Prepare. Just like how lots of the conversations surrounding nation music in 2024 have been all about race within the aftermath of the discharge of Beyoncé’s album Cowboy Carter, so are lots of the conversations going to be about sexual orientation and “queerness” in 2025, a minimum of for the approaching weeks and months. Just like the Beyoncé second, this might be stimulated by well-liked performers from exterior of the nation style making “nation” albums and songs.
On March thirteenth, large pop star Chappell Roan might be releasing her self-proclaimed nation track known as “The Giver.” Roan first carried out the track on Saturday Evening Reside on November 2nd, 2024, however uncharacteristically, SNL didn’t publish the efficiency on YouTube afterwards in anticipation for the approaching single launch.
Lengthy story quick, “The Giver” is informed from the angle of a girl who believes she will be able to please one other girl higher than any man. Although we’ve not heard the studio recording of the track simply but, the reside efficiency included fiddle, and usually talking, sounded fairly nation. Chappell Roan has additionally hinted she may document a full nation album sooner or later.
In the meantime, two excessive profile ladies from the indie rock world in Julien Baker and Torres are releasing a self-described nation album known as Ship a Prayer My Approach on April 18th. They’ve launched just a few songs to date, particularly “Tuesday,” “Sylvia,” and “Sugar within the Tank,” none of which really feel particularly “nation” and are extra like indie rock with perhaps some nation inflections, maybe pulling them into “Americana.” However it’s nonetheless early on.
Not too long ago, the 2 performers have been on The Every day Present to carry out the unreleased track “Backside of a Bottle,”—which sounds extra nation than the opposite songs they’re launched to date—and to talk with present Every day Present host Michael Kosta.
“I assume let’s speak about style for a second. The title ‘Queer nation album.’ Does that evoke something? Do you trouble that any individual may name it that? Are you pleased with that?” Kosta asks.
Torres solutions, “I’m actually pleased with it. We’re queer, .” However then Torres qualifies, “If it have been as much as me, it might simply be nation,” with Julien Baker saying “Yeah” in settlement.
Torres then continues, “However I’m very proud to have made a queer nation album, completely.”
So the query is, if it was as much as Julien Baker and Torres, they’d simply name it a “nation” album, why aren’t we?
For years now, “Queer Nation” has been a favourite phrase of music publicists within the nation and roots area as a result of it opens the door to favored press protection, leveraging optimistic sentiments throughout the press corps for a marginalized group. However the time period has all the time been very problematic, a minimum of from the angle of Saving Nation Music.
First, by labeling a performer “Queer Nation,” you’re not breaking down limitations, you’re erecting them with nation music’s extra typical and conservative followers, truthful or not. Typically the time period is purposely used to shock in a misguided perception you can shock nation followers into submission. Usually talking, most nation music followers don’t actually care in regards to the sexual orientation of performers in 2025. However when it prefaces the music, or is foisted up them in a manner that feels political, there’s an instantaneous repulsion to the concept.
Granted, the explanation “Queer Nation” is employed is to create attraction to different demographics, however using this time period erects a powerful ceiling over the prospects for an artist, an album, or a track.
There may be additionally an “othering” facet that comes with assigning a rustic artist a qualifying time period, as if an LGBT artists have to be segregated into some new separate subgenre due to their sexual orientation. Nation music and music generally has been criticized for segregating Black artists into “race information” again within the ’20s and ’30s. Even up into the ’80s and ’90s, Billboard had a “Scorching Black Singles” chart.
In fact, these charts and designations have been really utilized in half to verify Black performers have been being given their truthful due and to assist shoppers discover the kind of music they have been on the lookout for. However over time, society determined this was demeaning, and did away with the follow. Re-instituting the othering of artists primarily based on sexual orientation runs this identical danger.
Then in fact there’s the priority that the time period “queer” all the time has been and all the time might be a thought of euphemistic offensive slang. In fact, the aim of utilizing the “queer” time period extensively is to try to retake the time period from those that would use it to offend. However that doesn’t imply it nonetheless isn’t being wielded as an insult, and can proceed to be nicely into the long run. No person would ahead utilizing “fagg–” nation, or N-word nation to reclaim these phrases.
For instance, On October twenty first, 2019, a county commissioner in Sevier County, Tennessee by the title of Warren Hurst discovered himself in sizzling water for utilizing the time period “queer” throughout a commissioner’s assembly. “We’ve acquired a queer working for president,” Hurst blurted, presumably referring to Pete Buttigieg who was working for the Democratic nomination on the time.
The commissioner adopted it up with a, “I’m not prejudiced, however by golly…” However that did little to quell native, and a few nationwide outrage. The “queer” remark compelled Sevier County to concern a public rebuke, saying “The statements made by Commissioner Hurst … don’t replicate the opinion or place of Sevier County administration. Sevier County is an Equal Alternative Employer and doesn’t discriminate primarily based on race, coloration, faith, intercourse, nationwide origin, age, incapacity, or standing in another group protected by legislation.”
Sevier County additionally occurs to be the place Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park is situated. As a long-time sturdy advocate for the LGBT neighborhood, stress mounted for Dollywood to make an announcement as nicely, although neither Dolly Parton nor the park had any ties to this explicit commissioner, or no accountability for the language he used. On October twenty third, Dollywood issued an announcement saying partially, “We learn the feedback made in Monday night time’s County Fee assembly, and they don’t replicate the Dollywood expertise in any manner. Dollywood is open and welcoming to everybody, daily.”
However now journalists and the general public are imagined to freely use the time period “queer” as a time period of endearment, and hope there is no such thing as a blow again or rebuke? Advocates within the LGBT neighborhood will chide again that it is a settled matter, and “queer” is now extensively accepted. The context of how the time period is used can be vital. However as we’ve seen over time, what’s decreed acceptable and deleterious can change on a dime, usually because the very which means of language is augmented to win arguments in actual time.
Although many are utilizing the time period “queer” extensively now, if norms shift, using the time period may very well be taken in another way retrospectively as we’ve seen with different phrases that have been used prior to now, however at the moment are judged from present-day views. Journalists may very well be criticized for describing a rustic artist as “queer,” and nation music may very well be criticized for segregating LGBT artists into their very own “Queer Nation” subgenre sooner or later, particularly because the time period continues to be outlined as offensive.
Additionally, the nebulous nature and definition of the time period “queer” is one thing that’s at the moment being utilized by some for surreptitious advertising and marketing. There are performers in dedicated heterosexual relationships with members of the other intercourse, together with in marriages with children utilizing the “queer” time period as a result of they imagine it is going to assist their careers by means of optimistic protection within the press.
The purpose of qualifying a performer as “queer” is to say they’ve handled discrimination of their lives and careers. However within the opportunistic medium of the eye financial system, some love to assert discrimination and marginalization to garner consideration. This doubtful follow takes consideration away from precise LGBT artists that the “Queer Nation” time period was designed to learn.
For just a few years there was even a particular outlet known as queercountry.com. It imploded in arguments about language use and “micro-aggressions” and different considerations between editors and workers. Since using language is so important to those communities—and so mutable and shifting to accommodate somebody’s argument being made in actual time—these communities usually eat themselves in revolving debates the place something at any time may be deemed offensive.
All of that is what makes the time period “queer” a harmful mine area to navigate for journalists and music professionals with good intentions, who then can have their phrases twisted again upon them by folks looking for victimization in both the current or future tense. Don’t be stunned if this occurs with this very article, with feedback taken out-of-context, after which re-introduced for undermining functions.
At occasions corresponding to SXSW and AmericanaFest, you usually see “Queer Nation” or “Queer Roots” showcases, they usually’re usually well-attended. However are these occasions actually working to interrupt down limitations in nation music, or are they doubling down on them by segregating LGBT artists right into a separate neighborhood? Wouldn’t it’s higher if these artists have been being offered throughout the better inhabitants of performers to show they’re similar to different nation artists? Wouldn’t this actually be the best way to interrupt down these limitations?
One good counter-argument is how these performers aren’t receiving the identical alternatives as straight performers, and they also’re having to constructed their very own shops and communities. Once more, that is one the explanations charts have been created at instances to particularly cowl Black music that was typically being marginalized in better society.
One other vital level to underscore is that “Queer Nation” doesn’t simply essentially describe the sexual orientation of a performer. It additionally speaks to the lyrical content material of a bit of music, informed from the angle of an LGBT particular person. On this context, calling a track or album “Queer Nation” may very well be a reputable option to describe the music, no totally different than another nation music subgenre.
However it all makes one surprise if we’d simply be higher off shifting on from “Queer Nation,” and easily calling these artists “nation” as Torres mentioned she would like on The Every day Present. Or at least, we should always think about a second sooner or later when the “Queer Nation” time period may very well be retired or deprecated, as a result of it’s pointless. If that’s the perfect, why don’t we yearn for that? You possibly can nonetheless have showcases and playlists that characteristic LGBT artists in nation. However insist they be known as nation, in the event that they’re certainly nation.
Over the following few weeks and months, you’re going to see ample moments when Julien Baker and Torres, and Chappell Roan might be vociferously praised and applauded for breaking down limitations in nation music, and reaching unprecedented heights for “queer” artists in nation.
Via this motion, the contributions of precise groundbreaking performers like Ok.D. Lang, Patrick Haggerty, Sugarland’s Kristen Corridor, songwriters Jimbeau Hinson and Shane McAnally, Trixie Mattell’s early albums, not to mention Brandy Clark and Brandi Carlile, and scores of different artists will all be missed.
Similar to we noticed with Beyoncé and Cowboy Carter for nation’s native Black performers, lots of nation music’s precise LGBT artists and their vital benchmarks and contributions might be outdated for praising these performers for aspect initiatives, performing like they’re the primary in a strikingly homophobic style that hasn’t advanced in any respect. That is what Rolling Stone did when the supergroup The Highwomen launched the track “If She Ever Leaves Me,” and praised it because the first ever homosexual nation track … in 2019.
Rolling Stone is already on the case with Julien Baker and Torres, publishing a puff piece over a month forward of the album launch, calling it “pure nation” and evaluating them to a “Waylon and Willie of recent instances.” All of that is proclaimed by a pop author named Abigail Covington who’s uniquely unqualified to make such proclamations, and just like calling this duo “Queer Nation,” will really repulse and polarize this venture versus ingratiate it to the nation music public earlier than it’s even launched.
Julien Baker and Torres are critically-acclaimed indie rockers, and for good motive. Their upcoming album must be regarded with the identical open thoughts as any artist must be graced with, no matter who they’re, or the place they’re initially from within the music world.
However it shouldn’t be on the expense of the LGBT artists who got here earlier than them, and it shouldn’t be merely as a result of they’re lesbians. If Ship a Prayer My Approach is a rustic album, let’s name it nation, like Torres says she prefers. The identical goes with the Chappell Roan track. Let’s choose all of this music upon its personal deserves, and the identical benchmarks all nation music is. As a result of that’s the one manner any remaining limitations for LGBT artists will ever be damaged down.
– – – – – – – –
For those who loved this text, think about leaving Saving Nation Music A TIP.
