• JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    It’s not a gay anthem, it’s only coincidence that it’s played in nearly every gay pub I have been to, on every gay radio station, every gay pride event (with performers), and when my first boyfriend sucked my dick. People just like picking straws, man.

  • gcheliotis@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I mean, Trump hate aside, I personally never thought of the song as gay. It has certainly such a wide appeal that it can be thought of as just a party song, surpassing whatever context may have provided inspiration for it. But reading the statement, I have to say that was a lot of words just to say it isn’t gay lol. And saying my wife will sue you for claiming something I wrote was gay sounds even sillier and like he’s trying to compensate for something.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.worldOP
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      4 hours ago

      Plausible deniability went out the window for me after I learned the album is called Cruisin’

  • mhague@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Iconic EDM group Kernkraft 400 has denied their hit single Zombie Nation is a sporting anthem. “It’s not played at sporting events. It just isn’t.”


    News from a fever dream.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    My step-son was 11 and constantly singing YMCA.

    “Look, I don’t want to freak you out, but in case you get made fun of at school, YMCA is a gay anthem. No problem with that, but you should know.”

    He was horrified, so he started singing “I Will Survive” instead. I just didn’t have the heart to tell him.

    • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      He just needs to embrace them. I’m a straight dude, I love gay anthems. I made $20 one time by singing I Will Survive for karaoke at a crowded bowling alley, in front of my wife’s entire company. Whatever, can’t embarrass me. I love that song. Didn’t even need the karaoke screen.

      Joke’s on them, I would have sang it for free. Any or all that I know. Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper (I just saw her a couple months ago), The Weather Girls (I have an It’s Raining Men 12" single) and I will belt them all out with my own terrible choreography.

  • BetaBlake@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Lol like Trump is actually going to pay you for using the song, it really is rubes all the way down

  • MataVatnik@lemmy.worldOP
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    1 day ago

    The more I read the funnier it gets

    As for the idea that “Y.M.C.A. is “somehow a gay anthem,” Willis said that “is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay

    “This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people. To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.

    I therefore wrote ‘Y.M.C.A.’ about the things I knew about the Y in the urban areas of San Francisco such as swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms. And when I say, “hang out with all the boys” that is simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging-out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.

    • EleventhHour@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      “As a straight member of a gay band, I totally didn’t get the point of the gay song I wrote for my gay band”

    • minnow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I hate him saying “get your mind out of the gutter” as if even thinking about people who are gay is itself a perverted sexual act.

      Gay people exist. Acknowledging this and discussing whether a piece of media is directed at them is not “mind in gutter” stuff.

      I don’t want to go so far as to say this person is homophobic, but it sure does sound like some internalized homophobia, perhaps.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      I can reluctantly believe that is true (despite the laughable first paragraph where he gives example after example about why such “assumptions” are reasonable) - but he’s old enough to know that once an artist puts art out into the world, their interpretation of it is no longer the only one.

      The song IS a gay anthem even if it wasn’t written that way.

      edit - they the

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I mean, the title and situation is a lot more straightforward than the nuance behind his reasoning and the history of the band.

    • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      Offering young men ways to have a good time when they’re short on their dough sure as hell doesn’t sound straight.

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    WOW! Not much in the news has shocked and surprised me as much as this article has.

    Victor Willis says he will take legal action against any news organization that suggest “Y.M.C.A.” is a gay anthem beginning in January 2025

    I’m really curious to know what legal action he intends to take. Doesn’t he have to show some sort of damages for any hope of not throwing his money away on frivolous lawsuits that will go nowhere?