Pop music wins

I talk about pop music a lot because I like it, because I listen to it, and because it’s been the soundtrack to so much of my life. It turns out, I’m not alone in that affinity, as the Chart above from Statista shows: Pop music rules!

There was a time I didn’t always talk so openly about liking pop music—though, in fact, there were a great many things I didn’t talk about openly back then. But when I was young and especially vulnerable, I didn’t talk about liking pop music in case it was something that opened me up for ridicule, or worse, suspicion that I wasn’t like “them”. As a teenager, I was keenly aware of the sort of music that might make people suspect I was gay, something I definitely didn’t want to happen.

I’ve talked about that a couple times, the first back in October 2006—the second month of this blog. Back then I was talking about Disco in general. Then, in 2012, I talked about Donna Summer. The common thing about both of those posts is that I censored myself to avoid being identified as gay.

By my early 20s, I didn’t care anymore, and I liked what I liked—sort of an early version of Arthur’s Law. My experience is not unique: I know of plenty of gay men who did exactly the same thing as me in their youth. Here’s a secret: Every now and then, I still do the same thing, or pause and think about doing it. It’s not that I care about what people think—I mostly don’t. But I survived being gay in the 1970s by sublimating and hiding, not by being open, and the survival instincts I learned then have never gone away. Some days, I think that’s a good thing because one day I may need them again.

Most of the time, and in most of the present, I just like what I like and forget about everyone else. And what I like is, mainly, pop music. It’s always good to find out I’m not alone.

Footnote: Last week I mentioned that I get email alerts from Statista, and this post, like others before it, is the result of one of those alerts.