A satirical song by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus has awakened the conservative rage machine. The track takes a common homophobic trope and flips it on its head, with the lyrics, “We’ll convert your children/ We’ll make them tolerant and fair.” The song, “A Message From the Gay Community Performed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus,” was originally posted to YouTube on July 1st. By July 7th it had been taken down, as some of the worst people on the internet used it as a call to the Culture Wars, intentionally missing the joke in order to accuse the LGBTQ+ community of pedophilia. “A Message” almost anticipated the controversy by kicking off with a statement for bigots. “As we celebrate Pride and the progress we’ve made over these past years,” soloist Troy Iwata said, “There’s ...
What’s a choir to do when the pandemic makes it impossible to rehearse in person? If you ask Canadian chamber ensemble Luminous Voices, they’ll tell you the answer can be found in your car. As NPR reports, Luminous Voices have been gathering together and singing from inside their own cars. And no, they aren’t shouting out of their rolled-down windows — only irresponsible dummies like Kirk Cameron would do that. Instead, their voices are actually broadcast through each individual car’s radio system. Think of it like Fast & Furious: The Hymn Edition. College music professor David Newman first came up with the innovative “car choir” approach after seeing his Facebook friends “either bemoaning the fact that we couldn’t sing together at all, or saying ‘Singing together is too important and ...