A Queer Jew

Matisyahu is a reggae playing Hasidic Jew. He started his career in White Plains, New York. His childhood was typical of any teenager in the early 90's. He listened to heavy metal and tested recreational drugs. That all changed when, at 16, he spent a semester in Israel as an exchange student. When he came back to the U.S. he adopted Orodox Judaism, this has changed in later years so that he now subscribes to the Chasidic movement, a very spiritual branch of Judaism. After that he became much more involved in his religion. After finishing highschool he joined a Jewish band called Pey Dalid.

In his music, he mixes reggae, some rap and rock to perform the meaningful lyrics of his songs. He says, "All of my songs are influenced and inspired by the teachings that inspire me. I want my music to have meaning, to be able to touch people and make them think. Chasidism teaches that music is 'the quill of the soul.' Music taps into a very deep place and speaks to us in a way that regular words can't."

I find him to be Queer because he doesn't use "traditional" Jewish music to accompany his lyrics(klezmer is considered traditional Jewish music. It uses fiddles, clarinets, xylophones and other woodwinds depending on the group). I find this combination very refreshing. It brings the some of the ideals of Judaism to young people without the burden of the Melancholy sound of klezmer music.

King Without A Crown - Matisyahu

Queer before RENT?

In my music class today we were covering musical theater, and I had this thought. We don't think of many musicals before RENT as being anything close to Queer. In fact musicals were displaying Queer traits long before that ground breaking musical.

The famous musical Showboat could be said to be the first Queer musical. Before even going into the plot it is the first queer musical of it's time.

Before Showboat (1927), there were no musicals as we know them today. There were operetta's like Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado. There were musical reviews like Ziegfeld Follies, but there were no musical plays. Showboat is the first musical to be based on a book and to bring into the light social issues that had been kept behind closed doors.

This musical is about the lives of people on the river showboat, The Cotton Blossom, from 1880-1927. The opening of the musical has no introductory musical number. Instead the first scene deals with the issue of miscegenation, where a Mulatto is married to a white man.

The play continues to discuss the lives of professional gamblers, men who leave their wives and how the wives become hugely successful in spite of their stigma as a divorcee. All of these are issues and situations that were not discussed except in the privacy of ones own home.

Fast forward sixty years. RENT took audiences on another tour through a lifestyle that was far from ideal. The story is based on the opera La Boheme but RENT deals with the lives of artists in New York rather than Paris. Instead of everyone dieing of tuberculosis, everyone is sick with AIDS. This musical is queer because at the time no one wanted to talk about AIDS, no one wanted to think about the homeless in the big cities. Many people wanted to pity these artist who were squating in apartments in "alphabet city", sick with AIDS, looking for their next high.

Jonathan Larson took the life he and his friends were living and made people see that that life was not to be pitied. They had moments of great happiness and also great sorrow, but they were content with what they had, this can be seen in the famous songs "La Vie Boheme" and "Seasons of Love". Dispite the sickness and poverty that surround them these young people find happiness moment by moment.

In which music is queer.

Imagine me... minding my own business. Googleing to my hearts content and I find these two links.

This is a link to an Amazon list that names the Best Queer music. Of course many Ani DiFranco albums are on this list. She is queer because of the disruptive nature of her songs. They each outline some kind of social problem. For example, in the song "Not a Pretty Girl" on the album of the same name, Ani DiFranco completely disowns the image of the typical "pretty girl". She sings, "I am not a pretty girl that is not what I do I ain't no damsel in distess and I don't need to be rescued so put me down punk maybe you'd prefer a maiden fair isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere". I found this list informative, mostly because I wouldn't have thought of most of the artist on it. It also made me realize the obvious, that queer musicians use their craft to point out social problems that politicians wouldn't really be able to discuss.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-Queer-Music/lm/3ROJQI6IA1TYX

Then I found this site. Queer Music Heritage is a radio show based in Houston, Texas. The website catalogs lesbian/gay/queer music for future generations so these artist will not be forgotten.

http://www.queermusicheritage.us/