Using lesbianism in modern music entertainment. 'All the things she said' by t.A.T.u.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Sociology - Media, Art, Music, grade: 1,0, University of Bonn (Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie), language: English, abstract: Passionate kisses, provocative performances on stage, whimsical and crazy - those are, among others, the notions connoted to the Russian Pop Duo t.A.T.u., which gained a lot of popularity in the beginning of the 2000s. The band consists of Lena Katina and Julia Volkova who both still have been underage when their career reached its climax; hence it caused a lot of polemic discussions worldwide. They gained the attention of several theorists of Queerism because in their songs and music videos, t.A.T.u. is fighting against society's apparent intolerance of homosexuality. Queer Theory deals with the difficult issue of defining oneself as homosexual, e.g. the process of 'coming out', and therewith being often confronted with society's intolerance. It also discusses the process of self-discovery and building an own identity and comes along the obstacles people have to overcome in order to lead a happy life, integrated and tolerated by society. Music was used in several ways to depict the problems of coming out as homosexual. Therefore, it is said in a proposition in Playing it Queer by Jodie Taylor that, 'Music allowed me to perform gender and express sexuality in multiple ways that were unavailable to me in daily life. [...]'. Nevertheless, the manner that t.A.T.u. used became reason for great discussion among society. Since their first song All The Things She Said had been published, critics questioned the truth behind the affection between Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. Therefore, this term paper aims to ask for t.A.T.u.'s purpose of using the issue of homosexuality in their music. Either there really was the aim of explaining how to get through the process of coming out and then living as homosexual person or t.A.T.u. was just using that image for commercial purposes and branding.