Rocking Out – Male Musicians Straddle the Closet

Vocalist Michael Stipe of R.E.M. publicly came out in 2001. "I was being made to be a coward about it,” he explained to Time magazine, “rather than someone who felt like it really was a very private thing." Both Stipe and R.E.M. have survived his coming out, and critics and fans continue to support the band.

Stipe explains his ongoing good standing with audiences thus: “I was never photographed with a woman on my arm, trying to pretend that I was something that I wasn't. I was always extremely frank and very open with the people around me. But for the public, I just felt like, ‘If you haven't figured it out, I'm not going to tell you. It's not really your business…'”

Artistically, Stipe expresses his sexuality in rather indecipherable terms. "Yeah. I kind of like gender-f***ing,” he said in Q Magazine. “We've done it from the beginning. I think the songs should be heard by anybody and not necessarily have a male voice. Blurring the edges a little bit."

Enigmatic and compelling to some — dreary and obfuscating to others — British vocalist Morrissey has managed to maintain a 30-year plus pop idol career while never disclosing his sexual orientation. This might not be so maddening if everything about Morrissey weren't so consistently and obviously gay. Still, all anyone really knows of his sex life is his oft-repeated claim that he is celibate and/or asexual.

When the Times of London asked him if he were gay or straight, he replied, “It's neither of those things. “I'm simply myself, which is inexcusable to many people. I'm not trapped by anything.”

In the 1980's Morrissey fronted The Smiths, one of modern rock's most influential bands. The band's albums often featured gay, camp styled artwork and many of their songs' lyrics are laced through with vague homosexual references.

For every journalist that has chastised the coy Morrissey for his refusal to label himself, another one pops up to defend him. If he loses gay fans from one album release, he gains a new batch with another. Although nowhere near as popular as he once was with The Smiths, Morrissey maintains a core of rabidly devoted followers.

Edgy glam rock trio Placebo features gay bassist Stefan Olsdal and bisexual frontman/guitarist Brian Molko. The band has always been upfront and open about itself.

In a 2006 Digital Spy interview, Molko bemoans being out for the distraction it caused fans and critics. "I was open about my sexuality because I was filled with a great deal of musical bravado when Placebo started," he explained. "Coming out of the closet seemed to be important to me in terms of making a stand. Unfortunately, we became this faggy band in dresses in the eyes of the media. People started to talk about that and not the music as a by-product."

Molko now wishes he emulated rockers who downplay their sexuality. "I think that's probably why people like Michael and Morrissey have been relatively quiet," he added.

Pop/punk band Imperial Teen offers fans numerous gay-themed songs and includes two gay members: keyboardist/singer Roddy Bottum and vocalist Will Schwartz.

Bottum came out publicly way back in 1993. At the time he was the only gay member in the artsy, eccentric Faith No More, a funk/rock band noted for button-pushing and outlandish behavior. “I think the fact that the keyboard player was gay played into that nicely,” Bottum told Decibal Magazine. “The gay/straight issue wasn't so important.”

In Imperial Teen, Bottum and Schwartz have come under much more scrutiny regarding their orientation. “Suddenly I was talking about my sexuality a lot, which I'm not so into,” Bottum said in an SFGate.com interview. “I'm a gay man, but it's a starting point, it's not something to dwell on.” “We make pop music for everybody,” added Schwartz, “for gay people and straight people and everything in between.”

Bottum and Schwartz raise valid points shared by gay musicians and gay fans alike who feel a detachment from mainstream gay culture. “I don't even know what defines the gay lifestyle,” Bottum said. Swartz adds, “It's different things to different people.”