Hello Electroqueer readers. I wasn’t intending to post today as it’s my last day in Bangkok and I have the enormous challenge of trying to figure out how to sneak the one ton of souvenirs and purchases I have bought for loved ones past the airline check-in desk, but alas, I couldn’t leave today without writing about the overwhelming support and kind words myself and Pedro received about our Darren Hayes ‘Electroqueer Of The Year’ post.
We’ve been writing Electroqueer for about a year now and most recently decided to devote most of our free time to it, not for reasons of becoming a famous blogger or for eventually making some money from it, but solely for the love of the music and artists we feature. Yesterday was an extremely exciting day for us as the reaction to the Darren Hayes post kept flooding in. Most of the reaction positive and even a few negative comments (to be expected), but all was validated today when Darren himself posted on his website that he thought being named ‘Electroqueer Of The Year’ was honorable.
"I loved that blog.. and just so you all know.. ‘queer’ is something gay people call themselves as an alternative to the cliches .. In many ways some of the most influential and charismatic artists, pioneers and life changers of history were ‘queer’..
and though I don’t refer to myself as ‘queer’ I do take it as a huge compliment.. and am happy to be considered ‘electroqueer’!!" – Darren Hayes via www.darrenhayes.com
To shed a little light about what being ‘electroqueer’ means to us and why we chose Darren to honor, let us give a little more detail.
There is no doubt in our mind that ‘electro’ means what it means – electronic. However the term ‘queer’ to us does not mean being gay specifically. It means to us a few different things, like ‘different’, ‘strange’, ‘individual’, ‘stands apart from the crowd’ and yes, ‘sometimes a little gay’. I haven’t chose to define this before on Electroqueer as to maybe create some speculation and buzz around this unique and descriptive word (is it really a word?), but with so many comments on Darren’s website (note – you will need to register to view the electroqueer thread) and the number of MySpace emails received, we found it appropriate to share with you today just what exactly being called ‘electroqueer’ means to us.
Quite easily, a few artists could have been named ‘Electroqueer Of The Year’. Madonna, Jim Verraros, Simon Curtis, The Pet Shop Boys, Dangerous Muse, Imogen Heap, or the Scissor Sisters…but Darren really stood out to us this past year. He made a statement about gay marriage and stood true to his belief in electronic music by choosing to go indy all whilst living under the Savage Garden umbrella and so courageously forging onwards with his own solo career– making some of the most important and unique electronic songs of our time. These are the reasons we chose Darren Hayes.
Pedro and myself thank you for taking the time to read and react to our post. It is the interactivity and positive feedback of people such as yourself reading this that make the medium of blogging so important and rewarding. We promise to keep musing about the best of pop and electro music in 2007.
Raj [aka Electroqueer]
