STRAIGHT MALES leading the poll on Bubblegum Dance

I'll admit, the fact that straight men are leading the poll surprised me - not just because it goes against the stereotype (and I'm cool with that! Down with stereotypes!), but because out of all of the guys who I can remember who have posted here, I can only think of one definitely straight one, a couple more who might've been but I forgot/they never said, then quite a few who were openly gay or bi. I voted bisexual female, myself.

As for the childhood reasoning... my thing is, I've always loved music that I can relate to myself, to characters in the fandoms I'm a member of, and characters I've made myself. Most music on the radio is usually love songs or songs about drunken parties, and when I was a kid, none of this made any sense to my brain. I didn't know what love was, I didn't see the allure in partying... there was just nothing for me in music. I mostly listened to what my mom did and just liked it because she did. Then Eiffel 65's "Blue" hit the airwaves when I was eight years old and I was instantly in love. I still couldn't relate to the lyrics because the song isn't ABOUT anything, but then, that might have been a point in its favor. If it's not about anything, it can't be about something I don't understand! From there, I got into tons of dance music, like Eiffel 65, ATC, Corona, Ace of Base, and Culture Beat - either the song was about how fun it is to dance with no alcohol involved, which I totally agreed with, or I couldn't figure out WHAT the song was about, so who cares? Sure, I liked a couple dance songs that were about love, but they were far and few between. My love for what have become the standards of 90's dance music in the states led me to the word "Eurodance" and the Dance Dance Revolution game series, both things helped nudge me in the direction of bubblegum dance, and here I am now. And as I've gotten older, I've found it easier to enjoy songs I can't relate to anything. They probably can't become BEST SONGS EVER, but at least I can find something in it.

Though there are still some things that are so out of my realm of understanding, like "getting drunk and embarrassing yourself is fun" and "I am in love with him/her simply because he/she is hot", that I'll probably never get it no matter how many songs about it come out. Ah well! =P

I'll also admit that my childhood was lonely and kind of crappy, with constant moves and a mother prone to mood swings who would constantly move us in with men who'd she have ragey, physical arguments with. Add in a social disorder that makes it difficult for me to relate to or interact with people and I was a lonely little mess. I needed all the help I could get, and squeaky music about how life is beautiful and we can all dance our cares away certainly helped. It continues to help to this day.

I don't know if loving the music is really connected to my bisexuality, though. I consider bisexuality and a love for dance music to be two very important parts of my identity, but they don't really have anything to do with each other. I feel like I could have been a straight dance fan (hey, I identified as straight until I was 13 because me loving women would have been EVIL, don't you know, so I just never even considered I could be anything else) or a bi metal fan easily.

I see this a lot with the communities I am in. In the furry community, it's the same way. It's viewed as a very gay activity, for those that do not know, it is. However, when interviewed people vote just like this. There is a difference for people that go to the site and go to the forum. For a long time I never went to the forum and only went to the site. Right now, it's the other way around. I wouldn't call it people that listen to the music, I would call it a survey on people that visit that site. I didn't even know there was a poll there until just not, and I voted the way I was "none of the above". However, as a male got my tastes from the 90s dance music and liked the speedier stuff thanks to a malfunction with my cassette recorder, which ran on batteries. Lucky for me, when I plugged my cassette into a wall powered cassette player I found the fun style of high pitched, fast paced 90s dance music. Now that comes to what I listen to now, Bubblegum Dance music.

Bouncing off of what Irk said, Dance Dance Revolution was a primarily straight male driven series and much of people music in that game was Bubblegum Dance: Smile.DK, Bambee, Miss Papaya, Jenny Rom, Ken-D, Cartoons.

I was, too, surprised at how the poll turned out. I, for one, am bisexual (and a male for those who didn't know), so you know where I voted. XD But, for one, I've met more girls on BGD and BGD-related forums than I have boys, and for two, a lot of the Bubblegum fans I know personally who are male are either gay or bi, except for a few. I expected either girls or gay males to top this poll, but hey, it isn't a bad thing for straight guys to listen to cheesy Bubblegum! As for me, a lot of my friends have picked at me for listening to "gay music", but hey, screw them! XD I like what I like.

So the results were in and last time I checked over 150 people voted and nearly half were straight men. Over a quarter made up gay and bi-sexual men, which meant 3 out of every four who voted were men with only 25% been women.

I am a straight male born in the late 80's. I can properly agree and relate with most of the stuff that was said here, for the reasons why we listen to Bubblegum Dance.

This is quite interesting and I want to know what you lot think of these results and if you were expecting them.