Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 87

The Smiths

83

nature." While Morrissey does disavow any explicit reference to the
gay movement in his publicity, even his stated sexual preferencecelibacy—represents just as much a threat to the continuation of the
family unit as homosexuality or bisexuality.^^ In these moments, the
mainstream is most threatened, at exactly the same time of the
greatest connection between the star and marginalized group.
If songs such as "There is a Place in Hell" encourage alternate
readings, this tendency is fostered through an ambiguity or, to use a
stronger term, an obscurity within the songs. While this ambiguity
possesses an obvious economic rationale, the power of the songs as
political weapons cannot be underestimated. The diversity of
readings centered around the forms of marginalization actually
possesses greater power than an overt political message. While a
single political agenda can be co-opted, assimilated and dismissed by
the mainstream, the plurality of messages in these songs cannot be
subsumed in a similar fashion. Consider, for example, how icons of
the homosexual subculture were appropriated by the Village People
in the different gay male stereotypes each character portrayed (e.g.,
cop, leatherman, construction worker); these icons were then
channeled into the mainstream, shorn of their transgressive power
and thereby rendered "safe." In this manner, homosexual desire was
recuperated by the mainstream. In considering this issue with the
music of The Smiths and Morrissey, the repositioning of the
homosexual as only one of many outsiders does not allow for a similar
recuperation by the dominant classes. Indeed, the power of the music
is located in the bond which Morrissey and The Smiths illustrate
between all forms of disenfranchised individuals. Through their
free-floating marginal heroes and their destabilizing star system,
the music, bom from the unholy alliance of punk and glitter, has
created a special place in hell for Morrissey and his friends.
University of North Texas

Justin Wyatt

Notes
John Robertson, Morrissey in His Own Words (London: Omnibus
Press, 1988) 60.
Simon Frith, 'The Art of Posing," Music for Pleasure: Essays in the
Sociology of Pop (New York: Routledge, 1988) 176.