Antmusic

In a previous article, I examined the lyrical content of Adam's songs and tried to make the case that his music had examined more types of sexual behaviour than any other musician. His songs have covered straight sex (S.E.X., Sexatise You, Strip, Playboy), sex in airplanes (Mile High Club), bathroom sex (Bathroom Function), high class prostitution (High Heels in High Places), sexual body art (Red Scab), sexual body piercing (Punk in the Supermarket), fellatio (Cleopatra), human orgasm (Can't Set The Rules About Love), sadomasochism (Beat My Guest, Whip In My Valise, Physical, Rough Stuff), transvestism (Greta X), exhibitionism (Lady), bondage (Ligotage, Human Bondage Den), homosexuality (Bright Lights, Black Leather, Piccadilly), lesbianism (All Girl Action), bestiality (Juanito the Bandito), infantilism (1969 Again), voyeurism (Lady), fetishes in general (Christian D’or, Survival of the Fetish) and specific fetishes like rubber (Rubber People).

Professor Mark Griffiths is a Chartered Psychologist and Director of the International Gaming Research Unit, specialising in the areas of abnormal, social and health psychology with particular emphasis on behavioural addictions, cyberpsychology and the psychology of sexual behaviour. This article was originally published in Headpress 19: World Without End (1999) and is reproduced by Ant Lib Online with kind permission of the author.

I have been a fan of Adam Ant's music for nearly twenty years, which might lead some people to conclude that I am a few tracks short of an LP. However, as someone who takes more than a passing interest in human sexual behaviour (I teach a whole course on it here at Nottingham Trent University), I would argue that Adam's music has covered more atypical sexual behaviours than any other recording artist that I can think of (e.g. sadomasochism, bondage, spanking, transvestism, voyeurism, body piercing, fetishistic behaviour etc). Anyone who has followed Adam's career will recall that his music was billed in the late 1970s and early 1980s as "antmusic for sexpeople".