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Harry Styles recently performed his unreleased song “Boyfriends” from his new album Harry’s House at Coachella, sparking interesting discussion within his fanbase and in the media regarding lyrical and thematic queer-coding and public backlash and disbelief in such coding. The song details shitty boyfriends and the foolish behavior of their lovers who continue to let them back into their lives. Styles is known for his fluid gender expression and general openness of identity, and while the star has not confirmed his sexuality in any concrete way, songs such as “Boyfriends” certainly reaffirm the possibility of the singer’s queerness.
Styles prefaced the new song with the words: “To boyfriends everywhere: fuck you.” “Boyfriends” blends ambiguity of pronouns and subject to give Styles freedom to perhaps sing from a true perspective, while also remaining general enough to be categorically heteronormative if need be. The first stanza follows as such: “Boyfriends / They think you’re so easy / They take you for granted / They don’t know they’re just misunderstanding you / You, you’re back at it again.” Fans and critics who are opposed to reading these lyrics with any queer lens have rationalized that Syles is refering to himself as the “boyfriend” who takes his lover for granted or “starts secretly drinking,” while the “you” who “still open[s] the door” is his female partner.
An oppositional reading of the song would not be difficult to conceptualize, as Styles seemingly knows quite a bit about the “you” perspective, a you who “know[s] the game’s never ending” and “lay[s] with him as [they] stay in a daydream.” Styles asks: “Boyfriends / Are they just pretending?”, and if, hypothetically, he were the “boyfriend,” would he not know the answer? Obviously, one could read all this as Styles taking on the perspective of his partner, and writing self-effacing lyrics, but to jump to this conclusion would negate much of the artist’s expression and perhaps muffle his message entirely.
Additionally, this is not the first song Styles has performed live which has lent itself to rumors about his sexuality. Style’s song “Medicine” is another unreleased song that may display the artist’s queerness. Styles plays it occasionally at concerts, but to release a song which explicitly says “The boys and the girls are in / I mess around with him / And I’m okay with it” would garner much attention and likely backlash for the young artist. Therefore, by playing the song live he can still express his sexuality without cornering himself definitively within the public eye as queer.
Which brings us back to “Boyfriends,” a song where Styles can partially share this queerness without being locked down and labeled as such. And, unfortunately, there has already been homophobic critiques and comments online as certain bigoted fans diminish the possibility of his queerness and attack those who would suggest that “Boyfriends” is the work of a queer artist. Those who recognize queer coding, however, understand the meaning behind the lyrics and the man behind them. Even the title itself, “Boyfriends” could imply that Styles is referencing himself and another male in this relationship. Nevertheless, a significant takeaway from the entire occurrence is that a large majority of Styles’s fanbase and the media is not yet comfortable withthe idea that Styles could be queer and singing about queerness and producing queer music.
And, as disappointing as the homophobic reaction was for queer fans, if Styles himself is truly part of the LGBTQ+ community, he too has likely read these negative comments which are certainly not going to encourage him to continue to express this side of himself, perhaps his true self, within his art. Yet, with the definitively bigoted and heteronormative industry that is popular music and pop culture, Styles remains beholden to higher powers which would not regard his queerness with the respect and admiration it would deserve.
