Awww they call Louis “Achuo” 😍 The cutest! Doris’ smile tho ❤ She loves her big bro
Liam replying to some tweets 17/12 (part 4)
that dutch interview on rtl where the interviewer was like “you looked at him score some goals?” (re: a player harry used to have posters of) and harry replied “i looked at him, yeah……..” BOY
but LOOK AT HIS FACE
George Michael & Sony: Extrapolate to One Direction
I’ve meant to write about Sony and its history of closeting/controlling artists for a long time. George Michael passed away today; I should have written this before now… But it is what it is. I have a George Michael Speech. I have been giving this speech for twenty years, because one of his albums is super important to me. There are lots of reasons why, but I can’t properly articulate the FEELINGS about why. They just… exist, like feelings sometimes do.
So, here it is, my George Michael Speech:
George Michael is one of, if not THE MOST, under-appreciated artists of our time. TO THIS VERY DAY (just over 26 years later, now) one particular George Michael album is, and likely always be, one of the top five in my all-time top ten favorite albums. No, stop laughing, I’m completely serious. Though I did see Wham! live in 1985 (Day On The Green in Oakland, California, with Pointer Sisters, and opening act Katrina and the Waves), this actually has nothing whatsoever to do with Wham! other than that duo being a springboard to George Michael’s solo career. With a bit of a swerve into sexuality and closeting, we’ll get back to the album I’ve alluded to above. Stay with me.
When Wham! disbanded, it was due, in large part, to George Michael developing SEVERE anxiety and depression related to his sexuality. He struggled very deeply with the dichotomy of who he KNEW himself to be, versus the public image of who he was SUPPOSED to be; an image developed and manufactured by managers, label, etc., to sell HIM along with his music.
Very early on (age 19), he came out “halfway” as bisexual, telling his sisters, friends, and Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgley. He would be STRONGLY cautioned by all involved to not ever come out to his parents… and he didn’t. Michael actively tried to BE bisexual, quoted somewhere (The Advocate?) as saying that since he found women beautiful and academically attractive, he slept with quite a few during the heyday of Wham!’s success, but felt significant pressure to stay “half closeted”. He would later talk of feeling immense guilt and shame, knowing he could not (and thus would never be able to) develop long term love relationships with women because he knew, emotionally, that he was a gay man. He was consumed by that depression, and felt a great deal of shame for “using” women, as beards or otherwise.
Michael’s first solo album, “Faith” was released in 1987 to massive success, still riding what Michael felt to be a lie. He was still unable to present himself creatively in his music, regardless of its marketability.
This brings me to the topic of the George Michael Speech: 1990’s Listen Without Prejudice vol. I. Have you ever sat and listened in its entirety? The first time I did was the fall of 1990, in Lake Oswego, Oregon. My friend Maggie Lynch sat me down in her room and ignoring my protests, played it for me start to finish. I was a sixteen year old girl living in the northwest in the early nineties, still focused on hair metal and the emerging grunge scene, but this album… it blew me away. It made such an impression on me, hearing Michael sing his heart out, unfurling vocal wings we NEVER saw in his pop material, much less got to witness taking flight. There are songs about time to heal injustices and horrors, a gorgeous Stevie Wonder gospel number with a crescendo that still gives me goosebumps to think about it, a song in WALTZ TIME (in 1990!). Listen Without Prejudice vol. I is just a truly wonderful and unique album, ESPECIALLY given the musical landscape of the time. With the album title, he plainly ASKED his audience: Please, just give him a chance.
If you think you’ve never heard of this album and you’re over the age of, oh, let’s go with 35, you probably do know the ONE hit single, thanks to its music video, which you can see here: https://youtu.be/diYAc7gB-0A
Directed by David Fincher, the “Freedom! ‘90” video featured the fashion models who originated the term “supermodel”: Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Tatjana Patitz, and Cindy Crawford. George Michael refused to appear in it or ANY video for this album until or unless he was given the freedom to be himself and record his own music. Fincher’s video for “Freedom ‘90” was heavy-handed in conveying as much through its symbolism: Beautiful people (mattering not if any were the artist himself), lip-synching the lyrics, while shots depicting the destruction of “pop star sex symbol George Michael” iconography were interspersed throughout; burning, exploding, and otherwise demolishing props from “Faith”: The jukebox, leather jacket, ripped jeans, guitar, etc. Allow me to quote a portion of the lyrics to “Freedom ‘90”:
“Well it looks like the road to heaven,
But it feels like the road to hell.
When I knew which side my bread was buttered
I took the knife as well.
Posing for another picture.
Everybody’s got to sell,
But when you shake your ass
They notice fast,
And some mistakes were built to last.
That’s what you get,
I say, that’s what you get.
That’s what you get for changing your mind,
And after all this time
I just hope you understand,
Sometimes the clothes
Do not make the man.
I’ll hold on to my freedom.
May not be what you want from me.
Just the way it’s got to be.
Lose the face now.
I’ve got to live”
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was not the man Sony was intent on marketing, primarily as a hetero sex symbol to women. So intent was he on being true to himself, Michael sued Sony (I believe to get out of his contract). Do note, other artists have had similar battles with Sony. Remember Prince changing his name to “o+>”? Appearing in public with “SLAVE” written on his face? All Sony. Don’t even get me started on how they are STILL AT IT NOW IN 2016 (holla, Larries). Sony, so intent on getting the most value of Michael’s pop-hetero-marketability, countersued. He alleged that Sony refused to support the release of Listen Without Prejudice vol. I, resulting in very poor chart and sales performance in the US (8 million copies compared to 1987’s “Faith” which sold 25 million copies, won several awards, hit Billboard #1, etc). Sony countered that Michael’s refusal to appear in promotional videos had caused the poor sales figures and chart response. An infinite accusation loop.
Ultimately, the major fallout from these lawsuits was that the recording of Listen Without Prejudice vol. 2, in progress, was scrapped. I have often wished we’d had a chance to hear the bookend to what vol. I began, and hoped that finally releasing a vol. II would be the eventual goal of vol. I’s digitally remastered rerelease due in March 2017.
Now, I suppose, we’ll never know. George Michael died on Christmas Day 2016, at the age of 53.
Go, please, and Listen Without Prejudice to vol. I here: https://youtu.be/VrrfZF6Ye-o
cc @liesllunalove @aaronbutterfield @sexatoxbridge @seasurfacefullofclouds @adultfansofonedirection @business-direction
Thanks for tagging @yeahthatlarrymom
George Michaels’ passing today reminded me of what an iconic, singular musician he was.
Although we are far from being a tolerant society today, being a gay man in the 1980’s was tantamount to walking around with the mark of contagion. Gay men were dying from AIDS and, instead of government doing its duty in funding research, President Reagan laid the blame on gay men and their lifestyle, dragging his feet on funding the NIH until mandated by Congress. The gay community was attending funerals weekly for their friends. I don’t think we can quite imagine what that feels like today. I don’t need to point out that the same persecutory viewpoint has just been voted into the White House and dominate both legislative houses in Congress this year.
To come out and defend homosexuality in an era like that took unimaginable courage. George paid for it, and musicians who come out today, like Adam Lambert, continue to pay for the social stigma. I can only cry when I think of all the music we could have gotten.
Not only was George Michael brave, he was an extraordinary musician. His looks and charisma helped boost his career and made him easy to market as a sex symbol, but it was his musicianship that made him stand out.
His songwriting combined rhythmic dexterity with lyricism, and he had an amazingly expressive, powerfully versatile tenor. Today I saw a photo of George with Freddie Mercury, and I was reminded of both of their voices and songwriting. The songwriting was something to fall in love with.
You should know: George Michael was a fierce, fierce advocate for gay rights. His 1998 outing is a perfect capsule of what gay men have had to endure
Michael began his career as the singer for Wham!, along with former schoolmate Andrew Ridgeley, in the early 1980s. The group had hits with “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Careless Whisper,” and the enduring “Last Christmas.” And throughout his career, he’s always been unfailingly sex positive – before it was cool.
Gifs: BeeTheArtist
Anonymous asked:
I can't even imagine how frustrating it has to be for the Azoffs to not be able to fully interfere and to have to deal with this messy situation STILL one year after hiatus begin. Or am I under estimating them? Niall says one time we'll be back sooner than people think and next time he's touring 2018? I mean at some point they would have to know or even tell us right? Or is this gonna drag on until 2017 without any info/change? The fandom would be done by then and deserves so much better.
lapelosa-blog answered:
Everybody deserves so much better. Something’s going to change, but it’s still dragging on.
(But Niall is probably not planning a tour that goes for a year or something.)
why do I have the feeling that 2017 will either be the best year ever or the beginning of a dystopian universe with no in between
Anonymous asked:
I can't even imagine how frustrating it has to be for the Azoffs to not be able to fully interfere and to have to deal with this messy situation STILL one year after hiatus begin. Or am I under estimating them? Niall says one time we'll be back sooner than people think and next time he's touring 2018? I mean at some point they would have to know or even tell us right? Or is this gonna drag on until 2017 without any info/change? The fandom would be done by then and deserves so much better.
lapelosa-blog answered:
Everybody deserves so much better. Something’s going to change, but it’s still dragging on.
(But Niall is probably not planning a tour that goes for a year or something.)
wowmaybenexttime asked:
Just a guess, but I think Harry is doing the traffic light thing and we're on yellow now. I was working on his outfit pictures for my site and there was a lot red going on and suddenly this bright yellow sweater, after we didn't comment on the significance of the yellow shirt. It seems to me like he's yelling "pay attention to the color!"
28nachos answered:
Hmmm did seem like a lot of yellow lately. We’ll see
#AHSJDKDKS ONE DAY WILL#NOT HAVE A NEED FOR THIS SYMBOLISM#PLS (waytoomanypeopleintheaddisonlee)
lapelosa-blog
