The enduring resonance of George Michael's subversive music

Soulful, dazzlingly talented, bewitching: There are many words that sum up the power of George Michael. Another: subversive.

Before his sexuality was known to the public with certainty in 1998, Michael, who would've turned 59 this month, mined the private pain of gay men, made it legible in an era defined by virulent homophobia.

Take 1990's "Freedom!": "I think there's something you should know / I think it's time I told you so / There's something deep inside of me / There's someone else I've got to be," Michael sings on the funky pre-hook. The most obvious interpretation of "Freedom!" is that it's a rebuke of the bubblegum pop Michael had created during his Wham! years. But I'd argue that the song's theme of liberation operates in another register, too -- that it's a coded embrace of homosexuality: There's someone else I've got to be.