Rocking the Closet

Rocking the Closet
Author: Vincent L Stephens
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2019-10-16
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0252051661


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The all-embracing, "whaddya got?" nature of rebellion in Fifties America included pop music's unlikely challenge to entrenched notions of masculinity. Within that upheaval, four prominent artists dared to behave in ways that let the public assume—but not see—their queerness. That these artists cultivated ambiguous sexual personas often reflected an understandable fear, but also a struggle to fulfill personal and professional expectations.Vincent L. Stephens confronts notions of the closet—both coming out and staying in—by analyzing the careers of Liberace, Johnny Mathis, Johnnie Ray, and Little Richard. Appealing to audiences hungry for novelty and exoticism, the four pop icons used performance and queering techniques that ran the gamut. Liberace's flamboyance shared a spectrum with Mathis's intimate sensitivity while Ray's overwrought displays as "Mr. Emotion" seemed worlds apart from Little Richard's raise-the-roof joyousness. As Stephens shows, the quartet not only thrived in an era of gray flannel manhood, they pioneered the ways generations of later musicians would consciously adopt sexual mystery as an appealing and proven route to success.


Rocking the Closet
Language: en
Pages: 343
Authors: Vincent L Stephens
Categories: Music
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-10-16 - Publisher: University of Illinois Press

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The all-embracing, "whaddya got?" nature of rebellion in Fifties America included pop music's unlikely challenge to entrenched notions of masculinity. Within th
Rocking the Closet
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Vincent L Stephens
Categories: Music
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-10-14 - Publisher: University of Illinois Press

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The all-embracing, "whaddya got?" nature of rebellion in Fifties America included pop music's unlikely challenge to entrenched notions of masculinity. Within th
There's a God in My Closet
Language: en
Pages: 196
Authors: Ben DeLong
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-07-19 - Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

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Many have been taught to see God as a terrifying agent of wrath who spews anger at any sign of imperfection. At the same time, they’ve been taught that they a
Transactions
Language: en
Pages: 572
Authors: Sanitary Institute
Categories: Public health
Type: BOOK - Published: 1894 - Publisher:

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Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Language: en
Pages: 982
Authors: United States. Patent and Trademark Office
Categories: Patents
Type: BOOK - Published: 1978 - Publisher:

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