Despite the fact that my father refers to them as “chewing-gum for the eyes,” I admit I love watching music videos. A good video can make me like a song I wasn’t that keen on when I heard it on the radio; a really bad one can put me off a song I thought I liked. But they have to be bad indeed in order to get me to switch off altogether.

Despite all that, I’m aware of a pervasive lack in the majority of music videos. Where — amidst all the heterosexual bumping and grinding and declarations of love — are the lesbians? It’s not like there is a lack of successful out lesbian singers. Melissa and k.d. and Tegan and Sara — they’re all out there. But when it comes to being “out there” in their videos — not so much. Possibly under pressure from their record companies, these singers tend to compensate for their openly gay status in life by keeping their songs and videos carefully gender neutral. In the video for their song "Speak Slow," Tegan and Sara even appear in bed with men — although to be fair, it’s made pretty clear that they are friends rather than love interests.

So where does that leave lesbian visibility in music videos? Every so often, a lesbian couple or two will appear briefly in the video of a (presumably) straight singer who wants to demonstrate his or her gay-friendliness. Vanessa Carlton has them in her video for "Hands on Me." Katie Melua has them in her video for "Call Off the Search." Ex-Spice Girl Emma Bunton has one in her video for "I’ll Be There." British singer Tom Baxter has one in his video for "Better." If you’ve ever seen the video for the Nicole Kidman/Robbie Williams duet "Somethin’ Stupid," you’ll know that Nicole has a split-second moment where she looks like she might switch teams. But by and large, that’s what these appearances are: split-second.

Of course, you can always find the occasional straight male singer who uses “lesbian” imagery or suggestiveness in his videos in a clearly voyeuristic way. Fifty Cent’s video for "Candy Shop" springs to mind. As does Robbie Williams’ threesome in "Come Undone." The video for U.K. dance band Ultrabeat’s "Pretty Green Eyes" basically consists of three exotic dancers “performing” lesbianism for the benefit of the fat, ugly male singer who sits and watches them. Justin Timberlake’s video for "What Goes Around ... Comes Around" has guest star Scarlett Johansson exclaiming — with boring predictability as well as without much conviction — “I like girls.”

In the past 25 years, though, there have been a few music videos that not only feature lesbianish relationships prominently, but also do so in a way that makes it feel like they’re not designed (exclusively) for the benefit of straight male viewers. Here are six of my favorites:

1. Prince, "1999" (1983)

What saves the two ambiguously gay women in this video from being just the usual straight male window-dressing is that a) the camera cuts to them repeatedly, b) they are actually involved in the song, with the brunette apparently playing the keyboard and both women singing, and c) neither of them gets involved with men at any point in the video. The fact that Prince is such a sexually ambiguous creature himself helps — I’m willing to believe that he put them in the video as a nod to sexual diversity, and not just to build up his own reputation as a stud. And I’ll admit it — I can’t resist a blonde in a military cap. … continue reading

I've already confessed my love for dance movies, as well as the primary reason why I love them. It's the choreographed dance sequences. Ya dig? Well, surprise, surprise: I also enjoy videos featuring women doing their damn thing. Missy Elliott has been doing her damn thing for over 10 years, and her videos are almost always unique in one way or another.

Her latest is in 3-D. Girls? Bounce? Missy style? All that in 3-D? My, my, my. Two songs are given the 3-D treatment: "Ching-a-Ling" and "Shake Your Pom-Pom."

Take a look — here's the video, first in 2-D and then in 3-D for those of you who have a pair of specs handy.

  … continue reading

A couple of months ago, I blogged about some '80s videos that made me gay. At the end of that post, I said that Les Rita Mitsuoko made me feel weird. I've come to realize that '80s videos are probably largely responsible for my weirdness. Here are some examples of musical abnormality that helped me shun conventionality and further embrace my lady-loving ways.

1. Laurie Anderson, "O Superman" (1982)

It doesn't get better or weirder than this. Laurie Anderson has always freaked me out and turned me on at the same time. The lit-up mouth! Eeek! And the jacket and tie. Mmm.

2. Grace Jones, "Slave to the Rhythm" (1985)

So bizarre and so butch. And Jones is so very talented. Awesome.

3. Parachute Club, "Rise Up" (1983) … continue reading

I've always taken Sheryl Crow for granted. When I stumble across a song of hers while switching radio stations in my car, I always let the radio rest there on her voice. I sing along and enjoy her singles until either a commercial interrupts or some other song I don't like nearly as much comes on, prompting me to start the channel-changing game again. But that's it. I know all the lyrics to most of her more popular songs, but I've never owned a Sheryl Crow album. But that will change soon: Crow's new album, Detours, debuts on February 5, and with its release, I intend to change my ways.

Crow has the kind of voice and musical spirit that are homespun. You feel what she feels, and when it's good, it's good, and when she's down and blue, you're down and blue too, yet you listen anyway because the music draws you in. When she left Las Vegas, you did too, and when she says that every day is a winding road, you don't doubt her.

The first official single from Detours is "Love Is Free." The song is inspired by both the natural catastrophe and the human catastrophe of the lack of immediate federal response to Hurricane Katrina. "Love Is Free" sounds ready for radio, even though the subject matter may not be so top 40. Here's the video: … continue reading

On February 13, the Berlin Film Festival will premiere Filth & Wisdom, the feature-length directorial debut of the inimitable Madonna. The “low-budget music-based comedy” concerns a young musician (Eugene Hutz of the punk band Gogol Bordello) who moves to London to follow his dreams, only to become swept up in the sexy sexy world of S/M. Perhaps. No one really knows what the film’s about for sure. No matter the plot, here’s hoping she’s better at telling people how to act than she is at ... you know ... doing the acting herself.

OK, so maybe that’s a little harsh. She put in decent performances in both Desperately Seeking Susan (basically playing herself) and A League of Their Own (basically playing herself as a 1940s baseball player). But for every wonderful comic turn she’s done on Saturday Night Live, there’s an is she really pouring candle wax on a bare-chested Willem Dafoe agggh I need to go bleach my eyes turn in something like 1993’s Body of Evidence.

Don’t get me wrong — I loves me some Madonna. No, really — I loves me some Madonna, and I only care a little bit that admitting it might make me uncool. She’s been around so long that I can barely remember life before Madonna; it just so happens that I feel the same way about Darth Vader— make of that what you will.

I distinctly remember the first time I ever saw Madonna. I was spending the night at my grandma’s, and she let me watch the very first MTV Video Music Awards — yes, this was way back in 1984. Madonna performed “Like A Virgin” — and of course, by “performing,” I mean “she rolled around on the stage in a trashy bridal dress,” but to my young, impressionable eyes she was a revelation. Girls weren’t supposed to act like that, after all, and I was instantly hooked. … continue reading

How about a little reader participation? First, slide your feet up the street. Now bend your back. Next, shift your arm. Then you pull it back. That’s right, my friend, you’re walking like an Egyptian. And you know who else is right there with you? KT Tunstall.

The British songstress has covered the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” for Yahoo! Music’s Cover Art series (you may remember Mandy Moore’s impassioned take on "Umbrella" for the series last summer). Let’s give KT’s take a listen, complete with kick-ass whistle solo.

KT’s reason for picking the ’80s smash couldn’t be cooler: “That song made me think it was probably cooler to be a girl than a boy because the Bangles were so cool.” Amen to that. … continue reading

Pat Benatar has a Valentine's gift planned for the soap opera–viewing masses. On Feb. 14 and 15, she will guest star on Y&R (otherwise know as The Young and the Restless.)

Not only will she (and husband, guitarist Neil Giraldo) perform the song “Every Time I Fall Back,” but she'll also help Nia Peeples' character conquer her stage fright and wow the crowd at the Y&R nightclub. I'm glad to know that Pat Benatar has such a generous spirit, but I cannot imagine Nia Peeples having trouble singing — or dancing — in front of a crowd. She was Nicole on Fame, after all!

If there's anything intelligent to say about Y&R, I am not the one to say it. My daytime soap–watching history is very limited. In 1987, my brother introduced me to the Buchanans of One Life to Live, when he was mesmerized by the evil deeds of Mitch Lawrence — who turned out to be the actual devil! I revisited the show five years later when Ryan Phillippe joined as a gay teenager. (I was working at GLAAD at the time, so watching was really just a job requirement. I kept watching for a year or so after I left GLAAD, because I was just that dedicated.) But that one blip — plus a couple of episodes of Days of Our Lives when a friend was on — was it, as I'm really not a soap lover.

But I have loved Pat Benatar since I was young and restless. In 1981, I had no idea who she was when I received her album Crimes of Passion as a birthday gift at my roller-skating birthday party. … continue reading

My crush on Feist gets bigger every day. It's more than a crush, actually; it's a "looking up to" sort of thing. Like when I was 7 and really looked up to that forward on my sister's basketball team. Um, maybe that was a crush too.

Anyway, Feist is simply brilliant. She's a serious artist, but she's also silly sometimes. And she's lovely. And all of that comes through loud and clear in the new video for "I Feel It All." This should have a warning label on it: May cause fireworks to go off in your heart.

Feist once again teamed with director Patrick Daughters for this one (he also directed the videos for "1 2 3 4" and "My Man, My Moon," which you can watch here). That's a match made in music video heaven.

Well, that was just wrong on every level. By now, you’ve probably watched, re-watched and texted your friends so they could watch the horror of the big Britney Spears MTV Video Music Awards comeback that wasn’t. For a supposed entertainment event, that was one of the more painful, more inexplicable and more unnecessary displays I’ve ever witnessed. But more than anything, it just made me sad.

If for some reason you missed it and your friends didn’t call to insist you watch it over and over again with them, consider yourself lucky ... until now. Britney Spears. “Gimme More.” VMAs 2007. You’ve been warned. … continue reading

I am way too old to watch the MTV Video Music Awards. I couldn’t pick a good chunk of the nominees out of a lineup. I don’t own any of the performers or presenters’ CDs (though I have downloaded a song or two, legally — because I am old). Yet, still, I plan to watch this Sunday. Why? Why put myself through the ordeal of watching something so clearly not aimed at my demographic, tastes or sensibilities? Why grate my teeth to a nub at the nominated songs and their accompanying bad grammar? ("The Way I Are"? I Are? Ahhhhh!) Well, it’s simple and terribly shameful. I’m going to watch the VMAs for Britney Spears.

Now, before you come after me with barber shears and a bag of Cheetos, let me explain. Sure, Britney isn’t much of a singer. Sure, she isn’t much of a scholar. And, clearly, she isn’t any kind of a role model. But there is one thing you can always count on from ol’ Brit: pure, unadulterated, unintellectualized spectacle. For good or bad, the girl knows how to create a scene. And some of her best stunts have come at the VMAs. Things like — oh, I don’t know — this.

Or this. … continue reading

I guess we already knew that Björk is living in a braver, newer world than the rest of us.

But a recent post on the Wired website revealed just how cutting-edge she is. The article describes the reacTable, a "tangible music interface." The first two sentences kinda made me drool:

"The reacTable, a new instrument that lets musicians manipulate sounds by moving glowing blocks on a round, transparent table, is wowing festival audiences after it was hand-picked by Björk for use on the singer's summer tour. The modular synthesizer mashes up shades of Tron, laser hockey and classic Moogs using open-source reacTivision software and an under-the-hood camera to track blocks that, when added, rotated or moved, combine to produce beeps, whoops and soaring synth lines."

Leave it to Björk to popularize something like this, right? She's sorta the patron saint of the off-kilter. … continue reading