We’re moving into a new era of visibility for GLBTI artists in music, and a new publication will explore where Australian music fits into the equation, with Archer Magazine – an Australian journal of sexual diversity – aiming to print its first issue this year.
In an age where Macklemore & Ryan Lewis‘s Same Love receives high rotation on triple j and sexually diverse, gender-bending artists like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj are going mainstream, queer visibility in music is at an all time high.
Sydney journo Gary Nunn, writer for The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald, will turn his eye to the Australian music scene in the first issue of Archer. He says that, while attitudes towards sexuality and its representations in international pop and hip hop may have turned a corner, Australia is in an ideal situation to lead the charge:
“There are grass-roots musicians across the country tackling same-sex love with integrity and subtlety. In the same way Jamaican-born Island Records, the largest indie record label in history, became a juggernaut of the progressive music scene, an Australian label could choose to pioneer sexually diverse artists in mainstream music.”
Founding editor Amy Middleton was driven to create Archer after realising Australia needed a journal dedicated to discussions around sexuality and diversity. Along with the exploration of queer representation in music, the first issue of the magazine will also discuss sex and censorship in Australian film and the shifting expectations of the Aussie bloke, with contributions from Christos Tsiolkas, Damien Bright and Rod Chapman among others.
Middleton has turned to crowd-sourcing to get the first two editions of this much-needed mag rolling, running a Pozible campaign that’s giving away lots of goodies for backers, including the chance to see your own face in print in the first issue.
As an independent website, Music Feeds is getting behind Archer, and we think you should too! To lend your support to the mag, hit up the Pozible campaign here, and check out the Archer site.
