I missed the.... "Is it due to 'insert your phobia'" convo yesterday, so I'll add my 2 cents today.
And I'll open with the whole ......"Well Sam Smith is gay and he wins awards, sells boatloads, and radio plays him non-stop..... so there is no homophobia in the industry".
So let's switch the phobia shall we.
How about xenophobia.
Because we've all seen the comments over the years. You know the ones that start with...."I'm not a homophobe. I have nothing against the gays. I just don't want it thrown in my face." or the always hilarious, "shoved down my throat."
This doesn't even have to be Adam's story. Let's take the very talented Justin Tranter. He had the advantage of being best friends with Stephanie Germanotta before she was Lady Gaga. He and his band, Semi Precious Weapons opened on her tour at the height of her popularity. Justin writes very catchy songs and is a very charismatic front man. Despite everything looking like it was moving in the right direction career wise, he and SPW faced set back after set back. He eventually made the decision to step into the background and write songs for other artists.
In 2015 he had a hand in writing 6 of that years 20 biggest songs. A feat he never came close to matching as his own artist.
Now I can bring it all back to Adam.....
In 2015 Justin did and interview in which he discussed his thoughts on homophobia in the industry and why he decided to step off the stage and into the role of songwriter-for-hire.
Here is a link to that interview.....
www.newnownext.com/singer-songwriter-justin-tranter-talks-about-the-queer-meaning-behind-selena-gomezs-good-for-you/12/2015/And here is the quote about Adam...
"I felt a lot of pushback from the industry at the time when I was trying to be a performer. The industry is definitely homophobic. There was a picture of me and Adam Lambert together, and I got a talking to from the people we were with at the time. They said, ’You can’t look more feminine than Adam Lambert in a photo.’ And I said [laughs] ’But I am more feminine than Adam Lambert.’ After that I said ’f*ck this."
Here is the photo....