Icon? Maybe not today..
So.. how did this question come about? I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps it’s the long-wondered and never voiced issue amongst darklings.. The ones that think further than flames, anyway. Gay icons… what makes one? I did ask. Purveryors of fine dancing music. Arbiters of style. Both, even… Groups or singers who are openly gay, pushing back the boundaries. Well, you know all that. Tastes differ, though. Some bi boys of my acquaintance really couldn’t give a toss about Madonna, Kylie, Audrey, Marilyn, or the Scissor Sisters. Their tastes lie in anime, yoai, goth and arthouse. They don’t see their music as relating much to their sexuality, and don’t care at all for Old School icons. It means nothing to them.
Gay iconicity is in the eye of the beholder, now, not in the hands of the hype machines. I’ve seen many articles with young actors and singers, our own Nicolai amongst them.. speculating on their potential, and designating them as pinups at the very least. Well.. McFly are going to get a mixed bag of fans! (Apparently they’re a good looking bunch of lads) Definitely interesting to read their views on being fancied by their own sex .
Sexuality and taste do not go hand in hand. Arts are still a great leveller – should you wish to call most of the pop music we have now ‘art’. Sexual attraction doesn’t give someone icon status either. For example, what makes Nicolai (formerly of Do Me Bad Things) deserving of pinup status, and Justin not? He’s been interviews in axm (sexy, sharp,gay) after all..They’re as gorgeous as each other. Justin is about as full frontal a showman as you’ll ever see. Too much, perhaps, to ever be pinup or icon, but he’ll always be sexy. Dan – well, he’s astoundingly pretty. He’s not in the public eye enough, so not deemed interesting enough, to non-darklings – a grave error. He’s as thoughtful, incisive and considered as Justin isn’t. Together, they’d be perfect. (Apparently the would be, but these musings aren’t about the incestuous homoerotic fantasies of the few). Nicolai, however, has that indefinable spark – lithe, quietly beautiful, changeable and sweetly innocent of his own appeal. The Hawkins brothers play on theirs to an enormous degree, and ham up their slashiness. Nik’s DMBT music, stomping, rousing rock/disco is more likely to find appeal amongst the more staunchly stereotype queens of my acquaintance than the Hawkins falsetto (in my opinion), as there’s something far more undrground and diva-ish about it. We wish him well in his solo career.
I’ve spent this whole article talking about straight men , but I can only write about what I know!
Onto music genre then. My small but admirable pink pool mostly really do love disco, 80’s cheese (me too!), Elton, Maddy, divas, and all the rest. One does one’s best, but it doesn’t work enough! The rest are of the gothic persuasion. A genre full of gender realignments and as much androgyny as you could wish for. And still, that has no part to play in their love of the music. Just for each other, it’s how they met, after all.
Pages of notebook later, I still haven’t answered the question.. Are The Darkness gay icons? The answer is, no. Even if one of their songs is called ‘Bareback’, which has other connotations. When pushed, my mates will admit to Dan’s beauty and Jus being a potential bit of rough.. but in this non-battle, Nicolai bears the crown. He gets a second look from everyone.
Oh well. It’s probably not a crown they worry about unduly. Just idle curiosity on a dedicated darkling’s part.
pics… Dan, Jus, Nik in action
