“You Dance to Disco and You Don’t Like Rock”: A Queer Close Reading of Pet Shop Boys Lyrics

Abstract

Though a vital part of the world of literary criticism, song lyrics are often overlooked when it comes to what qualifies as materials for academic analysis. They are treated not as their own category but something like poetry, or prose – a facsimile. I argue that they are a category of their own, and when treated as text to analyse independent of their poetic dimensions, can offer a wealth of interpretations. In this thesis I take the tools of literary analysis, primarily close reading, to provide a queer reading of the lyrics of the synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. I look for intertextual references and instances of subtext which I believe deepen what the text appears to be on surface level. This analysis is primarily focused on lyrics which I argue form cohesive narratives of queer history and homophobia. To support my argumentation, I have used various multidisciplinary sources from areas such as history, sociology and theology to provide context for my interpretations of the lyrics. I believe I sufficiently demonstrate that it is possible to form a cohesive and satisfying narrative experience from lyrics without leaning into their multimodality, and further assert that these findings indicate that there are merits to considering song lyrics as a part of the wider world of literary criticism. are merits to considering song lyrics as a part of the wider world of literary criticism.