Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Is our love of pop music innately queer? That's the question Sasha Geffen answers--with a "yes," of course--in this book. Beginning with the Beatles and moving to the present, Geffen identifies artists of all stripes who performed "outside the limitations of their assigned genders." This includes not only trans artists like Wendy Carlos, or openly gender-bending artists like David Bowie and Prince, but ostensibly cis and hetero artists whose work and performance complicate the binary. This musical androgyny, they argue, is the result of different factors at different points in the timeline, but the flexibility of the human voice in pop music emerges as the most consistent form of expression. Geffen continues right up to the present, covering the origins of House and disco in gay clubs and the utopia of the dance floor, the genderless technology of hip-hop and artists like Missy Elliott who embody masculine virtues"-- Provided by publisher.

"Why has music so often served as an accomplice to transcendent expressions of gender? Why did the query "is he musical?" become code, in the twentieth century, for "is he gay?" Why is music so inherently queer? For Sasha Geffen, the answers lie, in part, in music's intrinsic quality of subliminal expression, which, through paradox and contradiction, allows rigid gender roles to fall away in a sensual and ambiguous exchange between performer and listener. Glitter Up the Dark traces the history of this gender fluidity in pop music from the early twentieth century to the present day. Starting with early blues and the Beatles and continuing with performers such as David Bowie, Prince, Missy Elliot, and Frank Ocean, Geffen explores how artists have used music, fashion, language, and technology to break out of the confines mandated by gender essentialism and establish the voice as the primary expression of gender transgression. From glam rock and punk to disco, techno, and hip-hop, music helped set the stage for today's conversations about trans rights and recognition of nonbinary and third-gender identities. Glitter Up the Dark takes a long look back at the path that led here."--Page [4] of cover.