Sex always sells in music. Whether it’s through scandalous performances, steamy lyrics, or sexy beats, the music world has managed to incorporate sexuality among its main topics due to its ambivalent approach in society. Despite our supposed open-mindedness, nowadays there are people who do not dare talk about this subject. However, its presence in music, on the one hand, has helped normalize it or has invited us to discuss its many nuances, variations, and shapes in which we can explore our sexuality.
Artists such as Madonna and Queen have helped revolutionize sexuality by exposing some of its many faces through music. However, in the 1990s, a Swedish band took over the dance scene to tell the world there are more ways of loving beyond the heterosexual and monogamous type of relationship, as well as other types of gender identities beyond masculine and feminine.
A time to go a time to live
A place to be a love to give
When traveling around the world
My army of lovers
Disney World to Yellowknife
America my way of life
Riding on a wave of love
My army of lovers
Army of Lovers is a band that, although inactive in recent years, reached its height in 1991 with the song “Crucified.” Just so you have and idea of how rooted the notion of sexual freedom is in their career, they took the band’s name after a German documentary entitled Armee der Liebenden oder Revolten der Perversen (‘Army of Lovers or the Revolt of the Perverts’), that deals with the gay rights activist Rosa von Praunheim. In visual terms, the band was highly known for their theatrical looks and for their controversial music videos, some of which were banned from MTV because of their burlesque and sexual imagery.
Their disco-like beats and flamboyant outfits are just a façade to the highly political and open-minded message behind the lyrics of the band. In songs such as “Sexual Freedom” and “My Army of Lovers” the band explores the polyamorous type of relationships, which isn’t really a topic that’s so explored in the music world. However, the band presents these highly controversial themes with joyful and lively melodies that highlight the pride of polyamorous groups, as well as the wide spectrum of sexualities.
Love is love let’s come together
Love is free it lasts forever
Free is love my contribution
Hail the sexual revolution
Love is love the world united
Love is free I’m so excited
Free is love our constitution
Hail the sexual revolution
Is there a single way to approach love? As they say through their lyrics, love is free and may express in more than a single way. No rules nor taboos can control or determine the way love acts, the person or the people you like, the way you see yourself, and how you want to show yourself to the world. And more importantly, there’s nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, with those dancing tunes they invite us to celebrate the freedom of love and embrace it in our lives.
Sadly, this band isn’t as mentioned as other artists when it comes to sexual revolution, especially because they dealt with topics that weren’t as talked about in popular media. But now that we as a society are bringing up more frequently themes such as the spectrum of love, perhaps we could talk about Army of Lovers as part of those musicians who helped shed light on a taboo subject.
Here are other revolutionizing artists you can listen to:
The Supergroup That’s Here To Prove Every Resistance Needs A Great Soundtrack
The Three Bands That Started Punk You Never Heard Of
