K.d.Lang

Description

Country music is often assumed to convey a conservative message; however, k.d. lang used country music as a statement of liberal sexuality. She displayed an androgynous physical appearance, with short hair and clothes not consistent with society’s definition of feminine. She attracted many lesbian fans, who used her music to promote their sexuality. “Louise Allen (1994), from her research in the UK, argued that lesbian audiences were creating particular meanings through the consumption of k.d. lang products and that country and western style was being appropriated and adopted as a visible signal of lesbian identity at a number of women only clubs. Such an activity was subverting the codes and conventions of the genre as ‘the lesbian cowboy’ became an ironic parody of masculinity” (Negus, 1996, p.131).