3 ms·

I’ve seen them live both in the US and several times in Europe. In Europe they are completely mainstream playing large venues in front of evenly mixed gender au

I’ve seen them live both in the US and several times in Europe. In Europe they are completely mainstream playing large venues in front of evenly mixed gender audiences, whereas when I saw them in the US the venue was much smaller and the audience seemed to consist mostly of men.

pvaldes 3y ago
Is sad that they are tagged as a "gay group" now, when the first three albums were simply two nerds doing insanely catchy, state-of-the-art, electronic pop that everybody loved. This ruins the experience a little probably.
- jstarfish 3y ago
  > Is sad that they are tagged as a "gay group" now, [...] This ruins the experience a little probably. It's not so tragic. Being into a "gay group" in the 90s gave one the ability to signal a common interest while retaining deniability.
- fortran77 3y ago
  And what's wrong with being a "gay group"? Why is that "a shame?" I mean, you don't get any gayer than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IXuRCeQKOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IXuRCeQKOg I've seen both Liza and the Boys in concert (and I've seen Follies!) but sadly not at the same time.
  - pvaldes 3y ago
    Is not a shame (currently, in the 80's it was a different history), but you can reduce your scope and alienate part of your potential audience. Pet Shop Boys often write deceptively simple lyrics with a lot of hidden context. Without webs like this page, most of the context, can fly over the radar for non gay people, and the same song, referenced locations etc, will mean also different things to non UK people. Kings Cross is just a song about a train station, Right? If you force the context as gay by default, some songs turn much more clear, but also smaller, less universal, and less accessible to non gay people. But we talk also about a group that have strong links with computers and nerd life. Computer graphics in the Liberation video for example were notable for a 90's videoclip. nobody was doing that in pop. They even appear in the Tetris film
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
I talked to a straight house DJ two decades ago who said that he felt compelled to throw in the occasional PSB remix, among a few other artists, just to maintain the gay following without which no DJ’s career would flourish in clubland. At a time when house music still had this “underground”, “play the music you love” aura, it definitely showed how mercenary set programming could be.

pvaldes 3y ago

Is sad that they are tagged as a "gay group" now, when the first three albums were simply two nerds doing insanely catchy, state-of-the-art, electronic pop that everybody loved. This ruins the experience a little probably.

jstarfish 3y ago
> Is sad that they are tagged as a "gay group" now, [...] This ruins the experience a little probably. It's not so tragic. Being into a "gay group" in the 90s gave one the ability to signal a common interest while retaining deniability.
fortran77 3y ago
And what's wrong with being a "gay group"? Why is that "a shame?" I mean, you don't get any gayer than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IXuRCeQKOg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IXuRCeQKOg I've seen both Liza and the Boys in concert (and I've seen Follies!) but sadly not at the same time.
- pvaldes 3y ago
  Is not a shame (currently, in the 80's it was a different history), but you can reduce your scope and alienate part of your potential audience. Pet Shop Boys often write deceptively simple lyrics with a lot of hidden context. Without webs like this page, most of the context, can fly over the radar for non gay people, and the same song, referenced locations etc, will mean also different things to non UK people. Kings Cross is just a song about a train station, Right? If you force the context as gay by default, some songs turn much more clear, but also smaller, less universal, and less accessible to non gay people. But we talk also about a group that have strong links with computers and nerd life. Computer graphics in the Liberation video for example were notable for a 90's videoclip. nobody was doing that in pop. They even appear in the Tetris film

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

I talked to a straight house DJ two decades ago who said that he felt compelled to throw in the occasional PSB remix, among a few other artists, just to maintain the gay following without which no DJ’s career would flourish in clubland. At a time when house music still had this “underground”, “play the music you love” aura, it definitely showed how mercenary set programming could be.