LGBT Fanbases in music.
- Despite its conservative leanings, Country Music has produced a few: Chely Wright, Ty Herndon, Billy Gilman, and T.J. Osborne gained new fanbases after coming out as gay, and Kacey Musgraves also has a following for her inclusion of a Gay Aesop in "Follow Your Arrow". This is in addition to newer, more flamboyant acts such as Orville Peck, a gay man himself who croons mournful country ballads in a fringed mask.
- Female pop musicians (tragic personal lives and creator breakdowns optional) with LGBTQ+ followings (usually gay men) have nearly become a cliche, to the point where said musicians often comment on it and occasionally come out themselves. Examples include Lady Gaga (a bisexual herself), Madonna, Kylie Minogue (Kylie is recognized as being one of the world's biggest gay icons
, so much that "Kylie fan" has been used as a euphemism for gay men — plus she was also guest of honor at the 1994 Sydney Gay Mardi Gras, and Galavant cast her as "The Queen of The Enchanted Forest", the owner of a gay bar), Robyn, Dolly Parton (who has participated in quite a bit of LGBT activism and held events at Dollywood, and then there was the time she entered a Dolly Parton look a like contest anonymously with a bunch of Drag Queens (and lost)), Marina Diamandis, Kim Petras (a trans woman herself), Cyndi Lauper, Lana Del Rey, Tegan & Sara (both lesbians themselves), Beyoncé (while she didn't make any attempt to appeal to LGBTQ+ audiences in her work with Destiny's Child nor her early solo work, her "diva" status gave her solo work a dedicated Periphery Demographic of gay men), Ariana Grande, Elizabeth Fraser, Janet Jackson, Melissa Etheridge (a lesbian herself), Cher (notably, her comeback album Believe actually happened because Warner Music UK head Rob Dickins suggested she record a dance music album to appeal to her LGBT Fanbase), Vanessa Carlton (a bisexual herself), Tori Amos (whose gay following stems from her earliest performances in gay bars — Amos even claims her music is too emotionally raw for straight men), the Spice Girls, Carly Rae Jepsen (who has embraced her gay following, calling her relationship with them a "mutual lovefest"), Diana Ross (especially as her song "I'm Coming Out" became an unofficial gay anthem (in fact songwriter Nile Rodgers got the idea for the song after seeing multiple Drag Queen impersonators of Diana Ross at a club)), Judy Garland, and Barbra Streisand. Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive" has become an anthem among the LGBT community.- Of special note is Britney Spears. Spears amassed a large gay following as a pop music icon in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The devotion of her gay fans only increased when she weathered personal struggles in the mid-aughts and made a well-received musical comeback in 2008 with the release of her Circus album. The song "Work Bitch" in particular is dedicated to her gay fanbase.
- In addition, the common "female singers/musicians with gay male followings" variant can be done in reverse with male singers/musicians with lesbian followings. This is mostly thanks to certain songs sung by male performers easily turning into Les Yay when a female-performed cover averts The Cover Changes the Gender.
- Hyperpop — which can be neatly described as the internet's postmodernist Affectionate Parody of the genre — naturally has a lot of this. For this subgenre especially, it could be rooted in the fact that its earliest codifiers (namely SOPHIE and the PC Music label) were very coy regarding gender identities through their transparently artificial, hyper-feminine acts as an affectionate satire on blurry internet personas, a theme which resonated strongly with queer audiences (FADER infamously derided this as "feminine appropriation", a phenomenon that was conversely celebrated and embraced by transgender women). Since its earliest boom, the genre has become more occupied by queer artists such as Dorian Electra, Laura Les of 100 gecs, and Sophie (belatedly; after she came out as transgender in 2017), many using the performative and transgressive aspects of the genre as part of their image, and as a means of integrating queer themes.
- Of special note is Britney Spears. Spears amassed a large gay following as a pop music icon in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The devotion of her gay fans only increased
- ABBA. This is sometimes said about their entire music without any specific reason given but some songs have more implications to LGB(?TQ?) topics. This gets quite obvious when the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus made a whole Abba Show.
- Is it a coincidence that "Dancing Queen", a song about admiring a woman for dancing does at least have one word in common with a Drag Queen, a man note impersonating a woman as a role, maybe in showbusiness as admired for performing or acting? And if it was, is it a coincidence that the Gay Men's Choruses covers (like this) usually avert The Cover Changes the Gender for this song?
- "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" leads to quite great Ho Yay when covered by a male voice without changing the lyrics (like this)
- Does Your Mother Know is written as a song about a teenage girl/ young woman going out dancing/ partying and who might be too young for that. The original lyrics addressing a girl with both male and female vocals are arranged that way. However, the main chorus line "Does your mother know that you're out?" is very easy to be interpreted as coming out of the closet. It's amazing how obvious this becomes when just the addressed person's gender is flipped (like in the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus cover version).
- On and On and On is quite obviously about partying but also has a quite political allusion that fits the situation of queer people as being prosecuted and discriminated against. ("I was at a party and this fella said to me:/ Something bad is happening, I'm sure you do agree/ People care for nothing no respect for human rights/ Evil times are coming, we are in for darker nights")
- Is it a coincidence that "Dancing Queen", a song about admiring a woman for dancing does at least have one word in common with a Drag Queen, a man note impersonating a woman as a role, maybe in showbusiness as admired for performing or acting? And if it was, is it a coincidence that the Gay Men's Choruses covers (like this
- Despite gay hard rock and metal fans being smaller in numbers than gay fans of other genres, rock and metal have produced a few:
- AC/DC, due to their name also being a euphemism for bisexuality, had a large gay following, which the band embraced.
- Fleetwood Mac: Despite their sometimes reputation as a "Dad Rock" band like other Classic Rock, they have become surprisingly popular with younger LGBT+ people in the 2010s, long after their original peak in popularity. This may have something to do with Stevie Nicks, whose unique persona and troubled personal life gives her something of a Diva status, appealing to gay men, while her status as one of the best-known (and only) female rock musicians of the era helped make her an icon to queer women. Or maybe it's just something about the lingering power of the music.
- Green Day also has a fanbase here. Two of their members are bisexual (although only Billie Joe is avowedly so), have a ton of Ho Yay on stage and they have a song called "King for a Day", which is about cross-dressing.
- Marilyn Manson, due to a combination of the entire band bucking gender norms entirely, and Manson and Twiggy Ramirez being unable to keep their hands off each other, have a lot of bisexual fans. You'll find more support for Manson and Twiggy getting together than you'll ever find for any of Manson's relationships with women, and the fact that the fandom doesn't hate Twiggy's wife Laney can likely be tied to her being both adorable and bisexual herself, and the fact that the Manson/Twiggy stuff hasn't toned down at all since they got married. Manson and Twiggy make out on stage, Twiggy has given him oral sex on stage before, and they're often in public being extremely adorable. That said, Twiggy's not the only guy Manson's shipped with in the fandom. Johnny Depp is also a popular one, due to Manson and Depp being just as physical as Manson is with Twiggy. And then there's the time John 5 gave Manson a rimjob on stage and said it tasted good. Half the Manson fanart you'll find is adorable gay coupling. Manson and Twiggy even have a couple name: Maniggy.
- Nirvana has gained a large influx of LGBTQ+ fans over the years, with Kurt Cobain himself being an avid supporter of the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. In fact, the topic of Cobain's sexuality has been widely debated for several years, in which past interviews seem to indicate that he was at the very least bicurious. Kurt has also crossdressed during a handful of concerts as well.
- Surprisingly enough, Iron Maiden have a sizeable LGBT fanbase. While there's no definite known reason, a few pointers including definitely the seemingly endless Ho Yay between Bruce Dickinson and Janick Gers, Janick himself (hardly surprising given his extremely flamboyant stage presence and being the Long-Haired Pretty Boy), Dave Murray's beautiful moonface (just as many guys dug him in the '80s as girls), and a lot of their lyrics, including but not limited to "Tailgunner" (often misconstrued as a gay sex anthem), and "Blood Brothers", whose lyrics became especially relevant in the wake of the gay marriage ruling in 2016.
- Judas Priest, because of Rob Halford being out as gay.
- X Japan, both in Japan and later the west, for a variety of reasons, including quite a lot of onstage Ho Yay, the rose motifs (gay men in Japan are described as "the rose tribe" so...), lyrics embracing gay sex and love ballads that weren't "man to woman" but could be "anyone to anyone," Toshi and Yoshiki and by extension the band being some of the first most outspoken celebrity HIV/AIDS activists in Japan, that nearly all of the band members are attractive to gay or bisexual men in one way or another (Yoshiki being a princess and often fitting The Twink / "neko" image at points yet subverting and inverting it wildly and hide's absolute androgyny on one side, with Toshi being Hell-Bent for Leather and dominant, Taiji being a Badass Biker, and Pata being The Stoic and Hell-Bent for Leather, and all except hide frequently showing off just how much they averted the "Asians are tiny in all ways" stereotype), and many, many other reasons. As of The New '10s, two band members are relatively out about their own bisexuality (Yoshiki is more quiet, but has made public statements about a late band member being his soulmate, whereas Pata has even released official yaoi-themed fan art) with a third either being Ambiguously Gay or the best actor at playing a gay man ever (Toshi, with his love for leather, the Samurai and Bear aesthetics, his songs "Crystal Piano no Kimi," "Hoshizora no Neptune," and "Pride of Man," and who has even earned a bit of Bara Genre fandom as of late because he matches the "bara" aesthetic so well.) It could be argued the only unquestionably heterosexual man in the band is Heath.
- Queen have a following among LGBTQ+ persons, most likely due to Freddie Mercury's sexuality and Camp fashion.
- Given Rage Against the Machine's mostly leftist leanings, it's no surprise that the band is pretty popular with queer folk. This popularity was spun into full force when guitarist Tom Morello shared an edited photo with a pride flag plastered over the confederate flag on the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard on his Instagram during pride month.
- Mötley Crüe, due to "S.O.S. (Same Ol' Situation)", a "kinda comedyish" song about lesbians according to Word of God, being interpreted as them saying that gay marriage would end up no different from any heterosexual marriage (the chorus - "It's the same ol' same ol' situation/It's the same ol' same ol' ball and chain")
- Finnish hard rock band Lordi gained a sizable queer fanbase after their victory in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Their elaborate monster costumes, campy stage antics, and the fact that the lead singer is a latex-wearing Big Beautiful Man, definitely add fuel to the fire. Their lead singer, Mr. Lordi, has himself positively acknowledged the band's gay fanbase.
- While Weezer itself is fairly straight, the band has a surprising amount of LGBTQ+ fans. A couple of their songs have alluded to same-sex relationships, with "Pink Triangle" in particular being based off of a gay friend Rivers Cuomo had when he was younger.
- The Japanese idol group AKB48 has a pretty sizable lesbian fanbase (obviously because they're all female). The lesbian website Gachirezu even had a poll once asking its users which member of the group was their favorite (for the record, Sayaka Akimoto was the top choice).
- Holland is one of very few Korean idols who is out of the closet. His music videos have him kissing other men. He also talks about his support for all types of sexualities. Yes, his LGBTQ+ fanbase is big.
- Like other female pop stars mentioned above, Katy Perry has a large gay male fan base, likely enhanced by the campy and colorful nature of her music videos and live performances. She released a few songs with fairly clear gay subtext, like "Firework", a Be Yourself anthem against homophobia, and "Peacock", which has clear phallic undertones.
- Little Mix fit the trope. "Secret Love Song" is allegedly about the struggles LGBT people are faced with when coming to terms with their sexuality and public affection, and their cover of "Word Up!" keeps the famous opening line "Yo, pretty ladies around the world!"
- LOONA has a big following of queer teenage girls and young women, partially due to the pretty girls (twelve of them, in fact, so whatever your "type" is, there's bound to be one you like), and partially due to the fact that their music videos are dripping with Les Yay. The group appears to be embracing it — the music video for "Heart Attack" follows Chuu trying to win Yves' affection, and the song has become an unofficial anthem for queer K-Pop fans in general.
- Marina Diamandis' "Froot" has a following amongst LGBT people and is often seen as a gay pride song by many. The song itself doesn't allude to anything LGBT-related.
- Brazilian singer Marina Lima's cover of the song "Mesmo que Seja Eu", originally composed and sung by a man, Erasmo Carlos. The verses "Você precisa de um homem pra chamar de seu/Mesmo que esse homem seja eu" (in English: "You need a man to call yours/Even if this man must be me") sung in a female voice immediately attracted attention from the Brazilian lesbian community. The song is now recognized as a sort of hymn for Brazilian lesbians living in oppressive environments (due to the context of the lyrics as a whole: about loneliness, shattered dreams and bad company).
- Maroon 5 is well aware of their LGBT fanbase, especially lead singer Adam Levine, who willingly lets himself be a Mr. Fanservice to their legion of bisexual and gay male fans.
- Japanese pop-rock star Nanase Aikawa has a massive lesbian following that she fully embraces. She once performed at a lesbians-only night at a popular club in Tokyo's gay district Shinjuku Nichome to double the club's capacity. In 2010, she began a side band Rockstar Steady in which she took on a butch lesbian persona and wrote songs wholly about being in love with other women.
- Panic! at the Disco had a gay fanbase from the start, partially due to their stage gay antics, and partially due to their campy style. Also doesn't hurt that the guys are all quite in touch with their feminine sides. The band has always been loudly supportive of LGBT rights, including an acceptance anthem in "Girls/Girls/Boys," with the chorus containing the rallying cry, "Love is not a choice!" When frontman Brendon Urie came out as pansexual in 2018, the gay fanbase basically lost its mind. (Paired with several cries of "I Knew It!" from all sides.)
- Zig-zagged with Prince. On the one hand, his androgyny and Camp Straight stage persona was as much a hit with non-cishetero audiences as it was with straight or questioning black men who didn't fit into traditionally masculine roles and appreciated how he defined his own masculinity (and of course there's the gender-bending classic "If I Was Your Girlfriend"). On the other hand, most of his music is rather explicitly about having sex with women. Allegedly, he forced his Revolution bandmates Wendy and Lisa to downplay their relationship and turned down doing "Bad" as a duet with Michael Jackson partially because he was uncomfortable with singing "Your butt is mine" to another man.
- SOPHIE's increased exponentially after her coming out as a transgender woman in late 2017, as well as the release of her debut album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides the following year, which is directly about her own personal journey of self-identity in all its various emotions, realizations, and struggles.
- Studio Killers is an animated band, like Gorillaz, where the lead singer is a pansexual Big Beautiful Woman named "Cherry". Their Signature Song "Jenny" is about a woman pining for her best friend. The band has quite a few LGBTQ fans and have even categorized themselves as "LGBTQ+ content."
- Village People: The stereotypical masculine characters, particularly the leather-clad biker character with a horseshoe mustache, have become widespread pop culture icons associated with gay culture and Y.M.C.A. has become something of an anthem of the LGBT community. While the band was formed primarily to target disco's LGBT niche market, they became just as much an instant smash with hetero audiences.
- The White Stripes cover of "Jolene". Jack White didn't change the gender of the song (originally sung by Dolly Parton, a woman), so the song becomes about a relationship between a gay man and his bisexual lover in which the latter is going to leave him for a woman. Unsurprisingly this song earned them a huge amount of controversy but won them a great deal of gay fans in the process. Curiously, that was not the first time "Jolene" was presented in a male voice, with the lyrics performed intact. In the early '80s, the band The Sisters of Mercy used to present "Jolene" in the shows, sung in the deep baritone voice of Andrew Eldritch. From this time, also, is another Sisters of Mercy cover, also in the same Eldritch's voice: Abba's "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" (sporting the verse "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A man after midnight!" also without any kind of gender change).
- The Wiggles - as if them dressing in a Camp way on a daily basis isn't enough evidence. Some of their backup performers are also LGBTQ+.
- Swedish wartime diva Zarah Leander was embraced by gay men in Germany, thanks to songs like “Kann die Liebe sünde sein,” with definite subtext coded in the lyrics from her gay male songwriters.
- Most genres of alternative and indie rock have had some popularity among LGBTQ people from the beginning. First, the original genres that constituted alternative rock (such as New Wave Music, Post-Punk, and Jangle Pop) were played in discos early on, which were popular among LGBT people. Many alternative performers and fans also tended to be politically left-of-center and egalitarian, and thus they were more accepting of LGBTQ people than fans of other 1980s and 1990s music genres. Plus, several alternative performers, like Bob Mould, Grant Hart, Michael Stipe, the members of Pansy Division, half of the members of The B-52s, and Ani DiFranco, all identified as LGBTQ+ in some capacity. Even straight artists would often write a Gay Aesop song, acknowledging this fanbase.
- K-Pop in general has gained an LGBTQ+ following, with notable examples including the above-mentioned LOONA and BTS.
- Steps were embraced by the LGBTQ+ community in the UK, helped by Ian "H" Watkins being gay himself and their Camp image.
- Boy bands and girl groups have had some popularity with LGBTQ+ people since the beginning. This is especially prominent with boy bands, in which Camp value can be embraced and in which on-stage behavior can end up becoming rife with Ho Yay. Many boy band legends have also ended up coming out as well (such as Lance Bass and Markus Feehily).
- The B-52s has members who are mostly either gay (namely Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, and the late Ricky Wilson) or bisexual (Kate Pierson) - in short, everyone but Cindy Wilson.
- Devo fit the description. Five men dressed in suits made of Tyvek that the lead singer rips apart during a song that is a Unusual Euphemism for masturbation? Yes. Doesn't hurt that they performed at San Diego Pride in 2010. According to one question on Jerry Casale's AMA, the band members were fans of Warner labelmates The B-52s, mentioned above.
- Vocaloid: Not only is there a sizable lesbian fanbase for the Vocaloids, due to the very high amount of female characters, but it has also found itself a home among the trans community as well—in particular, Hatsune Miku herself is often regarded as either a trans girl herself or a very staunch ally of the trans community (leading to something of a meme where she's treated as the "true" creator of beloved media created by transphobic authors), while Kagamine Len is sometimes perceived as a trans boy due to a mix of his status as Rin's "identical" twin brother (a biological impossibility among opposite-sex twins), his Fanon discomfort with being Dragged into Drag and the rumors that he was originally intended to be a girl/he and Rin were originally supposed to be one and the same. Additionally, the franchise has many characters who come off as androgynous, such as Utatane Piko (whose voicebank and mascot appearance sound and look rather androgynous) and V4 Flower (a Bifauxnen with a deep, boyish sounding voice). MEIKA Hime and Mikoto both take it further by being confirmed nonbinary.
- Most, if not all, of the pop rock band The Orion Experience's fans are part of the LGBTQ+ community, because of the non-binary singers and often explicitly gay lyrics.
- The Finnish band Leevi and the Leavings, while being popular with middle aged straight men, has become very liked with young queer people. Many of the band's songs tell the stories of minorities and generally badly treated people such as alcoholics, homeless people, prostitutes, and of course LGBTQ+ people.
- Especially their song Poika Nimeltä Päivi (A Boy Named Päivi) is praised for having accurate description of the experience of a trans man, written by a cis man is the 80s Finland of all places.
- girl in red has a massive queer fanbase, as she is a lesbian and her music often focuses on queer themes. This had led to "Do you listen to girl in red?" becoming a coded way to ask if someone is a lesbian.
- Similar to the above Hayley Kiyoko is a lesbian, while her tendency to sing about loving women and to make music videos featuring girls falling in love has led to her Affectionate Nickname of "Queen of the Gays."
- Kate Bush has had a very large queer following from the outset, generally attributed to a mix of her campy theatrics, her unrepentant eccentricity, her exploration of atypical and even taboo subjects, and especially her ability to build a successful career on her own terms, all of which resonated well with the LGBT community and their plights. Bush herself acknowledged this part of her fanbase relatively quickly, including explicitly gay characters in "Wow" and "Kashka from Baghdad" on her second album.
- Eminem has a significant LGBT+ following. This is due in part to his use of homophobia as shock comedy around the Turn of the Millennium, which expressed anxiety about homosexuality/masculinity that many gay men could relate to feeling before they came out. Eminem's constant statements that out of character he supported queer people, and his collaboration with Elton John, helped. (The fact he was a bottle-blond Pretty Boy who wore earrings and posed naked for Rolling Stone also helped.) He also dresses as female characters in many of his music videos, all of whom are camp icons (Britney Spears, Madonna, his mother). A lot of his music is also extremely Camp, incorporating elements of Teen Pop, musical theatre, Self-Empowerment Anthem and Slasher Movie, and his collaborations with other gay icon stars like Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Sia, Jessie Reyez and Young M.A. have led to significant crossover. He also scooped up a large number of Machine Gun Kelly fans, who are often LGBT+, due to their beef, which Eminem himself admitted was extraordinarily homoerotic.
- Björk has quite a sizeable LGBTQ+, helped by the fact that she is Bisexual herself, her advocacy for left wing causes, her usage of experimental music, campy wardrobes, and eccentricity have all endeared her towards quite a large LGBTQ+ fanbase. Her work with openly transgender artists, Anohni and Arca, even helping them by boosting their careers through collaborations with her on the albums Volta and Utopia has also endeared her to the Transgender community.
- Ross Lynch has a sizeable fanbase of gay men and boys as referenced in his reading thirst tweets video with Buzzfeed where he remarked that "most of these are from boys" no doubt thanks to his penchant for performing on stage shirtless.
- A substantial portion of Pink Floyd's following among younger audiences consists of queer listeners who gravitated towards Roger Waters' lyrics on The Wall and The Final Cut slamming both homophobia and politicians regarded as instrumental in the backsliding of LGBT+ acceptance during the 1980s. In turn, this resulted in them checking out and enjoying the band's other material as well, both with and without Waters as bandleader, to the point where a common meme among younger Floydians jokingly portrays The Dark Side of the Moon as a pride symbol.
- Bad Bunny is considered to be a Latin American queer icon due to his outspoken support of the gay and trans community and a lot of queer coded themes in his songs such as drag and commentary about toxic masculinity in Latin American culture. It helps that he acknowledges that despite currently identifying himself as straight, he does see sexuality as fluid. He is also notable for being one of the few male artists with a lesbian fanbase.
