Olly Alexander Is The LGBTQ Voice Music Needs

Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander never stops. He's constantly in his own creative process, releasing meaningful music, and he's always looking to represent and build up the LGBTQ community in the right way.

In a recent interview with Paper magazine, Olly opened up about the 'casual homophobia' he believes exists in the music industry and how it's negatively impacting queer artists.

Although, according to Olly, this is "the best time to be a gay artist ever," there are still many roadblocks ahead.

"We wouldn’t be where we are today without all the gay artists that have come before us and broken down so many barriers. But barriers aren’t gone. Particularly for less privileged members of the queer community," he said. "There is this very insidious casual homophobia that exists in the fabric of everything including the music industry."

Pointing to the lack of LGBTQ+ artists, Olly asks when we are going to see them selling out arenas, topping charts more consistently, and playing on a level field with their heterosexual peers.

"I guess that kind of happened with Sam Smith. But I just think from my personal experience, the amount of comments like 'Oh, this is very gay' or 'This is going to turn some people off' is a real problem," he said in the interview.

For an artist like Olly Alexander, who has accomplished quite a bit since hitting the mainstream along with Years & Years in 2015, to feel like there still isn't enough representation or acceptance in the music industry for LGBTQ+ artists should be alarming.

After the band's first single 'King' shot to #1 in the UK, Years & Years' debut album 'Communion' sold over 1 million copies. Now Olly and the gang are back with their follow-up album, 'Palo Santo', and getting ready to go on their biggest tour to date. If we want to see more success and creativity from queer artists, it's time we started recognizing and supporting them.