‘Mighty Real’ Is The Definitive History Of Pop Music From An LGBTQ Perspective

BusinessHollywood & Entertainment‘Mighty Real’ Is The Definitive History Of Pop Music From An LGBTQ PerspectiveByDavid Chiu,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. David Chiu is a freelance music writer based in New York.Follow AuthorMay 10, 2026, 09:45am EDTMay 10, 2026, 09:48am EDTLOS ANGELES - NOVEMBER 4: Disco singer Sylvester aka Sylvester James poses for a portrait on November 4, 1984 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Eric Blum/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)Getty ImagesThe veteran journalist Barry Walters’ new book, Mighty Real, is an extensive history of LGBTQ music from 1969 to 2000, spanning from the Velvet Underground to RuPaul. But the work is more than just a survey of notable LGBTQ and LGBTQ-adjacent acts: it almost reads like a memoir in which Walters occasionally weaves in aspects of his personal life — including his difficult childhood in Rochester, N.Y., his experiences as a writer during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, and his recollections of some of the musicians he interviewed and who are in the book.“I was drawn to a lot of the acts in the book before I knew who I was,” Walters says. “I got the message that I was different. I grew up in a suburb where everyone had the same skin tone as me, but not everyone was like me. And I went to New York City, where many skin tones were not like mine, but I felt at home there. I felt I belonged in a world of difference...That was something I wanted the young reader to absorb. I wanted to explain my journey so that people could think about theirs.”Each chapter in Mighty Real examines a particular artist and how they and their music addressed directly or indirectly LGBTQ themes. Some of the most obvious ones include David Bowie, Donna Summer, Elton John, Melissa Etheridge, Cher, Michael Jackson, Indigo Girls, k.d. lang, ABBA, Village People, Cyndi Lauper and Boy George. But the book also mentions musicians whose repertoire one wouldn’t necessarily think h...