Song for Sunday - 5th Apr - Missing Tonight

This is the voice that could whisper sweet nothings into my ear in the middle of the night ... and not get elbowed in the face for waking me up.
A smooth jazzy type of song for a Sunday morning by Spencer Day.

Bonus Song - Spectrum

Just for the hell of it, and because the video was released today, here is a bonus song. And it's a happy song. So enjoy,

Song for Sunday - 29th Mar - Only, Only

Something a little different in style for this weekend. Sometimes you need the musical equivalent of a kick up the butt to get you going. This'll do it - short, sharp and good. Brendan Maclean, from Australis, with Only, Only.

Time for Music and Romance

Last weekend I chose Steve Grand as Song for Sunday - mostly because he is the current big thing in gay music. But also because I like his slant on Americana with a pop influence. It's a style that's easily accessible.

But it got me thinking.

Great though Steve is, he is one in a line of out gay musicians, and for many of us it sometimes feels like things haven't moved on substantially in music for, well, decades.
Then I realised that that's clearly rubbish - every artist i've included in Song for Sunday in the last few  months is an out gay male singer (and apologies now, I will get to more of the LBT and Q in time, but i wanted to focus on the G to begin with) and it would be inconceivable thirty years ago to have access to so much quality gay music. And it is progress, those musicians are working across a spread of styles - jazz, electronica, pop, folk, blues and country - that out musicians wouldn't have featured in previously. It maybe taking time, but we are getting there. There being a place where out musicians are making music about many different aspects of our lives. Particularly making music about the love part of life (yeah, I know, most songs are essentially love songs).

But there is a history, quite a long history really. Remember this?

Well its thirty-ish years old. Just take that in for a moment. Thirty years ago there was a song in the Top 40 that opened with the lyric 'Turn us on ... turn us on ... boys'. Think about that. In thirty years we haven't moved on much from 'oh, that singer is gay'. We've haven't looked deeply into the work of artists and how it reflects what's going on in our lives. Well to be truthful some of us have done that, but many haven't.
(The same thing happened with Looking the TV programme - many LGBT people took a quick look at it, decided it wasn't representing them on a very surface level, so didn't continue watching. So it got cancelled. There was no exploration of what the programme was trying to achieve, what it was setting up, where it might go, what it was looking to explore in terms of inter-generational gay friendships, modern relationships, or the positive-negative divide. Or indeed anything beyond the surface. Which, some might say is what pop music is all about).

But then Jimmy Summerville has never been a typical pop act. Witness this:

or this

or this

or indeed this

This was the best selling song in the UK that year - and it was by an out, proud, political musician. And it was thirty years ago.

Each of these songs mix pop music with politics. A catchy tune to get airplay, mixed with a message about life as it is - from comments on the destitution in the UK at the time, through to what the gay community has gone through and was going through, through to a very memorable love song.

This is kinda the reason that I have-a-soft-spot-for M/M romance. The unapologetic, upfront, in your face and fuck-you approach to love. It's here, it's queer and (for me) it's my life in all its complexity: the sadness, joy and absolute wonderfulness of it all. I want to see that life, that complexity in books. I want to see that diversity not just shown but celebrated. I yearn for stories of love amongst the 5 to 15% of the population that is rarely shown to be about love. I want to celebrate with others the love that is found. And in amongst the passing of laws to obviously, absolutely, actively discriminate against that community that love is important.  And the great thing about M/M romance is that it does explore all those things, and more, so much more.

Remember that what you are writing and reading is political. Intensely political and personal for some. That's a small point about this genre that often gets forgotten in the rush to celebrate the latest story about two wonderfully written men falling in love. But let me be clear: I'm not about acceptance. I'm not about tolerance. I'm about equality without exception. Because without that the things that we read become meaningless. M/M romance becomes as much high fantasy as science-fiction. I don't want my life treated that way in fiction or in reality. And you shouldn't settle for that either.

Let's hope things are significantly different in another thirty years. Let's hope that Steve Grand is still singing songs about what love is all about for him as a middle aged man, but that we don't notice that the video is about love between two men, because that's not the important part. The important part is the love that's being expressed.

But in the meantime let's have Steve Grand's latest video

Song For Sunday - 22nd Mar - All American

In celebration of the release of Steve Grand's album tomorrow I'm revisiting his breakthrough song. Yup, it's All American Boy. When it first broke this song was a celebration of queer young things doing their thing. And rightly so. Some of it impact is forgotten now, but it was both revelatory and celebratory at the same time - a good thing.

The album itself is a slice of Americana, with some twists to it. It's a welcome addition to the queer music spread of styles.

Come tomorrow though go buy the album. Go celebrate and support queer artists.
(Also, he's quite hot, and that helps)

  

Branded With A Hot Iron

I was going to write a post all about branding, particularly personal branding, because, well, that’s a thing that’s being talked about at the moment. I was going to give lots of detail and examples. But then I thought: I can’t be arsed.
So instead I’ll give you this instead: My Top 5 Tips for branding.

1. Want to reach more readers? Use all the assets you have at your disposal, but use them well and use them wisely. This is the ‘less is more philosophy’ – use what you have access to and use it to the best of its potential. Focus on what works and get the most out of it – but be clear about what you want out of it. Doing it this way will create a perception of professionalism about you and your work – branding!
2. Brands are built through interaction between customer and product. There are two main ways a writer does that – providing books to be read and being on social media. Social media is about being social. It’s not about building up squillions of followers who scroll past your tweets or updates because they only vaguely know who you are. It’s about – and forgive the analogy here – length and girth. It’s about depth of interaction with those that you do interact with, but done in a way that makes them remember you and want more from you. Got that? Penetration, and stimulation.
3. Want to sell more books? Write the best books you can. It really is that simple, quality counts. Quality will bring people back for more.
4. Branding is for products not people. Don’t consciously try to build a brand. If you do that then you’ll probably fail. Instead try to get yourself/your book in front of the right people at the right time to promote what you do. (Instead of brand building be the best you at marketing and communicating about the books that you’ve created).
5. People can sniff out inauthenticity a mile off. If you are trying to be someone you are not then you’ll get found out eventually. Save everyone all that hassle and just be yourself. It’s far more appealing, sexy and valuable – oh hey there isn't that the goal of branding?

It really is that simple.
Remember that companies have to create brands out of characteristics, values, tone and interactions that they apply to their products - they are creating a persona for their products - because the products are things. You are already a person, with all of those things. Personal branding isn’t about creating those things, it’s about how you use what you already have.
So if you choose to be inoffensive and bland in order not to offend, your personal brand is going to be seen as inoffensive and bland. Who wants to read a book that’s bland? We read books for the excitement of other people’s lives, for the fantastical elements, and maybe for the escapism that they offer. I’m not going to spend my hard earned cash on a bland world populated by dull people doing uninteresting things that don’t offend others. Instead I’ll spend it on a chocolate bar with more nuts, or a bottle of beer that’s both super trendy and effortlessly cool at the same time.

Now the next person to talk about branding gets a hot iron to their flesh. That really is personal branding.

Song for Sunday -- 15 Mar - Kiss On The Cheek

You know those Sundays where you just need to take a moment for yourself and recharge? Well this will do it for you. A few minutes of this and you'll feel the full five bars, all super charged and ready for the rest of the day.

www.chrisriffle.com