9 Songs You Didn't Know Are About Being Bisexual
Could you read their poker face?
Most often in music, divisive topics like sexuality are discussed with all the nuance of a sledgehammer hitting someone in the genitals.
Part of that bluntness has to do with the simple fact that the majority of songs hover around the 3-to-4 minute mark, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time for subtlety. So it shouldn't surprise you that most songs about non-heterosexual love come at you hard and fast, while basically wearing a name tag that says "This is about being gay! DO YOU HEAR IT?"
And since the topic of bisexuality requires even more shades and tints to really explain the whole picture, you're even less likely to hear many attempts at crafting a tune around it. It's also a topic that's somehow taken less seriously among the general public.
Bisexuality is often mislabeled as "experimentation," and those who proclaim their sexual attraction toward both genders are alienated or ridiculed for "not making a decision." Songs that overly fetishize the subject, like Katy Perry's infamous "I Kissed A Girl," don't really help the cause, either. But not to worry, there are still a handful of artists brave enough and witty enough to write understated, passionate songs about bisexuality.
9. Green Day - "Coming Clean"
Secrets collecting dust but never forget Skeletons come to life in my closet I found out what it takes to be a man Now Mom and Dad will never understand
Confusion, anxiety, and repression: these are the basic tenants of being a teenager. You're supposed to understand the world around you when you don't even understand yourself, so instead of doubling down on the unease of not knowing, a lot of teens just extinguish that whole "getting to know yourself" thing before they really get a chance to think things through.
That's how Billie Joe Armstrong felt when he wrote "Coming Clean," his attempt to describe the awkwardness that came with discovering his own sexual preferences:
"I think I've always been bisexual. I mean, it's something that I've always been interested in. I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. I think people are born bisexual, and it's just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of 'Oh, I can't.' They say it's taboo. It's ingrained in our heads that it's bad, when it's not bad at all. It's a very beautiful thing."
Growing up in the San Francisco area, Armstrong questioned his own sexuality constantly, and although he now has a wife, the Green Day frontman isn't afraid to express that other side of himself.