Pride Month: Required Listening
Get out your notes! This is required listening for 2024’s Pride month.
Dorian Electra: An experimental hyperpop artist who challenges gender norms through their music. Their work explores themes of identity, sexuality, and societal expectations. They are currently touring their third album Fanfare.
Shamir: An indie and alternative artist whose music combines elements of rock, pop, and electronic. Their countertenor voice and Jeff Buckley-esque tambre make for an engaging listening experience.
Christine and the Queens: A pseudonym for trans icon Héloïse Letissier, Christine and the Queens is a French singer-songwriter with a synth-pop and indie-pop sound. His recent albums have explored a “labyrinthine concept album wrapped around a fuckboy alter ego” as well as an “intimate revelations about transition, sex, and grief in a three-part bilingual epic” (Pitchfork).
Rina Sawayama: A Japanese-British singer-songwriter, Sawayama creates pop music for queer folks from all walks of life. She has collaborations out with Elton John and stirred public interest in anti-asian discrimination in a public battle with her label head Matty Healy of the 1975. Her work often explores identity, with themes ranging from queerness to cultural heritage.
BoyGenius. A supergroup formed by singer-songwriters Julien Baker, Lucy Daucus, and Pheobe Bridgers, BoyGenius is really…well…girl genius. The harmony and lyrical interweaving going on between these three fantastic talents has led to sold out shows at The Hollywood Bowl and the critically acclaimed The Record, which is…well…a record.
Big Freedia. Her bassy voice can be heard on Beyoncé records like “Break My Soul” and “Formation,” but her legacy stands apart from queen bee. Big Freedia has popularized New Orleans bounce, a Southern hip-hop form that relies on hypersexual dance call outs and a real sense of freedom of expression.
Hikaru Utada. One of the most influential and commercially successful acts in JPop, Utada came out as non-binary in 2021. They bring American-inflected R&B vocals into soulful ballads, bouncy dance-pop, and standard pop. She is currently on the 25th anniversary tour of her first record, Science Fiction.
