When I grew up in the 70's and 80's the gay music scene was one of the most vibrant and creative out there. It gave birth to genres such as disco, house and techno and lendary clubs and deejays. There was Fire Island, the Paradise Garage, The Shelter and Heaven. Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and according to the grapevine even Grandmaster Flash one of the creators of hip hop is gay.
But nowadays gay clubs just seem to play top 40 shite
It's all Lady Gaga, Madonna and pop house deejays like Benny Benassi and David Guetta.
What happened to the creativity and freedom. What happened to being different than the rest, what happened to the underground sounds?
What happened to the creativity and freedom, what happened to the underground sounds?
The gay club scene is not what it once was.
I know those of you who are younger and bought up on a cultural diet of celebrity and glorified karaoke served up by Simon Cowell will not understand what I'm saying but those of you who are older do you agree or am I just being a negative old duffer?
We always had bubble gum pop and it had it's place but in the past decade it seems to me that marketing men like Cowell have done such a good job selling their shite that the majority accepts the likes of Gaga, Kylie Minoge and Madonna as great artists, not only great artists but "THE" artists and it's difficult to get the party going without the likes of David Guetta and Britney Spears in the record box
As a deejay myself I think it stinks
People used to be more discerning and the most funky clubs were full of people who rejected bubblegum pop
There is nothing wrong with bubblegum pop it has it's place but it has now taken over. In the past we rebelled and searched for music that had balls. What has gone wrong?
Discuss
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im 25 i undertand .i like alots of music im not stupiud.
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You just have to look for it. There is plenty of the real, decent stuff out there. You just need to look further. Though I don't know if you can call it "gay" music.
I understand though. I get fed up of hearing Lady Gaga and Cascada like they are the best things since sliced bread. Give me some real Trance, some proper House etc.
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It seems that a few of you have got what I said confused. I am not talking about "gay music" (if there is such a genre) or doing the typical old man thing of saying that music ain't what it used to be.
When I talk about the "gay music scene" I mean gay clubs. Gay clubs used to be really underground and creative now they are not.
I think that the past ten years have been a golden age in music I'm constantly finding good stuff but it rarely appeals to young clubbers anymore because they want bubblegum pop most of all not edgy intelligent music.
Bubblegum pop has it's place but it has taken over that is my point.
In the past a substantial amount of the underground filtered through to the mainstream and even when it didn't hit the charts it had a substantial following but in the past ten years the crowd for underground sounds has dwindled and it has coincided with the majority of people elevating bubblegum pop to the status that was once held by underground chart toppers like The Rolling Stones or New Order.
Even in the charts there used to be room for serious artists and that is not so today.
We used to have pop like Kylie for prepubescant girls and the Sex Pistols, The Clash or The Jam as a serious alternative to that stuff. Now Kylie and Madonna are the all conquering musical geniuses backed up by a plethora of nobodies from Simon Cowell's karaoke hit machine and serious music has been sidelined.
So I am not talking about some mystery genre called "gay music" or doing the age old man rant about "modern music being shite"
I am talking about the way that "serious" music has been squeezed out of the mainstream and how underground clubs and movements have become tiny little niches instead of mass alternative movements.
15 years ago there was still bubblegum pop, shit 50 years ago there was bubblgum pop but there was also mass underground movements like teddy boys in the 50's or mods & rockers in the 60's, the rise of British rhythm and blues rock bands, glam rock and underground disco in the 70's and acid house and hip hop in the 80's
Now hip hoppers listen to watered down chart versions of hip hop and most night clubs all over the world play commercial house and it has become increasingly tough to sell anything deeper than David Guetta to a house crowd or Akon to a hip hop crowd.
As I said I think now there is an abundance of amazing music out there it's just it doesn't have much of an audience outside of a few trendy nightspots in places like London and New York.
I am a deejay myself and I notice the difference.
Even in London which is a hotbed of creativity we used to be able to ram a club with 5000 people who wanted to listen to strictly underground music, now we struggle to get a couple of hundred because the big crowds want to hear David Guetta remixes of Madonna and Lady Gaga.
The gay clubs which I used to reccommend to straight people because of their unique atmosphere and inovative deejays are now just big shrines to the likes of Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue.
This change in culture has coincided with the rise of celebrity culture and the vapid talent shows like American Idol and X-Factor.
As music lovers we used to know a bit of our musical history, hip hop people knew the rare 70's funk that informed the beats used in the hip hop they loved and a house music lover would know about the rare disco and electro of the era before.
In the 80's and early 90's you could play 70's music to a club full of twentysomethings born to late to have been partying in the 70's but they would love it because they knew that was the roots of the new music they loved so much.
Nowadays the large majority of this generation has grown up knowing only the chart stuff. There is no no sense of rebellion against the mainstream.
We used to be tribal and very picky about our music, it had to have an edge and some tosh from the charts had no authenticity and carried no weight with us.
There is no way a self respecting underground clubber would go to a club playing Kylie or Cascada and no hip hopper would go to a club playing Mc Hammer or Akon.
As the marketing men have done such a great job of selling us bubblegum this sense of musical history and discerning clubbers has disapeared but it hasn't been replaced by a more relaxed culture where bubblegum is played back to back with the underground. It has resulted in a culture where people are prejudiced the other way and want to hear stuff they see on MTV or nothing at all and they vote with their feet leaving the underground clubs in their droves.
I know as a deejay that if I refuse to play Benny Benassi to a house crowd or Akon to a hip hop crowd then I'm out of a job.
There is no way I could do a night of rare disco, funk and soul anymore unless I was doing it at an obscure Tuesday night in a tiny club somewhere in Hackney.
Times have changed for the worst and the fact that gay clubs are no longer underground is a good barometer for the sheer size of that change.
Underground deejays are no longer the coolest kids on the block they are the sad train spotters lost in the age of steam when it is now the age of Simon Cowell and co
I think it is sad and I hope it changes but I can't see it changing until the youth start rejecting bubblegum and get passionate about the underground again. Us old boys can't keep it going forever.
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the new gay club scene 
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but i shouldn't need to point out that music, like many other things, is a fad. nobody listens to the carpenters anymore, they were all that in like the 70s i believe. i'll admit there are a few styles that become the cool retro that kids today enjoy, but i know that someday the music i enjoy will become unheard of too 