Rewind: Sugar - Copper Blue

Though I rarely listen to Copper Blue anymore, the image of Bob Mould filliping polaroids at the end of Sugar's video for "If I Can't Change Your Mind" -- the album de facto "hit singe" -- remains permanently etched in my brain. I played the other day, trying to force a Proustian moment that never really came, but overall, it's held up surprisingly well (despite the characteristic flaw of a lot of early 90s albums having the vocals buried deep in the mix). It was a pure pop record that the punk kids liked, but despite his hardcore Husker Du days, Mould was a popster at heart. A few years after Copper Blue's releases, Bob Mould was officially outed -- or outed himself -- in a Spin article written by writer and Husker Du superfan, Dennis Copper. Looking back, it's easy to forget how few performers and songwriters were openly gay, especially in the hyper-masculine would of punk and indie. Mould talks about it in his recently published memoir:

I knew what was about to happen. This was to be the "Bob is gay" story, and I could do this the easy way or the hard way. I wasn't thrilled about it for a number of reasons, beyond personal ones. My first concerns were that this news would make it tough for my family and that my fans and peers would recontextualize everything I had done with my work. I also knew that the press was always going to write whatever the were going to write. I could try to steer the story the way I wanted it to read, but ultimately editorial always wins out. It's the business.

I like that he says that one of his biggest concerns was that his fans and peers would now have to "recontextualize" his body of work. It's no secret that indie and punk rock is a huge boy's club -- nay, a huge straight boy's club -- and one not immune homophobia (though Mould himself maintains that the hardcore scene was no more homophobic than any other), some of it overt, like the lyrics to a few Descendents songs, and a lot the harder-to-prove covert kind.