Supermodel and More: Music's Influence on Drag

As published in Five Cent Sound Spring 2021

A six-foot-four man in a lace front wig walks the streets and basketball courts of New York. Face beat to perfection, legs for days, and 17 outfit changes. RuPaul's 1993 single "Supermodel (You Better Work)" brought drag into mainstream media. What he, and many people, remember best is that music video. RuPaul mastered the visual element of drag and moved quickly into the music industry, making drag language and culture into catchy lyrics that were palatable for the public. Creating music is not an essential element of drag, but music is essential to the creation of many drag queens. In equal but separate actions, it shapes both the performance and the performer.

In particular, young drag queens often draw inspiration from music and its icons when crafting their personas. I spoke with young local queens about how their favorite artists and albums shaped their drag.

Emerson student Sam Goodman talked to me about Joni Mitchell's Blue and its impact on him. His drag name, Joni 66, is an homage to Joni Mitchell and Route 66. "That idea of traveling, and what folk music was about, which is people and stories and the idea that you don't really belong anywhere," he explains, "that's really where I live, that's where my persona lives." Joni 66 draws on '70s folk music for her essence, citing Judy Collins, Joan Baez, and Buffy Sainte-Marie as major influences on her drag persona. "All of those folk musicians who told stories with their music, and it was less about the music and more about the lyrics and the poetry behind it."

Micael Donegan, a Boston native whose drag name is Briar Blush, has taken all kinds of inspiration in crafting his persona, from burlesque to Bratz to Britney Spears. He was drawn to the music industry's bombshells and bad girls, explaining "I guess I was always interested in the eroticism of what you can get away with on stage." Donegan reflects on albums like Erotica by Madonna, Born This Way by Lady Gaga, and Dirty by Christina Aguilera. "Those are albums that are mainstream artists doing subversive topics for mainstream radio," he says, admiringly. "Those are the albums that influenced me in sort of cultivating the idea of my drag persona." And the tribute is clear: Briar Blush is sensual, beautiful, and edgy. She embodies the confidence and sexual liberation she saw in music's most iconic women growing up.

Their unique personas are what make our favorite queens so radiant and entrancing. Joni and Briar have drawn on countless influences, but they're so much larger than that. For many queens, their drag persona is an embodiment of the self, paired with whatever the self loves or longs to be. Donegan tells me that he feels mostly the same as Micael or as Briar, but sees the biggest difference in the conviction and power he feels as Briar. That power is often exhibited in performance.

A burlesque performer in particular, Donegan's favorite and most memorable performances have been erotic pop anthems. He identifies his first time doing Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U" as a turning point in his drag. "I think 'Slave 4 U' really set the tone of the idea of what I wanted to exhibit in my drag, which I would say is this very breathy, very airy take on sexual liberation," he explains. "Sort of reclaiming oneself." Britney Spears' and Madonna's risky lyrics and performances gave him the push to be more adventurous with his drag persona and the way she performed.

Goodman, whose persona lives largely in the '70s, says that his performances are much more '80s inspired. The performance is all about having fun, and the '80s are exactly his version of that. Madonna, Olivia Newton-John, and Taylor Dayne are all inspirations for Joni's looks and performances. "The '80s kind of thing," he raves, "like big hair, and just a good beat. That was it." Goodman's favorite element of drag is the performance of modeling a look — "making the modeling something entertaining that's not just me posing." For that, his all-time favorite songs are "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul and "Stronger" by Britney Spears. Of "Stronger" he says, "If I'm anywhere, and someone puts that on, it's me. It's me, and only me in the room." The adoration and empowerment are written all over his face as he talks to me. He laughs as he attempts to sum up his influences. "It's weird, I'm inspired by really sad kind of folk music and then I express all of that through," he pauses, searching for the words and voguing to illustrate his point, "Madonna."

That "weirdness," the unexpected pairing of influences, is in many ways what drag is all about. Female music icons in particular, no matter how unexpected, have had an irreplaceable impact on drag culture throughout history. Joni Mitchell, Madonna, and Lady Gaga are all weird and all risk-takers in their own rights. The music industry's biggest female icons and deepest darkest weirdos are the founding inspirations of the drag community. Divine, the star of John Waters' films, was one of the first drag queens to ever release music, and she is an infamous oddball. The subversive, the sexual, and the sad are all elements of drag and the music that inspires it. As Goodman said, "if there's not music playing, you can hear my breath and my heels and no one wants to hear that." Music makes drag what it is: an unfiltered, unashamed, and uncomfortable display of femininity and subculture. They are inexorably linked; they make each other stronger. Music is in large part what creates drag queens, and how drag queens create themselves.


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