Remembering Sylvester
» Gay music
A look at disco icon Sylvester who’ll always be remembered at least for You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
He was, for lack of a better word, an aberration: a black man who was also openly gay and, as such, didn’t fit into the neatly constructed marketing schemes the industry reserved for black male singers (you were a sex god like Pendergrass, a tenderoni like Michael Jackson, or fell somewhere in between, like the Artist once again known as Prince). That Sylvester was able to thrive when male singers of all colors were (and still are) expected to walk the straight and narrow (even the Village People were hyped as a hetero group mimicking gay sensibility and style) was a true testament to his talent — and his nerve. Sylvester didn’t put up a front: He wasn’t the least bit apologetic about or ashamed of who he was.
