Bi Pride (http://gayagenda.com/first-u-s-bisexual-pride-day/) is important to think about, to embrace and to celebrate. Centrally important to the issue of Bi Pride is the need to make oneself visible in a particular way—a way that’s very hard to articulate, and a way that should be celebrated.
So many music artists are granted the leeway to be—at the very least—quietly bi, because selling sex, sexuality and even sexual ambiguity is the name of the game in the entertainment business.
Many music artists and entertainers—among them Ani DiFranco, MeShell Ndegeocello, David Bowie, Margaret Cho and countless others—have helped to write the soundtracks to our lives. Because life is ambiguous and we harbor so many secret (and not so secret!) desires, musical expression provides a pleasurable reflecting pool and point of contact for checking in with every color of our feelings.
That said, here are a few recommended tunes—a playlist created to celebrate the beauty of bisexual culture. The following songs allude to or straight up embrace bisexual culture—though being bi isn’t the same thing as being polyamorous, some of these tunes play with those dynamics and ideas, and/or gender ambiguity.
Listen up to:
Joan Jett (Orig. The Replacements) – Androgynous – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bs6QT82Tu4
Wale – Bad – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TIIu9CERgI
Common and Kanye West – Go – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCe1gC5VaW4
Ani DiFranco – Shameless – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjizt4Ixt6E
Prince: If I was Your Girlfriend – (find on iTunes)
Meshell Ndegeocello: Who Is He And What Is He to You – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giVuQ0TEi5w
Blur – Girls and Boys – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDswiT87oo8
Girlyman: Young James Dean – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue_ia7Dikq0
Cyndi Lauper: She Bop – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFq4E9XTueY
Lady Gaga: Poker Face – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo
Meshell: If That’s Your Boyfriend, He Wasn’t Last Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdzEpGIqtY
Katy Perry: I Kissed A Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAp9BKosZXs
Ani DiFranco: If He Tries Anything – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRBIc6gfzLk
Blue Aeroplanes: You Are Loved – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e97y_aBS1Sg
Breaking Benjamin – Polyamrous – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fniQYGAzabU
David Bowie – Rebel Rebel – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa6bI_95G9I
Want to hear the whole set in one go? Click here.(http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBRcoGrPV–bdOqsfNliO5CuBuZJEHkDs)
RuPaul – Free 2 Be – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcvnwGJnq1E
Lady Gaga – Born This Way – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw
Madonna – Sanctuary – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67IUheyPQ7w
Surely this playlist is lacking that “one, next perfect song.” Got any suggestions?