Then, around a year and a half ago, I listened to their music out of choice – the listen that changed it all. Can you imagine being caught listening to the Village People with any kind of sincerity?
I avoided it quite organically, actually we all have to at least pretend we have high tastes, after all. Yet, because of the band’s supremely cheesy reputation, their music passed me by for a long time. Their signature song YMCA – one of the most famous of all time, most recently appropriated by Donald Trump supporters, who have turned it into M-A-G-A – is about cruising for sex in a mens’ health club others celebrate traditionally male-oriented institutions such as the navy and the police. However, be this memory real or simulacrum, it strikes me as hilarious given what the Village People are universally known for: tongue-in-cheek gay innuendo, sparsely covered by a flimsy veneer of hyper-macho drag. Films that make the countryside seem less white This is probably where we all imagine we heard Village People for the first time – those of my generation, at least: such is the way their biggest hits have become the sonic staples of our biggest events and get-togethers. I should admit immediately, though, that I suspect this memory to be made up. I was doubtless very young – as I remember, the venue was either a school disco or a wedding reception. I can’t recall exactly where I was when I first heard a song by the Village People.
