2- Queer Identity, List-Making and Collective Listening - Sadie Hochman, University of California, San Diego

In J.D.s (1985-1993), the zine which launched the queercore movement, authors Bruce LaBruce and G.B. Jones make a mock hit parade –– a “Homocore Top 10.” The list is deeply ironic, an example of punk’s snide humour. Nearly all the tracks are obscure hardcore records. While the authors may kid around with the value of mainstream popularity, their “Top 10” sincerely engages a rock fandom practices of list-making and record collecting. It demonstrates how subjects turn fandom into self-expression, and make human connections across networks mediated by commodities. The available literature to deal with these practices (Straw 1997, Shuker 2004, Faulk 2007) focuses exclusively on nerdish (hetero-)masculinity. It explores a collector culture whose labour is anchored by the homosocial environment of the brick-and-mortar record store; and this homosociality is parlayed into gendered readings of canon formation. The “Homocore Top 10” prompts the question: how does this research map onto queer actors? I answer this through my performance work as the drag queen Sadie Pins. An essential part of drag is lip-syncing, a practice that, too, cites various music histories and makes value judgements about them, asking how sound builds identity. Lip-syncing, I argue, leans into the gendered dynamics of consumerism and listening –– dynamics which rock fandom labours to disavow. In this paper, I consider why lip-syncing builds identity in ways that are non-equivalent to record collecting, and how the absence of a queer hermeneutic critiques the existing literature.