A review by happentobeshort
Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary by Sasha Geffen
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
I'm a self professed Music Enjoyer™ so while the majority of musicians mentioned were not new to me, I did enjoy the theories and thoughts behind Sasha's re-framing of their work! Absolutely recommended to any music fan, or anyone who enjoys getting lost on Wikipedia when looking up their fav musicians.
HOWEVER. I wanted to really love this book but there was a huge glaring omission for me: Heavy metal. I kept listening to the audiobook waiting for some mentions of the overlaps between queer culture and heavy metal, or AT LEAST mentions of queer metal stars and yet.. Nothing. The most we got was with industrial and punk music.
What upset me was while there was absolutely zero mention of Rob Halford and his MASSIVE (innuendo intended) impact on heavy metal culture as a whole, there was like a whole paragraph or two on Morrissey?! Of all people???? Not one word on how Rob impacted the visual aesthetic of heavy metal by co-opting the leather daddy look from the gay bars he would visit on the sly in the USA, no mention of Dee Snider and his glam contemporaries use of heels, makeup and women's clothes, no mention of Otep Shamaya!!!!
And I KNOW Sasha listens to metal because I have seen her twitter account!! So I really don't understand why one entire genre of music was ignored in favour of some... interesting theories (Cobain having sympathetic menstrual cramps? Sure I guess lol..) and musicians that I felt did not deserve as much space as they were given. :(
DESPITE THAT. I did really enjoy the book as a whole and might even consider buying myself a paperback copy to keep on my shelf to revisit or lend to friends. :)
HOWEVER. I wanted to really love this book but there was a huge glaring omission for me: Heavy metal. I kept listening to the audiobook waiting for some mentions of the overlaps between queer culture and heavy metal, or AT LEAST mentions of queer metal stars and yet.. Nothing. The most we got was with industrial and punk music.
What upset me was while there was absolutely zero mention of Rob Halford and his MASSIVE (innuendo intended) impact on heavy metal culture as a whole, there was like a whole paragraph or two on Morrissey?! Of all people???? Not one word on how Rob impacted the visual aesthetic of heavy metal by co-opting the leather daddy look from the gay bars he would visit on the sly in the USA, no mention of Dee Snider and his glam contemporaries use of heels, makeup and women's clothes, no mention of Otep Shamaya!!!!
And I KNOW Sasha listens to metal because I have seen her twitter account!! So I really don't understand why one entire genre of music was ignored in favour of some... interesting theories (Cobain having sympathetic menstrual cramps? Sure I guess lol..) and musicians that I felt did not deserve as much space as they were given. :(
DESPITE THAT. I did really enjoy the book as a whole and might even consider buying myself a paperback copy to keep on my shelf to revisit or lend to friends. :)