Singing to the Most High for those below: the construction of gay male identity and the motifs in Josiah Wise’s “cherubim”

This paper seeks to take a closer look at the construction of queer male images through music. Queer music has been around since queer people have begun making music, taking various shapes and evolving along with the social climate. It has moved from being invisible to the naked “ear”, so to speak, to being more overt and subversive. This paper will take the form of a case study of a particular song by Josiah Wise entitled “cherubim,” that paints a picture of queer identity in quite an interesting way. By utilizing close-listening, thematic and stylistic elements this paper will describe and analyse the motifs hidden beneath the words and the notes to then explore how exactly this song fits into the general discourse of current queer politics