The story of gay representation in British pop is one of a long struggle for respect and recognition accompanied by endless waves of vitriolic pushback. Such is the point made by Queen’s touring vocalist, Adam Lambert , in the earnest but unfocused and underwhelming Adam Lambert: Out, Loud and Proud . Queer artists have long been a defining presence in music, from Freddie Mercury and Elton John in the 1970s to Erasure in the 1980s and George Michael at the peak of his popularity as a solo singer in the early 1990s.
This one-off documentary sets out to celebrate them while also acknowledging the prejudices they have faced. It is a powerful underdog story, and with Pride month underway, there is no better time to tell it. But, while Lambert is an enthusiastic and charismatic presenter (if a strange choice, as an American, to present this entirely British story), his survey of queer pop history has a rushed run-time of just an hour – not nearly long enough to do justice to a rich and complex tapestry.
I wish the story of queer pop had been given more time and space over several episodes. There is no lack of big-name interviews, including Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, who explain that Freddie Mercury hated the word “queer”(“I’m not queer darling, I’m perfectly normal”). Lambert also meets Erasure’s Andy Bell, who talks about writing “A Little Respect” after the AIDs crisis had wiped out the modest advances by the gay rights movement in the early 80s.
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