"I wear this liar's crown"

Led by trans woman Kate Davies, Pupil Slicer make *extremely* heavy metal.

This is as epic and confident and driven as "Bohemian rhapsody" - a slow-build guitar prog track suddenly explodes in the moshpit.

The men in blazers are all puffed out. Trans joy is radical, and queer love saves the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5iXQOy1y8M
#TracksAndField #PupilSlicer

The biggest non-binary pop star on the planet, Udata has been having hits in Japan since 1999.

They disclosed their non-binary status in 2021, explaining that gender and sexuality are misunderstood in Japan because they're rarely discussed, and there are so few visible LGBT+ role models.

Japan accepts sexual differences. Why doesn't World Athletics?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_7sRWWnP4s
#TracksAndField #HikaruUdata

This one's a quiet, contemplative song about struggling with life's slings and arrows. Chasing one's dreams takes work, good things won't fall into your lap.

Kacey's the poster child of queer allies, recognised by GLAAD in 2022.

From 2013's "Same Trailer Different Park".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rv9spwIMiqM
#TracksAndField #KaceyMusgraves

"Don't have to say you're sorry, let's just forget that you're a cheat
Don't have to feel bad for me, I won't be losing sleep"

Emily's been on the scene for about ten years now, draws from experiences with other women to make songs of universal appeal. Whether she intended to send a message to Seb Coe and his c-heat, I don't know.

From 2018's "Seven Scenes for the Same Summer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRnRhUfhX2s
#TracksAndField #EmilyBurns

The other classic Crystal Maze host doesn't speak of his sexuality. He's certainly an ally, sticks up for everyone.

Top of the Pops from 1981.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea-HVKdTEhQ
#TracksAndField #TenpoleTudor #EdTudorPole #TOTP

Back when I was growing up, homosexual men were flamboyant, outré, glamorous. Kenny Everett, Freddie Mercury, Larry Grayson.

And they're not me, in-yer-face just ain't my lifestyle. I'm glad the young queers of today have so many more diverse role models

From "The Works", 1984, so of course it's another anthem about all-out nuclear armageddon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU5LMG3WFBw
#TracksAndField #Queen #FreddieMercury #queer #heritage #QueerHistory

A gloomy disco anthem about the loneliness of modern life, somewhat presaging the health crisis of the present decade.

Both Clean Bandit and Marina are camp gay icons and proper allies, often featuring at Pride march after-parties.

First performed in 2015, released as a single two years later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qEUtPkTKOg
#TracksAndField #CleanBandit #MarinaDiamandis

A very 1990 take on Lou Reed's classic transgender road trip song. Even if you think the original is hackneyed and over-played, give this one a spin.

From the album "Shotgun"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qCUKzCGjWY
#TracksAndField #JamieJMorgan

It's folk-americana-altcountry time, with a song that came out of the coffee shops ("A 2006 Barnes & Noble Discover Artist") and into the mainstream.

"Throw it all away" - from the eponymous 2005 album - drips authenticity from every note. Be who you want to be. Marry your wife. Ignore others' perceptions.

Yourself is good. Sebastian Coe is wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6qOLZYFEts
#TracksAndField #BrandiCarlile

#TracksAndField was invented to mark the World Athletics championships.

The only place World Athletics gets to bully people is in disreputable places - this year, Budapest.

András Kállay-Saunders sings from the perspective of a woman escaping an abusive relationship. It was entered by Magyar TV (shown as "Hungary" on screen) at the Senior Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzfRDZmuFUI
#Hungary #KallaySaunders #ESC #IWantMyMTV

#TracksAndField was invented to mark the World Athletics championships.

#WorldAthletics is a horrible organisation, it wants to medicalise Black women to meet white people's prejudices on femininity. For years, WA has been a schoolyard bully, picking on Caster Semenya because she's different.

Pushback came from an advert in South Africa, where Semenya is a hero, and HRH Sirlord Sebastian Coe is dirt on someone's shoe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvqZnhBn-Wg
#CasterSemenya

#TracksAndField was invented to mark the World Athletics championships.

#WorldAthletics is a horrible organisation, it wants to expunge trans people from everyday life. Such abhorrent views deserve to be scorned and ridiculed.

Here, trans singer Laura Jane Grace sings about making sure her body matches her mind. World Athletics denies this basic human right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRQjZUTUpE0
#AgainstMe #TransRights

"Turn down the treble / Drop the bass / Respect to your guru / Namaste, yeah"

Once upon a time, the frontswoman with Rilo Kiley, latterly the spreader and bringer of jollity. Jenny doesn't make a big deal of her sexuality, but she's someone to catch the breath of many young lesbians.

From her 2023 album "Joy'all".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlNVtA6Lgu4
#TracksAndField #JennyLewis #RiloKiley

Robyn Crawford says she's the answer to the question Whitney posed on her 1990 album "I'm Your Baby Tonight".

Whitney didn't write her own songs, but had the star power to choose the songs she did sing. Here she muses, "We'll be loving baby over time / My sensitivity gets so high".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk9z09G7MVM
#TracksAndField #WhitneyHouston

From Long Beach in California, Frank told the world about his gentleman lover in 2012, one of the first Black men to come out as gay.

The subsequent album "Channel Orange" includes the lyric "You run my mind boy, you're so buff and so strong, I'm nervous, Forrest".

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/watch?v=XNN8YtCxEAg
#TracksAndField #FrankOcean

David Bowie is a queer legend. He had done for Gen X what Brian Molko did two decades later: fought the boundaries of a gender binary and beaten them into a messy pulp.

By 1993, Bowie was easing into the Old Stagers' division, but surprised us with a relevant and exciting song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPZWgCLMsW8
#TracksAndField #DavidBowie

Unrepentantly feminine singing and skilled guitarwork in the bro-ish post-grunge landscape, and in the decades since.

Here, Juliana gives voice to the anger, fear and longing experienced by many femmes, singing of sisters, crushes, body image, broken hearts.

From "Blood", 2021.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taFRh9Qj0wI
#TracksAndField #JulianaHatfield

"sadness the name of the spike that took me"

Brian Molko did for the millennial generation what David Bowie did two decades earlier: did we want to be him, or be with him, or have him be with us, or..... Representation matters, and it's a transgressive thrill to see a genuine genderbender doing stuff with Ant Dec and Cat on CD:UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AWvqGuONKY
#Placebo #TracksAndField #BrianMolko

In one of its stuffiest passages, Wikipedia says, "The song is both an example and a parody of the dance song genre, with much of the lyrics [sic] consisting of dance step instructions."

TV Tropes says, "Richard O'Brien has said that he wrote that song as a bit of a parody of a Dance Sensation."

The narrator says, "It's just a jump to the left..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdbLirsZ_4Q
#TracksAndField #RockyHorrorPictureShow #TimeWarp

"There's a shooting star
In a race for the final hurdle"

The b-side to 1989's release of "Healing hands", the time when Elton donated his singles royalties to AIDS research.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NaT8-EzX9I
#EltonJohn #TracksAndField