The secret public

In his kaleidoscopic new book, Jon Savage, the legendary author of England's Dreaming, shows how music has been the key medium through which homosexuality was expressed for much of the last half century. Depicting nothing less than the birth of rock and roll, the narrative begins in the mid-1950s with Little Richard, whose music possessed secret codes of the gay underworld and whose magnetism attracted millions of white teenagers. As Savage engagingly proceeds through the late 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s with evocations of, among others, Elvis Presley, James Dean, Andy Warhol, David Bowie, Janis Joplin, Donna Summer, Sylvester, and the disco-era Bee Gees, he demonstrates that it was mostly music--with supporting roles from cinema, literature, and fashion--that broke the dam that led to the widespread acceptance of LGBTQ culture today. The Secret Public, with its "pancake and pompadour" descriptions of a generation in revolt, provides an electrifying look at the key moments in music and entertainment that changed pop culture forever.