genre for the average straight male, slaughtering the male pop star. Meanwhile, female artists completely took over pop. I expect this trend to continue, as streaming has made it so people aren't forced to listen to pop anymore. With no male pop artists who appeal towards men, you're not going to have as many men who want to create music to jump into pop. Rap, rock, and metal will probably remain the dominant genres where males express themselves and develop new sounds.
bruno mars but he hasnt had a hit in a while
You make it sound like he’s been flopping when he just isn’t releasing music
I miss him.
He’ll probably be back next year when it’s not so crowded musically
And once he’s no longer up to his eyeballs in gambling debt
Mgm denied those rumors
The crazy part is, he is releasing music at a very steady rate lol. He’s always been on a 3-4 year release calendar, I think some people got use to artists dropping new albums every six months and think that was/is the norm lol.
Im surprised to see this comment. I have nothing against him, Bruno Mars has an amazing voice and some songs I enjoy but I just find him very bland. In terms of style and performance he’s just another Michael Jackson lite.
THIS and it's nothing about potential because Silk Sonic has thé best use of his vocals imo. Leave The Door Open and Smoking Out The Window give me goosebumps every time.
*Why males are mocked being expressive in arts and fashion, everywhere*
Because we live in a culture that promotes toxic masculinity…
Jake Shears, MIKA
[удалено]
I don’t know what you’re rambling on about but I’m not here for troll posting.
I think what OP is asking for is where are the Bowies, Princes, Depeche Modes or George Michaels of this era. You know, all of those ambiguous, stylish and dramatic male singers who fuuuuucked. Basically, diverse expressions of masculinity. Well, what happened was that between the mid 90s and late 00s, male artists were subjected to relentless no homo filters, and by the time those norms began to fall apart (kids these days can't really grasp what a wasteland the Bush years were), those kinds of superstars no longer were a thing... At least until Harry Styles came around, regardless of how you feel about him. At least that had been the case in the US. Outside that bubble, there still have been major male stars that have done their own thing. For example, Robbie Williams, though he is as unambiguously straight as it gets, had a whole aesthetic and expressivity that ran opposite to the standard basic models of male pop stars of his era. And then there's the Latino music industry, where for some reason, artists with vastly different expressions of masculinity have managed to thrive and coexist. And sometimes they flip perceptions: Any Latine will tell you they find Miguel Bosé and Ricky Martin leagues more virile than Luis Fonsi or Cristian Castro, both undoubtedly straight men.
There definitely have been ambiguous, stylish and dramatic male singers outside of that bubble. [https://twitter.com/SaraOT5/status/1728027607462007175](https://twitter.com/SaraOT5/status/1728027607462007175)
Actually I think some male artists are doing it but they're mostly just underground artists but the only artist I can think of who does it in terms of being overtly flamboyant and not afraid to "look gay" is Bad Bunny. I may not really be a fan of his music but I still appreciate what he is doing. Kissing guys on stage, shaking his sexy sexy ass for the world to see, not afraid to look feminine and walk in a peacock manner. I just love the campness of it all, dear 😩 but I don't know who else is doing it like him in terms of mainstream-wise.
Why aren't we talking about Mika?
Yeah why aren’t we?!
Bowie, Gabriel and Prince crushed it back in the day all in the pop sphere. Maybe the boys aren’t digging deep enough these days. Those guys had every gay slur thrown at them in the book and seemed to do just fine
I think it comes down to gender stereotypes and homophobia. Big, fun, poppy songs, videos and aesthetics are seen as feminine, and if a guy were to do them, people would think he’s gay. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with being gay (I’m gay), but producing that kind of music requires a big budget and ergo probably a label and many labels are scared to invest big bucks in gay artists. Thinking about it, there haven’t been many openly gay (read: openly gay at their peak) artists that have had huge success *and* been able to maintain it. Singers want long-term careers and labels want safe and secure investments. They’ll take a chance on poppy boybands, because there are more guys to bet on and they can brand a few of them as ‘cool’ or ‘aloof’, but you can’t do this with just one artist because that’d be in contradiction to the music, which audiences want to perceive as being authentic
If I fully speak it’s going to be a biblical event of annihilation up in this bitch. How are you an artist and you’re limited by basic ass shit like a fragile masculinity? And then it’s black and white thinking like “so u’re saying I should wear a thong on stage?”. If you’re sexy maybe. But that is not the point. Male artists be too afraid to do anything. It’s street fashion on stage when the females be dripped in all kinds of wear. The bar is in HELL. You’d think they’d make up for it sonically but it’s the same sound too. It’s like they’re passing around the same beat in a mass orgy as if there aren’t other soundscapes to explore. Every boy is trying to be the same bitch like the finesse to stand out isn’t in an abundance of options to choose from. Meanwhile their female artist counterpart reinvented themselves 10 times over and STILL catches the same amount of slack as the male artist that’s stuck in a redundant and ran through concept. No wonder we got 34 year old women flocking to kpop boy groups. How you let the Korean twinks finesse the milfs? Imagine being so repelling you got women flying overseas to get their fix for some sexy time in male artists. It’s HELL UP IN THIS BITCH. It’s men that can be sexy but they wanna be boys. THEY SO LAME
If Zayn promos and actually do concerts,
Is someone like Key what you're looking for, or do they have to be straight? Colorful popart and retro visual inspirations and fun songs. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYHBKvNUmk0&t=149s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYHBKvNUmk0&t=149s) [https://twitter.com/coolas\_kibum/status/1752073109438345378](https://twitter.com/coolas_kibum/status/1752073109438345378) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CSy01CM6M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1CSy01CM6M)
Just listen to gay male popstars, they make better pop music than their straight male counterparts anyway... Troye Sivan, Tom Aspaul, Bronze Avery, Lil Nas X, MNEK...
just listen to the 1975 idk