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Young's wariness--or his management's wariness--of actually appearing as gay in his videos highlights the extent to which pop music is still a heterosexist medium. It has tended to be straight artists who push the boundaries by singing about—and showing—same-sex sexuality. Russian duo t.A.T.u, for example, or Christina Aguilera in her Beautiful video - and it is almost always faux-lesbian, rather than gay male sexuality that is involved. Think Britney and Madonna kissing at the VMAs.

In a medium that is all about love and sexual attraction (when was the last time you heard a pop song that made no reference to either?), gay love is by and large still expected to remain, if not absolutely in the closet, then carefully gender neutral. Pop's biggest gay figureheads, George Michael and Elton John, have yet to appear in romantic situations with men in their videos. Michael's video for Outside did feature gay male sexuality, but not with him as a participant. Since then, he has made a return to hetero imagery, appearing with women in the video for his 2002 single Freeek!, and using a straight couple to illustrate the love which he sings about in 2004's Amazing (a song dedicated to his boyfriend no less).

All of which makes "Switch It On," the debut single from Will Young's new third album Keep On, a more satisfying departure. Ditching the melting, androgynous ballads that have become his trademark, Young instead goes for juddering, testosterone-driven jungle beats.

In the song's video, a spoof of eternal gay favorite Top Gun, Young comes up with his most sexually unambiguous public moment yet. All the best Top Gun scenes are here - the volleyball match, the muscle-flexing, the locker-room showdown - and added to them are some knowing looks between Young and his mustachioed co-pilot. Take a closer look at their helmets, and you'll see that they've got the words ‘Cowboy' and ‘Indian' written on them. When the inevitable girl (a Kelly McGillis look-alike) finally shows up in the last part of the video to be serenaded, it feels not like a hetero cover-up, but a mocking commentary on all the hetero cover-ups Young has done in the past. Make no mistake about it--in this video, Will Young is out.

While the rest of the album features a return to more familiar musical territory, there are still traces of Young's increasing confidence in expressing his sexuality. The bossa nova track Happiness, for example, features the line “Happiness is being gay.” In an interview with the UK edition of Marie Claire, out currently, the 26-year-old Young offers some clues as to where this newfound confidence has come from: he has experienced his first serious relationship (although he says it ended in heartbreak). As a result, he says, “I think I have become more sexual. Not in some rampant way! But I think I used to be more guarded. I came out in public and that slightly restricted me. It was like my development was stunted. I wasn't looking at me, I was looking at how other people were perceiving me.”

This (entirely understandable) anxiety over how other people might perceive him has not completely disappeared from Young's work. The video for the second single from his new album, All Time Love, again blurs over his sexuality in a manner reminiscent of the "Light My Fire" video, with both a male and a couple of female figures lingered on by the camera as if to suggest that they might be potential love interests. At least this time, however, it is the male figure to the fore--and that can't be an accident.

With his increasing openness, both in interviews and in his videos, Young is paving the way for other gay artists to feel comfortable expressing themselves directly in their work, rather than through heterosexual imagery - and for straight audiences to be used to seeing it.

Watch the videos at will-youngonline.com

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