Update — May 2023 — Trans and Genderqueer Subjects is now available in paperback, and Open Access, entirely free online. Happy reading, friends! <3
I am an inveterate playlister. I have playlists for everything, and nothing. Playlists for the bath, for driving aimlessly, for being pissed off, for papers I’m giving. Playlists for sexing, for walking, for thinking. Playlists about the devil, about the beach, about Margery Kempe, about kissing the love of my life, about inexpressible trauma. Playlists to stick it to patriarchal bastards the world over, playlists for my dearest friends, secret playlists just for me, for how I feel inside when nobody’s looking. Music, to me, is magic, and it always has been. It’s how I survive, to put a melodramatic tint on it. For a long time there as a kid, I was pretty isolated, and there wasn’t anyone like me I could talk to. Music was a way of finding fellowship, affective and otherwise.
It’s so easy, though, to fall into a rut – especially if you’re an elder millennial like me. You reach for your favourite tunes, like aural comfort food, again and again. Same for your favourite artists. The algorithm feeds you shit you’ll probably like, based on your past listens. “The media” – viral marketing, sponsored listings, radio play – directs our attention, educating us on what we should be listening to rn. And so often, that equates to listening to tracks made by able-bodied, conventionally attractive, straight (or at least straight-passing) artists – the majority of whom, bar certain “permitted” (ugh) genres, are white.[1] But there’s so much good music out there that’s beyond the bullshit white-supremacist cis-hetero-patriarchal status quo. You just need to find it. And when you do, it can be fucking transcendent. Songs are riotous bops, background music, in-jokes with your people, sad af ballads for your broken sparrow heart. Songs become avenues to guide you to being authentically you – the you inside – exactly as you always already were. Switch-out “scholarship” for “songs”, and this is the animating ethos of the Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography collection. It was pretty much a fait accompli, then. For your aural enjoyment, may I herewith present the Official Trans and Genderqueer Subjects Playlist ™, embedded below and available on Spotify.
The playlist currently features over 13 hours of music – that’s 246 tracks – by trans, genderqueer, and non-binary artists. It’s intended as a celebration of trans, genderqueer, and non-binary creativity. There is life – so fucking much glorious life – beyond the binary, and it even has a soundtrack.
I say “currently features” as I’m not just an inveterate playlister, I’m an inveterate playlist-tweaker. I might re-order, add, tinker with the playlist in future. But the vibe will never change, I promise: magnificent music by trans, genderqueer, and non-binary folks, from across genres.
If you’d like to hear more music from trans, genderqueer, and non-binary artists, check out:
Theo Hendrie’s “TRANScendent” playlist on Spotify
Theo Hendrie’s “TRANSgressive” playlist on Spotify
Yohomo’s “Best Trans and Non-binary Artists” playlist on Spotify
Spotify’s own “Transcend” playlist
sarah hedig!’s crowdsourced spreadsheet of trans and non-binary artists
These have all been super helpful in pulling together the Official Trans and Genderqueer Subjects Playlist™. I’m grateful to all of the creators and curators for, quite literally, uplifting the voices of trans, genderqueer, and non-binary artists.
If you’ve got recommendations for additions to the Official Trans and Genderqueer Subjects Playlist™, get in touch. Don’t hesitate to share your fave tracks by trans, genderqueer, and non-binary artists with me on Twitter. I’m always on the look-out for new-to-me tunes.
Bonus! Online Launch & Giveaway
Final thought: if you’re into the Official Playlist™, how’s about our Official Sticker Set™? We’ll be giving away 25 sets as part of our online book launch. In fact, I’m dropping the Official Playlist™ to coincide, more or less, with the launch. Join us online on Wednesday May 26 at 1-2:30pm EDT / 6-7:30pm BST for an informal, chat-show-esque event. Register for tickets here.
Blake and I will be talking to the volume contributors about their research, and about our collective work in trans studies. To enter the draw for an Official Sticker Set™ and a hardcopy of the volume, all you have to do is register and provide an email address. We’ll do some NumberWang-ing and then contact the winners over email to sort out posting stuff to you. At present, the stickers are v VIP - they’re not available to purchase. But…let us know if you’d like to buy a set, and if there’s demand, we can figure things out from there.
[1] Sidenote: I’d like to take this moment to formally hail Lil Nas X’s awesome in general terms, and laud him especially for: 1) pissing off the racist folks at the Billboard country chart; 2) the “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” video. The latter is exquisite and important. And the track itself is legit.