Village People | Big Joel

Village People and YMCA: An analysis and history of the impact of this campy band. Their music is both political and apolitical, seems to endorse gay rights and visibility, yet is read so often as cheesy fun.

[KristofskiKabuki]

Fun fact - the native american from the Village people was an actual native american and went on to do loads of activism around native rights

[KathySRW]

What was explained to me as a middle schooler in the 70s was that the YMCA offered dorm rooms back then and hot meals. And a high proportion of the homeless youths sheltered there were young gay men and teens rejected by their parents .
So it was an experience a lot of gay men of that generation had in common.

[OitaOscar]

YMCA was a big hit in Japan back in the day, and nobody knew what the message was about.

[PsychoBabble]

As a gay man, I can say that give seventeen different meanings in one phrase is gay culture.

[mayvanw]

You: “Your not going to blow anybody’s mind by saying YMCA is Gay”
Me: Holy Crap the village people were gay? Man how sheltered was I?

[Hellooo]

Not everyone knows the YMCA is a gay anthem. Ive blown multiple peoples minds with this knowledge, and they play it at Mormon things which is the funniest shit because theyre so obsessed with "traditional marriage" and yet they play YMCA at dances. It's hilarious.

[aarter]

This video is too good to just sit at half a thousand views. Even though I feel like that's probably not all that the village people were about, it explains so much about how they are recognized.

[AlexaSmith]

this is really interesting i never even realized ymca was about being gay

[Magnulus]

The YMCA was too often the place many gays went after their parents threw them out of their homes onto the streets. So there is a bittersweet subtext to this song.

The "Christian" aspect of YMCA also was overplayed in the video. The organization was never known for the kind of religion we associate with the term today. It was originally a place that immigrants to a city could go to stay while they looked for work. One step away from a homeless shelter. More of a mission to urban youth, and less of some kind of paragon of sanctity or moralism.

[MakiPcr]

The YMCA served a shelter for young men, which means statistically those were mostly gay men. Knowing that it means the song YMCA is not really about how great the Y is for gay men, it's about telling homeless young gay men to find shelter at the Young Men's Christian Association. That messed me out when I found out

[maiarustad]

As someone who sometimes works in a YMCA summer camp, I can confirm that it is still very, very gay. Like, a good half of our counselors are gay. More are gay than are religious. They’re currently trying to better trans kid’s experiences, it’s a work in progress, but they’re really trying. It’s great.

[raylast]

Fun fact: People in Europe often think the “Y” is actually an LGBT organization.

[OhHayyItsRayy]

Thank you for this wonderful piece on gay history!

[alyssafleischer]

I've been going through some of your videos and when I got to this one it hit me what I really like about them- you don't just go for low-hanging fruit. With a lot of media analysis channels it seems like the instinct is to go for whatever is popular and resonating at the moment, but it seems like you really do just talk about whatever you'd been thinking about and what is interesting to you, and it's a breath of fresh air. And yeah, going for low-hanging fruit pays dividends, but it's such a delight to be able to get insights based on just like, the random thoughts that insightful people are having without real ulterior motives?

Re: your kind of rushing the analysis in this video as other people mentioned, I feel like it might be worthwhile to revisit the village people at some point with a more rounded analysis, or maybe even include them in a broader discussion on a related topic if you were ever to cover it?

Anyway, I love you, never change! Or if you decide to change, change in a positive direction!

[perkodanny]

I'm glad you threw the Pet Shop Boys in there somewhere.

[taralen]

Not all of their records are campy and fruity like that. "New York City", "Five O'Clock In The Morning", and "Do You Want To Spend The Night" are very underrated records from them and it's more soul and avant garde/R&B ish, rather than their campy disco anthems. As a gay black man I like the Village People.

[dijon]

big joel *and* village people? this video was made for me and i'm amazed i haven't seen it yet

[edwardmiessner]

Actually, these songs were all gay anthems with enough plausible deniability built in so the population at large wouldn't pick up on the actual meaning and spurn the songs and group.

[claustrophone]

It's a common misconception that all the members were gay. Only two of the village people were actually gay, despite the large number of lineup changes over the years. They all just played very gay roles because that's how they were marketed.

[andrewg]

I think A LOT of people don't know their music is gay. You may be overestimating the amount that know because of the people you know.