Collective memory is a strange thing. It is difficult to pinpoint why the public remembers certain people and phenomena, and how cultural details are filtered through generations. When thinking about music’s gay icons, it is easy to recall Broadway melodies, belting divas, and, for our generation, soft-spoken indie tracks, but what is slipping through the cracks? Here are a few examples of songs popular during our lifetime that today’s drag queens might have been lip-synching to if these songs had only found their queer audience.

1993: “None of Your Business” by Salt-n-Pepa, Very Necessary

Pushing against the rise of misogynistic and homophobic gangsta rap in the mid-‘80s, female hip-hop artists like Queen Latifah, Salt-n-Pepa, and TLC were initially able to achieve enormous popularity with their aggressive sexuality and unapologetic attitude. By expressing their sexual desire as shamelessly as did male rappers, the ladies of Salt-n-Pepa explicitly called out a sexual double standard between men and women in their 1993 hit single “None of Your Business.” While advocating for a woman’s right to pursue sex without regard for patriarchal social norms, the song also implicitly advocates for the right to pursue same-sex desire with similar freedom. In the music video, after Salt-n-Pepa sings, “Now you shouldn’t even get into who I’m givin’ skins to,” it is a cluster of gay and lesbian couples who shout back into the camera, “It’s none of your business!” While as fierce as any set of divas, Salt-n-Pepa has not left as lasting an impression on LGBTQ culture as one might wish. Due, perhaps, to the influence of gangsta rap in determining contemporary hip hop audiences, Salt-n-Pepa, along with most of their female rapper sisters, failed to earn a lasting place among the accepted canon of gay icons and dykons.

1987: “Dude Looks Like a Lady” by Aerosmith, Permanent Vacation

Even those of us born after glam rock had faded to grunge are familiar with the image of the androgynous male rocker. From David Bowie to Mick Jagger, many male performers of the ‘70s and ‘80s rocked long, feminine hair, flowing robes, cosmetics, and copious amounts of jewelry, but some addressed gender in their lyrics, as well as in their appearances. No song embraces this androgyny as fully as Aerosmith’s 1987 hit “Dude Looks Like a Lady.”  In a colorful robe and skin-tight pants, lead singer Steven Tyler is conscious of his own androgynous appearance as he makes explicit a sexual attraction to effeminate men, perhaps even to drag queens, that doesn’t end once their maleness is revealed. The music video mixes female-bodied models with men in women’s clothing – with even Tyler himself briefly in drag – to create a world in which sexual attraction can reach beyond biological sex. “Never judge a book by its cover,” Tyler warns, “or who you gonna love by your lover.” The image of the androgynous rocker is so prevalent that it would be easy to take the song as a joke, but with such explicit lyrics and visuals, perhaps “Dude Looks Like a Lady” was a queer anthem that just slipped under the radar.

2000: “It Feels So Good” by Sonique, Hear My Cry

Originally released in the UK in 1998, Sonique’s catchy techno song was a fixture on American club playlists by 2000. While the sensual lyrics of the pulsating love song make no explicit or even implicit reference to same-sex desire, the music videos reveal messages not captured by the audio alone. The video originally released with the song for UK audiences in 1998 features a dominatrix-like Sonique belting out lyrics in a sexy forest as the camera cuts to a gay couple, a lesbian couple, and an interracial heterosexual couple in turn. Here, the universality of love is the central focus. The American video two years later is both more and less explicit. Sonique performs her song at a club full of sweaty people, and while the dancing is steamier and more sexual, the homosexual overtones are more covert. One woman glances lustfully at another who is running an ice cube over her chest. Made subtler for American audiences, the queer content of the video failed to make waves for the artist, and despite producing the biggest selling dance song of the 21st century, Sonique fell into pop obscurity soon thereafter.