Keith Haring, the pioneering artist whose art addressed queer themes like coming out and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the gay community, passed away today in 1990 at the age of 31 from AIDS-related illness. Haring's iconic imagery is an integral part of modern gay culture and his push to create as much art as possible and make it as widely available as possible was often at odds with the art establishment but made him a populist hero!
"This, I feel, is the advantage to creating art at this point in time. When we realize that we are temporary, we are facing our self-destruction, we are realizing our fate and we must confront it. Art is the only sensible primal response to an outlook of possible destruction (obliteration)."
- Keith Haring
75. "Want 2"
By Bronze Avery
6.8571
Highest Scores: 10 x 4 (@Untouchable Ace @Riiiiiiiii @Blob @londonrain)
Lowest Scores: 3 x 1 (@Verandi)
My Score: 3.5
Let’s do what we wanna do
Imma take my time on you
Swear I gotta list of that shit I wanna do
We could do it all if you really want to
Today we lose one of my least favorite songs in the rate with one of my favorite single covers of the whole rate. I mean,
damn. I'll say now that I think that beyond being absolutely gorgeous, Bronze Avery is very talented but his sound simply doesn't connect with me. There's a specific tone in his voice that -
to me personally- sounds like nails on a chalkboard. "Want 2" opens on that exact vocal with "eyes on my body/like a laser beam" and hitting the first syllable of "eyes" just so hard and high that I instinctively want to skip the song. I've listened to all these songs a lot of times and there's only a few on the playlist that I want to skip on almost every listen. I still gave Bronze 3.5 points since the song is decently (if unoriginally) produced, the lyrics are fun and simple, and I can see how others might enjoy his vocals. Now concludes my score defense. Now, let's learn more about this wonderful queer artiste!
Bronze Avery was born in Orlando and has been steadily releasing singles independently building up a name for himself within the pop world. He originally made music under his birth name of Gabriel Brown but wasn't out within the music. As Bronze Avery, he made a commitment to be out from the get-go. While his music never connected with me, I found his interview with
Gay Times to be both illuminating and inspiring. I really hope he'll release a bop sometime soon that I can get on board with cause he seems like an amazing person.
He described the inspiration behind writing and recording "Want 2" and if you don't have a friend like Emily Vaughn then you need to get one as soon as possible. Talking about boys while drinking $4 margaritas at a cheap chain restaurant is part of gay culture and I won't hear otherwise. It's also how this song came to be:
I actually wrote it with one of my closest friends, who’s also a musician, her name is Emily Vaughan. We had been friends for years at this point, and we would always guide each other through our boy problems and things like that, so when we meet we always go to Chili’s, eat chips and talk about boys. So when she came to Orlando, we did a sesh together because it had been years, and on the way there she told me a story about her current boyfriend now and how they were flirting together at a bar, how she was friends with him for a while, and how she didn’t know what was going to happen between them. So, all my music, when I look back at it, is about sex [laughs]. The best way I would describe myself now would be bedroom sheets meets the dance floor, because they’re all sexy songs but super danceable. I always like to keep things uptempo. So we went into the studio with the mindset of doing a song with a vibe like Cigarette by Mabel, and it ended up turning out completely different but… So it’s just a really sexy, flirty song that you’d be expecting two people to be dancing to on the dance floor… very dirty.
I love how a fun catch up between these two resulted in writing a total bop! I guess that's what happens when you have talented friends. Most of my trips to Chili's end with drunkenly watching
Golden Girls at my friends apartment till 1 in the morning.
In the
Gay Times interview, which I highly recommend everyone read-especially if your a fan, Bronze talks about his many influences (Gwen Stefani, "I listen to the Dirty Projectors, Fleetwood Mac, and I also love Post Malone and Travis Scott, and Charli XCX"), why it's so important to be out in his music (I wasn’t out for a lot of the beginning of my music, and I don’t think a lot of people were able to connect with me. There’s a certain level of authenticity,) and what it was like experiencing the Orlando Tragedy as a queer person of color from Orlando. It was this section of the interview I found most profound and moving and would like to share with y'all in it's entirety:
You lived in Orlando during the Pulse massacre. How have the tragic events of that day impacted Orlando’s LGBTQ community?
It completely changed everything for the better. In the weirdest way. I had never seen so many so well connected to our community, and wanted to protect it. It was a target on not just the gay community, but the latin community of Orlando, so it was a huge detriment. Everybody got together and really bonded. Orlando’s always been a very nice progressive dot in Florida, which is mainly not very progressive. So after the Pulse tragedy, it was really beautiful to see everybody come together. Our police chief is very supportive with the gay community. It was something that was meant to tear us down as a community and a city, and I actually think it brought us together.
How did it affect you as a person and an artist?
I have it written down in my journal as the worst day of my life. I wasn’t even in Orlando at the time, I was in Nashville. I couldn’t focus all day, I couldn’t think about anything else because that was not just somewhere I went often, but it was my favourite place. It was the first gay club I had ever gone to, and also the first club I went to as well. I had a lot of special memories with my friends there, so it was extremely difficult. This happened before I was even Bronze Avery, which was another motivation. Life is too short to not be out within my music. There are so many people that can really benefit from this. I can be out to my friends, but being out to the media and to the world is a totally different story. There’s nobody you can literally hide from. I think it was definitely inspiring for me as an artist to live my truth. It’s such a baffling time to live in America. I remember growing up, they teach you that America is the best place in the world, and I still think America is great and has a lot of promise. But as I get older, I realise the importance of being involved and doing simple things like registering to vote and making sure my voice is heard. Growing up, I was like, ‘Someone will do it, somebody will speak out.’ Now, as I’m getting older, I’m realising that I’m the person who needs to speak out and I’m the person who needs to say something and say things are not okay with our current political climate.
Phew! Okay dry those eyes cause it's your time to shine!
Remorque Okay, but this is a certified low-key bop though? I love his voice and I'm loving his aesthetic.
Posh Spears He’s a cutie. Oh and the song is really good too
londonrain Apart from the fact that Bronze is possibly the hottest guy in this entire rate, his music is consistently great. Thanks to
@Riiiiiiiii for submitting Secrets to PJSC a few rounds ago and introducing me to his music.
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Reboot Love this. I’m not a massive fan of the lyrics, but everything else is so good.
Pop3blow2 This is fine, but pretty basic bop. Props for a 2:28 song length. I’m a sucker for short songs.
Ana Raquel Too bad it ends so fast.
Untouchable Ace 2 short for a song but his eyes! OMG.
The Hot Rock I like the vocals but wasn't into the rest of this as much.
Verandi Ooooh he's a snack, his artwork game is on point and I just followed on Insta, BUT this is just too generic, sorry.
