"An essential book for this moment." -Rob Sheffield
The definitive history of LGBTQ music, from Stonewall to Madonna, and its impact on culture and American life
From the underground dancefloors of the '70s to the global pop charts of the '90s, LGBTQ artists and audiences have shaped the sound, style, and spirit of popular music. In Mighty Real, veteran music critic Barry Walters chronicles the never-before-told LGBTQ history of music, from The Velvet Underground to the dawn of the twenty-first century, charting the electrifying journey of the artists who bent gender, defied convention, and dared to challenge the norms of a predominately male, straight industry.
Drawing on his decades as a New York and San Francisco-based rock critic, Walters examines how LGBTQ musicians and their fans reshaped the mainstream, tracing the lineage from David Bowie's dazzling reinventions to Grace Jones's androgynous glamor, from Prince's boundary-shattering sexuality to the radical honesty of the Indigo Girls.
With exuberance, insight, and an encyclopedic knowledge of music history, Walters brings to life the songs that filled dance floors, bedrooms, and streets, celebrating a legacy that has paved the way for today's unabashedly queer pop music. A joyous exploration of the visionary artists who shattered conventions, Mighty Real is a love letter to the music that helped a generation feel seen, heard, and free. Barry Walters has spent forty years documenting the intersection of mainstream and LGBTQ culture. He began his career at The Village Voice, where he came out professionally in a 1986 Pet Shop Boys review, and went on to contribute for decades to Spin and Rolling Stone, where he was named Senior Critic. In 1992, Walters became the first critic to receive an award from The National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association for his work at the San Francisco Examiner. Throughout the '90s, he was The Advocate's music columnist and wrote extensively for Out. His writing has since appeared in Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Pitchfork, and other outlets. In 2020, his mini-documentary, Love Me Like You Should: The Brave and Bold Sylvester, created for Amazon Music at the start of the COVID lockdown, won a Clio Award.
