{"id":106949,"date":"2017-01-23T16:46:55","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T21:46:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=106949"},"modified":"2017-01-23T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-23T22:34:32","slug":"the-trojan-horse-of-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trojan Horse of Pop"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

George Michael.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

I never minded being thought of as a pop star. People have always thought I wanted to be seen as a serious musician, but I didn\u2019t, I just wanted people to know that I was absolutely serious about pop music.<\/p>\n

\u2014George Michael<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Bubblegum<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was no Alvin Ailey dance class. Several of us, with teeth in braces and hair pulled back into tight buns, lined up in the corner of the studio, with its splintered hardwoods and floor-to-ceiling mirrors. The instructor put on Wham\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Your Man\u201d and we cut across the space two by two, hoisting our legs on the beat in grand battements<\/em>, compromising our posture and smacking gum.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be your boy, I\u2019ll be your man \u2026 I\u2019ll be your friend, I\u2019ll be your toy<\/em>, George Michael urges at the end.<\/p>\n

Because I was young, naive, and lived in the Reagan-era South, I took these invitations into the world of heteronormative sex at face value. I missed any whiff of insistence, darkness, or double entendre. I readjusted my floral leotard, which had gathered somewhere unseemly, and high-kicked my way to the other side of the room. We came to the center of the studio for pelvic isolations, thrusting our hips side to side, then forward, trying not to laugh out loud as we caught one another\u2019s eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do wonder how much freedom I gave away by trying to become something I wasn\u2019t,\u201d George Michael told GQ<\/em> last year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Bright Wrappers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every morning before elementary school, my mother\u00a0<\/strong>curled my hair with a hot iron and fastened\u00a0it\u00a0<\/strong>away from my face with an enormous, bedazzled bow. Picture this pre-Internet Southern childhood in Eastern North Carolina: unofficially segregated neighborhoods and schools, Sundays at the Baptist church, lunch at the all-white country club. My state senator Jesse Helms vehemently opposed AIDS<\/small> research and called the LGBTQ community \u201cweak, morally sick wretches\u201d and progressives \u201ccommunists and sick perverts.\u201d I did not have access to high art or progressive political messages. But my dad played Marvin Gaye records, and I did have access to pop music.<\/p>\n

Like most children, I mined my world for meaning. In the afternoons, I would turn on my Fisher-Price record player, sit cross-legged on the floor of my bedroom with a busty Barbie, and listen to the pleading \u201cCareless Whisper\u201d sax solo over and over again, hoping that obsession was the first step toward mastery. Somewhere, perhaps upon the two-hundredth listen of Faith<\/em>, purchased later with allowance money on cassette, I pierced the skin of the album. There, behind the parted lips, short shorts, and leather jackets\u2014access to the mysteries of the adult world, all that had been hidden from children. From me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou either see pop music as a \u00adcontemporary art form or you don\u2019t,\u201d George Michael once said. \u201cI do, very strongly. It\u2019s the only day-to-day, moving art form.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Sex<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were supposed to fast forward past \u201cI Want Your Sex.\u201d We had sworn<\/em> to my friend\u2019s mother. We had been trusted to obey and were breathless from dancing. My friend pressed the arrow button and I could hear the loops of ribbon shuttling around the plastic spools.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould we listen to it?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a little,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

We were looking for someone other than Jesus to take us into the world of sex. We needed someone to demystify the crude words in the AOL chat room we fired up after bedtime, to explain to us that sex was not synonymous with love. We had been coached to court desire instead of practice desire.<\/p>\n

We listened to Madonna, but I could not relate to her frank sexuality or calculated critiques of marriage. She was intimidatingly sure of herself, simulating orgasms onstage, evoking sex that made her feel like<\/em> a virgin. George Michael once said, of nearly sleeping with her, \u201cMadonna\u2019s sexuality is hers. It\u2019s not for men. She\u2019s very strong.\u201d I earmarked her for the future.<\/p>\n

When my mother was out of the house, I watched the libidinous, blue-toned video for \u201cI Want Your Sex.\u201d George writhes in black, silk sheets with his then-girlfriend Kathy Jeung. Water splashes onto the arc of her naked back and she lip-syncs the words to the song while tossing her damp hair. Where else could I have seen a mixed-race relationship celebrated, and heard the sex-positive message \u201csex is natural, sex is good\u201d? In the South, I knew women, like pop stars, were encouraged to keep their hunger private. In 1988, \u201cgood Southern girls\u201d did not think about sex, admire the beauty of another woman\u2019s body, or consider desire and lust part of a healthy imagination. Pop music, for me, became intellectual foreplay, the only current I heard on a daily basis running counter to the message from the pulpit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stills from the music video for George Michael\u2019s \u201cOne More Try.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

4. God<\/strong><\/p>\n

My religious skepticism began when I was baptized in a blue-tiled tub in front of my hometown congregation\u2014I got water up my nose and took it as a sign of irreverent rejection. But perhaps it was my immersion in the Southern gospel that made Faith<\/em> so accessible\u2014the sound of the organ rising on the title track, the stained-glass windows behind Michael\u2019s weary silhouette in the \u201cOne More Try\u201d video, the solitary cross in his left ear.<\/p>\n

I paid rapt attention to the dismantling and appropriation of religious iconography in pop; I sensed, but could not articulate, the connection between the ecstasy of pop and gospel, the sensual possibilities in both. Faith<\/em> especially toyed with the powerful notion of impurity and one\u2019s longing to be saved, a longing I had felt with earnest. In \u201cFather Figure\u201d Michael proclaims, \u201cI will be your preacher teacher \u2026 whatever you ask for\u00a0\/ That\u2019s what I\u2019ll be.\u201d It became my immediate, and continued, favorite; I loved its atmospheric quality and the noir-esque video, the depiction of bold, moody women, and the way it plays with the eroticism of power.<\/p>\n

George Michael continued to elegantly subvert religious terminology post-Faith<\/em>. He wrote \u201cJesus to a Child\u201d for his lover Anselmo Feleppa, who died of an AIDS<\/small>-related brain hemorrhage in the early nineties. Comparing the compassionate gaze of his dying, queer lover with the countenance of Christ reclaims the sacred from institutions that found this type of love an abomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t bear Catholicism,\u201d Michael once told an interviewer. \u201cOne of the most heartbreaking things I ever saw was when I went into Anselmo\u2019s room one afternoon and he was sitting there in bed with his prayer cards. I just thought to myself, \u2018Please don\u2019t tell me you think you\u2019re going to hell.\u2019 It makes me so angry and I sincerely hope he didn\u2019t fear that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Absence<\/strong><\/p>\n

In \u201cFreedom! \u201990,\u201d Michael blew up his own iconography of a jukebox and leather jacket, orchestrating a video of supermodels lip-syncing his powerful ode to freedom. His mother and first love died within three years of one another in the late nineties, and he claimed to smoke nearly twenty-five joints a day to cope with his depression. In 1996, he released what I thought was a half-hearted comeback\u2014the woeful Older<\/em>. Looking back, I wish I could have seen the album for what it was: a tribute to his first meaningful lover and an elegant, jazz-influenced coming-out album that the American machine rejected.<\/p>\n

I left pop, too, around this time. I was sixteen, and my father took a job in South Carolina. I attended a school packed with evangelicals who prayed at football games and openly denounced homosexuality and evolution. I resisted by way of art, not yet realizing the debt I owed to pop music for my early liberalization: Prince in heels, David Bowie in full makeup, Madonna grabbing her crotch in a pin-striped business suit, and George Michael presenting the pain and joy of his closeted sex life in song. I gave it all up for my father\u2019s old sweaters, hip-hop, and an Ani DiFranco CD.<\/p>\n

Four years later, I arrived in Florence for a college semester abroad, terrified by my new freedom, high on it. I didn\u2019t have to be good. I drank too much. I danced every night with friends at the dubiously named Space Electronica. When my roommate brought home strange men, I put my headphones on and listened to an old eighties mix in the dark room two blocks from the Duomo. Soon, I was listening to \u201cFather Figure\u201d again, on long train rides through Europe, walking the streets of cities I didn\u2019t know, sitting on the chipped steps of ancient cathedrals. I wasn\u2019t mourning the loss of religion in my life, or the old rules that no longer served me, but the song spoke to my new bewilderment upon seeing more of the world and the deep longing that had taken root.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stills from \u201cFreedom! \u201990.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. Freedom<\/strong><\/p>\n

George Michael developed a savvy, knowing approach to his genre and the demanding performance of normalcy, which at first he gave willingly, then subverted, and finally outright rejected. I watch Michael\u2019s early interviews and marvel at how well he managed the dissonance between his public and private selves. I admire the cavalier freedom he embraced in the video for his upbeat single \u201cOutside,\u201d mocking his arrest incident with a bathroom-turned-discoteca, and scenes of people having sex outside of the bedroom. He wasn\u2019t concerned with the way one ought<\/em> to be but how one really is<\/em>. \u201cBack to nature, just human nature,\u201d the song begins.<\/p>\n

I went down hard with postpartum depression after the birth of my first child. I chafed at the new, constrictive identities I had to wear in the world: mother, wife. I knew I failed the textbook ideals daily, and worst of all, I realized I did not actually aspire to them in the first place. They were identities inextricably linked to sex. They were identities that, for me, required performance. Every day I thought, If I don\u2019t enjoy this, I\u2019m doing it wrong.<\/p>\n

I could empathize with the joylessness George Michael must have felt on his worst days, his feather-blonde self trailing him throughout his career, toothy and relentlessly up-tempo, the unyielding yeah yeah yeah<\/em> of \u201cEdge of Heaven.\u201d How to reconcile past selves?<\/p>\n

The new presidential administration seems eager to keep women ensconced as objects, pretty airbrushed things to be judged onstage and grabbed at will, paid less along the way. I crave narratives that allow people to be more than what they are, stories that allow women to be more than a wife or mother, to challenge the prison of the white picket fence, to have full agency, to state and act on desire as they really feel it\u2014without apology. To be shelved and limited is untenable. It breeds resentment and will not last.<\/p>\n

\u201cPop music has been exhausted. The innocence has been exhausted,\u201d Brian Wilson said. But perhaps it is this insistent innocence that becomes oppressive. The genre rarely grows with its audience, with its artists. \u201cI am gay, I smoke weed, and I do exactly what I want in my life because of my talent,\u201d George Michael told Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cI represent an ideal which others have had to let go and they blame me for that. Especially men.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was good to see him show joyful, frank enjoyment of so-called vice and sex\u2014an attitude many people are still working to own outright and without apology. To let go of the ideal themselves, and to wait for others in life to do the same. To be free to like fun on one\u2019s own fluid, grown-up terms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Megan Mayhew Bergman\u00a0is the author of\u00a0<\/em>Almost Famous Women<\/a>. She is one of the Daily\u2019s correspondents<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Michael wasn\u2019t concerned with the way one ought to be but how one really is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4393],"tags":[26843,26851,19519,26841,6215,8892,55,26850,26854,25890,26842,26849,111,26459,13622,13623,26853,26844,26838,15449,241,26847,26845,2226,23675,173,20615,442,52,26848,1329,1786,18517,1070,26846,2625,26839,26840,26460,36,26852],"class_list":["post-106949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-person","tag-adult-world","tag-back-to-nature-just-human-nature","tag-brian-wilson","tag-careless-whisper","tag-catholicism","tag-childhood","tag-dance","tag-edge-of-heaven","tag-exploring-exuality","tag-faith","tag-faith-album","tag-father-figure","tag-freedom","tag-george-michael","tag-girlhood","tag-growing-up","tag-human-rights","tag-i-want-your-sex","tag-im-your-man","tag-innocence","tag-interview","tag-jesus-to-a-child","tag-kathy-jeung","tag-madonna","tag-music-video","tag-north-carolina","tag-oppression","tag-outside","tag-pop-music","tag-post-faith","tag-prince","tag-religion","tag-rolling-stone","tag-sexuality","tag-skepticism","tag-south","tag-southern-childhood","tag-southern-united-states","tag-wham","tag-women","tag-womens-rights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Trojan Horse of Pop: On George Michael<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pop music, for me, became intellectual foreplay, the only current I heard on a daily basis running counter to the message from the pulpit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Trojan Horse of Pop by Megan Mayhew Bergman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 23, 2017 \u2013 George Michael wasn\u2019t concerned with the way one ought to be but how one really is.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-23T21:46:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-23T22:34:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"945\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"756\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Megan Mayhew Bergman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Megan Mayhew Bergman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Megan Mayhew Bergman\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f664ea9a0b870019b2588653165ac51\"},\"headline\":\"The Trojan Horse of Pop\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-23T21:46:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-23T22:34:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\"},\"wordCount\":2011,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"adult world\",\"back to nature just human nature\",\"Brian Wilson\",\"Careless Whisper\",\"Catholicism\",\"childhood\",\"dance\",\"Edge of Heaven\",\"exploring exuality\",\"faith\",\"Faith album\",\"Father Figure\",\"Freedom\",\"George Michael\",\"girlhood\",\"growing up\",\"human rights\",\"I Want Your Sex\",\"I'm Your Man\",\"innocence\",\"interview\",\"Jesus to a Child\",\"Kathy Jeung\",\"Madonna\",\"music video\",\"North Carolina\",\"oppression\",\"Outside\",\"pop music\",\"post-Faith\",\"Prince\",\"religion\",\"Rolling Stone\",\"sexuality\",\"skepticism\",\"south\",\"Southern childhood\",\"Southern United States\",\"Wham!\",\"women\",\"women's rights\"],\"articleSection\":[\"First Person\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\",\"name\":\"The Trojan Horse of Pop: On George Michael\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-23T21:46:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-23T22:34:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"Pop music, for me, became intellectual foreplay, the only current I heard on a daily basis running counter to the message from the pulpit.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Trojan Horse of Pop\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f664ea9a0b870019b2588653165ac51\",\"name\":\"Megan Mayhew Bergman\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/628c06b0af7b0c423e528f78dfa825db0f5cfe1b5bdfb745c2d4d24096464189?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/628c06b0af7b0c423e528f78dfa825db0f5cfe1b5bdfb745c2d4d24096464189?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Megan Mayhew Bergman\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/megan-mayhew-bergman\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Trojan Horse of Pop: On George Michael","description":"Pop music, for me, became intellectual foreplay, the only current I heard on a daily basis running counter to the message from the pulpit.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Trojan Horse of Pop by Megan Mayhew Bergman","og_description":"January 23, 2017 \u2013 George Michael wasn\u2019t concerned with the way one ought to be but how one really is.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2017-01-23T21:46:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-23T22:34:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":945,"height":756,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Megan Mayhew Bergman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Megan Mayhew Bergman","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/"},"author":{"name":"Megan Mayhew Bergman","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f664ea9a0b870019b2588653165ac51"},"headline":"The Trojan Horse of Pop","datePublished":"2017-01-23T21:46:55+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-23T22:34:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/"},"wordCount":2011,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg","keywords":["adult world","back to nature just human nature","Brian Wilson","Careless Whisper","Catholicism","childhood","dance","Edge of Heaven","exploring exuality","faith","Faith album","Father Figure","Freedom","George Michael","girlhood","growing up","human rights","I Want Your Sex","I'm Your Man","innocence","interview","Jesus to a Child","Kathy Jeung","Madonna","music video","North Carolina","oppression","Outside","pop music","post-Faith","Prince","religion","Rolling Stone","sexuality","skepticism","south","Southern childhood","Southern United States","Wham!","women","women's rights"],"articleSection":["First Person"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/","name":"The Trojan Horse of Pop: On George Michael","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg","datePublished":"2017-01-23T21:46:55+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-23T22:34:32+00:00","description":"Pop music, for me, became intellectual foreplay, the only current I heard on a daily basis running counter to the message from the pulpit.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/george-michael-1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/01\/23\/the-trojan-horse-of-pop\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Trojan Horse of Pop"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2f664ea9a0b870019b2588653165ac51","name":"Megan Mayhew Bergman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/628c06b0af7b0c423e528f78dfa825db0f5cfe1b5bdfb745c2d4d24096464189?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/628c06b0af7b0c423e528f78dfa825db0f5cfe1b5bdfb745c2d4d24096464189?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Megan Mayhew Bergman"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/megan-mayhew-bergman\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106949"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106991,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106949\/revisions\/106991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}