Let’s Talk: Going Viral During Pride Month and Why Representation Matters

angiemoonthemod's avatar 19/06/2023 One Comment

Hello everyone, I’m Angie Moon and I’m the founder of The Diversity of Classic Rock. I am the person behind the blog. There is no one else. I have no team. I have no helpers. I have no interns. I am the one who does all the writing, research, interviews, graphic design (if you can call it that, I’m not an artist lol), administration, communication, and social media promotion. If you have ever written an email to me or wrote a comment on my blog and got a reply from my account or email address, it is indeed me who is reading and responding to your comments. The blog has been a one-person operation since day one, back in March 2015. I originally started it as a school project for a journalism class when I was in undergrad in university. I was 20 when I started the blog and I am so happy to see how much it’s grown over the years. I am very thankful for everyone’s support and kind words over the years, whether you’re a new reader or a longtime fan. Everyone is welcome here and I can’t stress that enough. The blog has been read by over half a million people and I never thought I would make that much of an impact. I’ve been contacted by academics. I’ve gotten kind words from aspiring writers who were inspired by my writing. I’ve been sent books and music to review in PR. I’ve interviewed so many musicians from all walks of life from all around the world. My blog has taken me so many places and now it’s gone viral. I am so thankful for all of these opportunities and successes and here’s to many more.

The growing popularity of The Diversity of Classic Rock

For the most part it’s been a slow burn as far as getting The Diversity of Classic Rock to where it is. Nothing was overnight. There was a learning curve to running a blog, writing blog posts, and researching. Over time, I got better and better at writing and now I’m in the process of publishing a book about classic rock and I can’t wait to finally share it with you.

There have been bursts of views here and there that have brought eyeballs to the blog such as my blog posts about LGBT Classic Rockers, which really helped the blog take off in popularity early on, which you can read here:

This series of blog posts about LGBT people in classic rock and LGBT related topics helped boost the prominence of my blog, but what really made my blog skyrocket was something completely unexpected and it only happened in the last couple days.

Going Viral Unexpectedly… The moment it happened

It seems like you find what you’re looking for when you’re not looking for it or expecting it and I was not expecting my blog to go viral and skyrocket in views. Not at all. I work hard on all of my blog posts and take a lot of pride in every single one of them, but this was a surprise to me. A very nice one.

As I am a classic rock journalist/historian/commentator, it’s only natural that I talk about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which as we all know the classic rock fandom are very polarised when it comes to it. Everyone’s got an opinion on the Rock Hall. There have been a lot of bands over the years who have been snubbed year after year and just like the Grammys, it’s a popularity contest with lots of politics involved. I think that’s something that is quite obvious and something we can all agree on.

So in 2019, I wrote my first blog post in a series about classic rock bands that aren’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but should be. I wrote a second blog post about it the following year. These blog posts got some reads, but they were really sleeper hits (most of my blog posts are sleeper hits and get a lot more views way after the fact) and this month the second instalment in particular got a lot of attention so I decided I’m going to write another blog post for that series. Enter: 20 Classic Rockers that I still canā€™t believe are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I clicked post and there it was, out there on the internet for people to read and enjoy. I go to bed and suddenly…

I woke up to thousands of views on my blog. When I woke up, I saw a couple thousand hits and thought, well yesterday must have been a good day for the blog, but I took a closer look at my stats page and said, “Wait a minute, that’s not yesterday’s numbers, that’s today’s numbers”. Already breaking records and the day is young. Well, I continued to work on other blog posts and I kept seeing the numbers go higher and higher, way beyond my expectations. My blog is just a niche blog about classic rock. Not only did that blog post go viral, I got a lot of engagement on the post. So many comments. I approved all that I felt were productive to the discussion, whether or not I agreed with them. I didn’t have time to reply to everyone like I usually would because of how many comments there were.

For the most part, people said lovely things and I got a lot of praise for my writing, but of course with content going viral, there will be naysayers and complainers that aren’t happy with anything you do. That’s the way it is. People’s criticism isn’t what gets me down at all. It’s to be expected, par for the course in my field, and any field really. As I like to say, not even pizza can make everyone happy – there will always be some people out there who don’t like pizza. I know, shocking!

On the blog post, I talked about representation in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and highlighted identities of band members who are part of marginalised communities. For example, Chris Bell from Big Star was gay, Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks was bisexual, Andy Fraser of Free was gay and half Caribbean, Girlschool are an all female rock band, Malo are Latino, and Phil May of The Pretty Things was bisexual. There’s a lot of discussion in the media these days about representation and I wanted to highlight the diversity of the people who make classic rock music. It’s in my blog’s name, The Diversity of Classic Rock. It’s just weird to me when people make a big stink about people talking about LGBT representation. Sure, there are people who get “triggered” when people talk about representation of people of colour or representation of women (I mean look at some people’s reaction to Halle Bailey playing Ariel in the live action The Little Mermaid), but I saw more people being triggered by LGBT representation and I’m thinking it’s because of the current political climate with prejudice all over the place and tensions being high thanks to a few loud voices on the religious right.

I have no problem with people having different tastes in music or preferring different writing styles. What I do have a problem with is comments that target or have a go at LGBT people, especially in a day and age when LGBT rights are being rolled back, politicians are saying homophobic and transphobic things with impunity, being gay is still illegal in a lot of different countries, LGBT hate crimes are happening in countries that are supposedly “tolerant” and “accepting”, LGBT people are disowned by their families, when companies who put up signs in support of LGBT pride are getting threats and caving to homophobes and transphobes, when the Overton window keeps being pushed rightward and we’re back to having the same debates we had in the 2000s and powerful bigots are being platformed and emboldening hateful people – this is where I have to stand up and defend LGBT people.

I got some choice comments like:

“Is there some lesser-known fact that a band member being LGBTQ+ has stonewalled groups from the Hall? Most of us have no idea the names of the musicians we hear on pop radio, much less care of someone is gay. I appreciate everyone regardless of their preferences or race, but Iā€™m getting irritated by all the movements upping the ire of those of us who are chill.”

and

“…The author seems to think there needs to be more ‘LBGQT’ [sic] representation in the hall. I donā€™t know why anyoneā€™s orientation would or should factor into their induction. It should be based on the music, period. Might as well say ‘there should be more redheads represented.’ Absolutely nothing to do with the music.”

and

“With all due respect that list was ridiculous. To suggest that someone should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because theyā€™re gay is ludacris [sic]. I thought it was about the music. You mentioned Mott the Hoople, they had three hits. thatā€™s it. To be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame you need to have continual hits one after the other after the other.”

and

“This is simply a list of bands someone wants included because of the LGBTQ+ representation. Itā€™s an agenda not an actual list of unjust snubs.”

My assumption is that these commenters were new to my blog and only now stumbled upon it and aren’t familiar with how I write about classic rock and what angle I write from. Like I said before, I have a long history of writing about the LGBT community and classic rock since my blog’s establishment, because I’m bisexual and a classic rock fan. You did notice that I have the bi flag colours all over the place on my blog, right?

I think that representation is important and that’s why I pointed it out. I did not write a designated Pride post since I’ve covered so much about LGBT topics in classic rock in previous years I didn’t know what else to talk about, but I guess this is a Pride post of sorts. Not exactly the happiest one, but an important one and I hope people will hear me out. Because I published the blog post during Pride Month, I decided to highlight LGBT band members in that blog post. Some marginalised groups are underrepresented in the Rock Hall and I wanted to talk about that. I never said that identity is why these bands are good or why they should be in the Rock Hall. I’m a fan of a lot of these groups and I truly enjoy their music and artistry. I’m also happy when I find out bands I like have LGBT members. Two things can exist at the same time. More than that, it’s insulting to the bands that some of these commenters dismissed their musical accomplishments and talents all because the members’ sexuality – just give the bands a chance. If you know anything about the arts, you’ll know that it’s historically been a safe haven for LGBT people. There’s a lot of gay artists, poets, writers, playwrights, actors, singers, and musicians.

Also, only four of the 20 acts had LGBT members (that I know of) – that’s only 20%, commenters blowing things out of proportion. Also that last comment implying I have some “gay agenda”, if that’s not a homophobic dogwhistle, I don’t know what is. That’s the issue I have with covert bigotry, it’s so hard to call it out and people act like you’re crazy for calling it out and think you’re making a big deal out of nothing.

I don’t assume that everyone writing these types of comments are homophobic, but I do have a problem with some of the wording and I can’t help but feel like there is some prejudice and dogwhistles and this is not acceptable. I want this blog to be a safe place for all, where everyone is welcome. I don’t have a problem with disagreement, as long as it’s respectful. Keep in mind there are human beings behind the content you consume online. Just be kind.

I don’t need to explain myself, but I guess it’s always a nice refresher to talk about the values of my blog and why I do what I do and why I find this work important.

Why did I start this blog?

Time for some Diversity of Classic Rock and Angie lore:

I didn’t start The Diversity of Classic Rock to hop on a trend or to be “woke” or whatever. “Woke” wasn’t a term that was in mainstream use back in 2015 – the term back then was SJW (social justice warrior). I’m definitely not one to care about trends – easy to tell because I primarily listen to old rock music and I wear pretty much all vintage/secondhand clothing. I started this blog because I have a passion for classic rock and I wanted to talk about the diversity of the musicians and the diversity of the sounds. I also started this blog because I care about social justice issues and I am a mixed bisexual classic rock fan. I have autism and classic rock is my special interest.

If you don’t believe me, that’s your problem, but ask anyone who knows me in real life about my love of classic rock and they’ll say I’m obsessed. It’s why I chose the domain name “Crazy On Classic Rock”. I love Heart and their song “Crazy On You” and the name is a reference to that.

Crazy On Classic Rock was also what I called my radio show when I was in university and when I was doing radio, I came up with the idea to talk about diversity in classic rock music. One day when I was volunteering at my university’s freeform radio station, the programme manager harshly criticised me for only playing music by old straight white men from the 70s. And I was flabbergasted. What do you mean? There’s a lot of diversity in classic rock and I tried to explain it to him and he wasn’t having any of it – he didn’t care what I had to say. I sat on the idea for a while and tried to figure out how I’d talk about the diversity of the people who make classic rock, because I knew for a fact it wasn’t just straight white men. There were women, black people, Asians, Latinos, Jews, Native Americans, disabled people, gay people, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people too and from there I was putting together lists and collecting facts in my head in preparation to write all about it when the opportunity presented itself. I guess that’s where me having Aspergers came in handy, special interest hyperfocus mode on! I leaned into my strengths there and that’s how the blog was born.

In my third year of university I was given an assignment: to start a blog about any topic I like and I chose to start The Diversity of Classic Rock and I wrote my very first blog post on 18 March 2015. What better moment to start it than for a class? And so I did. I’d spend days and days researching and writing blog posts and so the first one came out and I decided to make it about Africa and rock and roll. Why? Because humans originated in Africa. From there, I wrote about Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and LGBT rock stars and the blog grew in popularity over time and I expanded the scope of what I wrote about. It became more than just a school project. It became my passion and I fell in love with writing. I didn’t want to be stuck in a rut and pigeonhole myself. I wanted to challenge myself as a writer as I took it more seriously and saw myself really going down that path. Radio may be dead, but I think writing is evergreen. And so I wrote about more things in classic rock and started doing reviews and interviews.

A big theme of my blog is to talk about representation in rock and roll and I think it’s important.

Why Representation Matters

I responded to one of the comments explaining the importance of representation:

Growing up, I felt alone and I felt weird. It made me depressed and I felt isolated. I didn’t know any other mixed kids whose parents were from completely different backgrounds and cultures. I didn’t feel like I fit in with either side. I wasn’t “really” Jewish or white because I didn’t look “white” enough because of my black hair and I have a Hispanic gentile mother. However, I wasn’t Hispanic enough either because I have really pale skin. Often, people would see me one way until they saw my grandmother or my brother who has an Afro. Growing up, my grandmother lived with us. My mother is a little darker than me, but still considered “light skinned”, but my grandmother had very dark skin. She was half Native Venezuelan. I had friends who said my grandma looked funny or weird. Thankfully my grandma didn’t speak English so she had no idea what they were saying. For my grandmother, those attitudes were strange for her. In Venezuela, most people are mixed, even the palest people there are mixed most of the time. Venezuela was integrated long before the US was. Interracial marriage was the norm for centuries. My mum was always so confused on why Americans are so weird about race. I was made fun of for speaking Spanish and so I repressed it. Biggest regret right there. I can read and understand the language perfectly, but when speaking, I forget all the words and I stutter.

All this stuff reared its head once again and it was like a replay when I realised I was bisexual at 14 and came out. The year was 2008. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was the policy in the military. Prop 8 passed in California, leaving only two states that had marriage equality. You’d regularly hear the f-slur and the d-slur used towards gay people and bisexuals. People would always say “marriage is between a man and a woman”. The Westboro Baptist Church was all over the news. Very few liberals stood up for gay people. I was going to school in a small, conservative town in the south and I felt like I didn’t fit in at all. All I wanted to do was leave as soon as I could. I wanted to live somewhere where I could be safe and accepted. I was scared every time I walked into the locker room when I’d go to gym class. Not only was I self-conscious about how I looked, I was afraid that classmates would accuse me of being creepy and checking them out. I’d stare at the floor and run as quickly as I could to the private changing stalls. When people found out I was bi, I’d get made fun of and asked if I was a lesbian. People mistook me for transgender (I’m not, but even if I was, there’s nothing wrong with being transgender). I’d participate in the Day of Silence every year and people would make fun of me and my friends. Worst of all, I had gay friends who said I couldn’t be bisexual. I had to “pick a side” – I was either straight or gay, not both. That really hurt and that was the first time I experienced biphobia and bi erasure. It’s said that bisexuals make up the majority of the LGBT community, but many are “invisible” because they’re in the closet or are in heterosexual relationships, and are often told they’re not gay enough for the gay community. Yet we’re also not straight enough for heterosexuals. I could talk about this all day, but let’s move on.

I felt alone as a mixed race bisexual with autism. I moved a lot so friends came and went, but one thing stayed consistently with me no matter where I went and that was music. I got into classic rock and the 60s in general when I was 14 and watched Austin Powers and started listening to The Beatles. The Beatles were my gateway band. I knew there was more to the 60s than The Beatles and so I dove into the world of classic rock and started listening to everything. And then I started a Tumblr when I was 16 and learnt even more about classic rock and started connecting with other classic rock fans, realising there’s a huge community of us.

With Tumblr having a big social justice lean, I learnt more about the diversity of classic rock musicians and found out more classic rockers than I thought were LGBT. Growing up, we weren’t taught LGBT history. It’s sad. I don’t know about other people’s schools, but I had no idea how many historical figures were gay. We’d talk about Leonardo Da Vinci and Frida Kahlo in art class, but I had no idea they were gay and bisexual. Would have made art class more interesting for me anyway. In English class we’d talk about William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, but I had no idea they were bisexual and gay. It never really came up in class because it was a conservative time and I went to a conservative school. Had I known, I would have definitely felt better about myself, knowing that I’m not weird or different and there are people just like me and I can achieve things too. I was never ashamed of being bisexual, I didn’t see anything wrong with it. But I just wish I was treated better and that bisexuals had more visibility. I was ashamed of being mixed, however, but through finding out there are mixed race musicians, actors, and artists and stuff like that, I felt like it was okay to be me and that I can accomplish things too.

Bringing it back to classic rock, whenever I’d listen to the radio or read about classic rock, I barely saw any female DJs or female classic rock commentators and writers. The way some of these DJs spoke about women made me feel disgusted. I’d see classic rock radio stations promoting “babe of the week” or “babe of the month”. Women when they say they like classic rock are always quizzed about their knowledge and people dismiss them as being shallow and only liking bands because they think the band members are hot or being told you’re only at this concert because your boyfriend dragged you there. I also knew that classic rock was more than just the limited list of songs played on classic rock radio stations and I wanted to write the most comprehensive work on classic rock I could talking about everything from those years from the 50s to the 80s. I wanted to see more representation of LGBT rock stars, female rock stars, and non-white/mixed rock stars and so I started this blog, to tell the stories of these musicians whether they are super well known or more obscure. I knew there had to be more black rock stars than Jimi Hendrix and Prince. I knew there were more Hispanic rock stars than just Santana and Ritchie Valens. I knew there were Native American and Asian rock stars that people had no idea were actually of those backgrounds. I knew that there were more women in rock and roll than just Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, Joan Jett, and Ann and Nancy Wilson. I wanted to talk about the classic rock that was less talked about too and get people listening to other things and expanding their horizons – it’s not just the diversity of people, but also the diversity of sound. I want to expand the definition of classic rock. I believe that classic rock is timeless and something that will live on, and it will only live on if we talk about it.

Representation matters. Maybe not to you, but to other people it does. I think of the kids in small towns who just realised they’re gay and they feel like they’re the only one. I think of the non-white/mixed kids who grow up in lily white areas feeling lonely and different. I think of the girls who want to be rock stars but have been told that rock and roll is for boys. I didn’t have any idea when I was first getting into The Who and The Kinks when I was a teenager, but when I discovered that Pete Townshend and the Davies Brothers are all bisexual I was so happy. I was ashamed of having autism, but when I found out that David Byrne, Peter Tork, Gary Numan and Marty Balin had autism too, I felt validated. I felt seen. It made me think of that scene in Velvet Goldmine where a teenage Arthur watches TV and sees Brian Slade come out as bisexual on TV and he’s excited, pointing at the TV and saying that’s me! This is why I talk about representation. I want young LGBT people to have that moment with classic rock – to find someone that is “just like me fr fr”. I want to show another side of the LGBT community.

Another thing I wanted to do was to make this blog a welcoming, unpretentious environment to learn about classic rock. I find that fandoms can often be full of gatekeeping. The reason that some people don’t get into something is because of gatekeeping and elitism. I don’t like that. I am the opposite of a gatekeeper. If you’re friends with me in real life I won’t stop talking about classic rock and I’ll be teaching you everything about classic rock and trying to get other people into it. That’s my approach to this blog. While I (probably) don’t know you, when you come to this blog I want you to learn something new about classic rock. That’s the goal.

In Conclusion

I love what I do and I am so grateful and thankful for all the support over the years. I’ve enjoyed all the conversations I’ve had about classic rock over the years thanks to this blog. I hope that this new introduction of sorts helps you understand The Diversity of Classic Rock and my mission better. This is a blog where we celebrate the diversity of the people who make classic rock year round, not just for heritage months or Pride Month: it’s year round. I have the bisexual pride flag colours as my colour scheme and I frequently use rainbows in my blog, not just because the colours are pretty, but it represents me and I want to show that this blog is a safe space for the LGBT community. The Diversity of Classic Rock is for all. Music is art and art is for all to enjoy.

Once again many thanks to all my readers and supporters! This blog wouldn’t be where it is without you.

Love,

Angie

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