Sophie B. Hawkins dominated the airwaves with her 1992 debut single, “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover,” a song with homoerotic overtones that were rare in mainstream pop at the time. If they went unnoticed by many listeners, she fought nearly every step of the way to express her progressive views and maintain her independence at her label, and struggled to find her place in the LGBTQ community.

Meanwhile, k.d. lang’s 1992 hit “Constant Craving” and her album Ingenue ushered her out of Nashville and into the Top 40 spotlight. After she came out, picketers protested her Grammy nominations, but her star quickly rose, with Vanity Fair tapping her for one of its most memorable, provocative covers and cementing her status as a sex symbol and a queer icon.

In this episode, we explore how the two artists navigated the music industry and their sexual orientations as they were thrust into the public eye. With special guest Sophie B. Hawkins.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Oh… my… God, Becky. Look. At. Her. Butt.” It may be one of the most unforgettable opening lines of a song in the history of popular music. Say those words and they instantly conjure images of rump-shaking models, a pair of very annoying Valley girls, Cosmopolitan magazine, Jane Fonda, Ross and Rachel’s baby on Friends, Shrek, high school dances, bar mitzvahs, keggers, karaoke parties, and wedding receptions. The impact of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” was massive, its legacy undeniable. The song was big, thick, and juicy then, and it will forever be big, thick, and juicy. 

This week, we talk to the director of the “Baby Got Back” music video, the MTV exec who initially refused to air it, Mix himself, and the iconic, big-bootied model at the center of it all. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1992: The year of big-butt anthems, achy-breaky hearts, and Madonna’s Sex book. The year that Boyz II Men and Whitney Houston shattered chart records, while U2 and TLC confronted the AIDS crisis head-on. The year that introduced us to grunge, G-funk, and… Right Said Fred. In this podcast, journalist Jason Lamphier (Entertainment Weekly) looks back at the major hits, one-hit wonders, shocking headlines, and irresistible scandals that shaped what might be the wildest, weirdest, most controversial 12 months in music history.

Featuring interviews with music video directors, MTV bigwigs, obsessive superfans, and the artists themselves, Where Were You in '92? poses the question: What was it about 1992 that made it so groundbreaking, so bonkers, and so absolutely fabulous? New episodes drop every Wednesday beginning Nov. 16.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.