Steve Grand looks like this. One could argue that this has nothing to do with the semi-viral success of his “All American Boy” music video—which I somehow avoided watching until today due to laziness and a series of disparaging tweets from The Sword‘s Zachary Sire—but if one were to make such an argument, they would be horribly wrong and cloaked in so much naivety that they should probably seek professional help.
The gay blog circuit collectively dropped their panties for Grand’s practical ripoff of Lady Gaga‘s “Yoü and I“. The hysteria reached a point where I got an e-mail from someone I truly respect who dubbed him “the first gay country star”, and much as I tried to avoid it, I nearly lost my shit and threw my computer across the room.
Steve Grand is not the first openly gay man to sing country music. While he could be classified as the first gay country “star”, that would be setting the bar pretty low on the qualifications for stardom. The man has made one video with less than a million views (as of this post). He’s not even on a Rebecca Black level of fame.
Now, it might seem like I’m taking a lot of digs at Steve himself, but my bigger problem is the way the media treats openly-gay musicial artists as a whole. Take hip-hop for instance. Someone like Cazwell gets a lot of attention because he’s attractive and (usually) features hot guys in his video. Artists like Cakes Da Killa, LE1F, Zebra Katz and Mykki Blanco get attention, because they’re “hip”, “edgy” and possessing varying degrees of talent. Big Dipper and Rica Shay get attention (from me), because they have hairy butts. Yet, you don’t see the mainstream gay blogs covering someone like DaQuan, Kaoz, I.K.P. or anyone who isn’t white, trendy or turning out over-sexed visuals with shirtless dudes.
Blogs will name Double Duchess and The Freaky Boiyz the “first openly gay rap group” without doing their research and realizing that Deep Dickollective had been doing this shit since 2000. Now, I’m a lazy ass blogger who’s human and makes mistakes, but that’s just plain ol’ ignorance. Google that shit before you make it your headline.
I’m getting way, way, way, way off topic here.
What I was trying to go for—before ranting and heading into TL;DR territory—is that gay men have been making country music for awhile now. We wrote about bearish singer Drake Jensen early last year, and surely, he’s not the first gay cowboy to pick up a microphone and sing about his feelings.
Whatever the case may be, I took some time this morning to reacquaint myself with Jensen’s work, even though he doesn’t have a six pack, bulging biceps and a gay porn actor playing the love interest in his music videos… But does that eliminate my desire to sit on his face and feel those whiskers against my taint? Nope! I’d hit it.
And I think I’ve made my point. Gay media is superficial. We only write about people we wanna fuck.
– Dewitt
Check out some pics and listen to some of Drake’s tunes below:
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he may not be the first, but i definitely prefer Steve Grand to drake jaden
Great post, Dewitt! I think you got Drake Jaden (the porn star) and Drake Jensen (the gay country singer) mixed up. 🙂
HAHA, my mind was on other things, I suppose!
In the early 90’s there was an out country band called Doug Stevens and the Outband. They were pretty good, though not as polished as Steve Grand or Drake Jensen.
the irony of this post is I was just bitching to myself this morning about this very subject and rediscovering Drake myself.
What’s so gay about that video, it was straight! He maybe gay, but he cow towed to the money men to make a buck, so fuck! Go Grand!
No disrespect to Mr Jensen, but I much prefer Steve Grand’s voice. All-American Boy tells a story we can all relate to (whether the person we crushed on was straight or gay, we’ve all chosen the wrong one a time or twelve). Oh, and the video has surpassed 1,000,000 views now. Please get your panties out of that nasty twist and just enjoy the music.
::scratches head::
But I can’t enjoy the music if I don’t *enjoy* the music.
New out guy on the block is Glenn Stewart, he’s a cutie too, check him out at http://www.glennstewart.net
All I have to say, Dewitt, is PREACH!
With all that praise, you don’t even like Jensen’s music? I don’t know what to tell you then. Oh, wait. I hear Britney is coming out with a new album. Something without autotune? It’s sure to be horrid. Maybe you’ll like that better? In the meantime, keep telling stories about hot naked men. That works too.
Actually the last 2 music videos you posted I liked! The one with William singing “stand by your man” which brings back old memories being a kid from a country western family fan.
And then the one about bullying also hit home because I had seen and experienced that when in grade school. It did not stop till I stood up for myself and fought back even though my Mom always said run away. You can only do that so long before the anger builds to an explosion.
But it was my Step Father that pushed me to attempted suicide and becoming a drunken fool as a teen not the kids in school.
But my hat is off to both of these guys because lets face it not easy to get some where in country music being openly gay!
YOu should check out Tom Goss’ new video about “bears” …its pretty awesome. Dont think Ive ever seen him here, but I could be mistaken.
What about Mark Weigle? Two Cowboy Waltz? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONOVpdKC8ng
I think you misunderstood me. I was stating that I can’t get my panties out of that nasty twist and just enjoy the music, because I don’t actually enjoy Steve Grand’s music. I’m not shaming anyone for relating to it—as you are shaming people who may enjoy dancing to Britney—but there’s something artificial and processed about his persona that doesn’t appeal to me. SORRY.