12 years might not seem like that long, but in the gay porn world, it bridges the distance between two completely different eras. If you were old enough to be buying and watching gay porn in 2002 and are still buying (or illegally downloading) gay porn now, you have no doubt noticed some changes in the industry! Here are 10 things—some good, some bad—that were different about gay porn 12 years ago.
1. There were no Twitter meltdowns.
In 2002, there was no Twitter, no Facebook, and no ask.fm. Consumers didn’t know (and likely didn’t care) which gay porn stars were gay-for-pay, who got a DUI, or who wanted $100,000 to “pay for college.” It was a simpler time! Also, there wasn’t a gay porn blogosphere (even the grandfather of gay porn blogs, GayPornBlog.com, didn’t launch until 2003), so if you wanted gossip about your favorite stars, you’d have to sign into AOL and go to Data Lounge or ATKOL (remember ATKOL?? LOL).
2. VHS still ruled.
With the exception of Sean Cody (which launched in 2001), the overwhelming majority of gay porn was still being released on VHS in 2002. So, instead of paying $1 for a trial membership to a gay porn site, you paid anywhere from $50-$100 for an entire movie, and you still used your VCR every night. I wonder if someone like Liam Riley even knows what a VCR is?
3. There were adult bookstores.
If you didn’t have $100 to buy an entire movie, you could rent a tape (or a DVD) from your local adult bookstore, if you lived in a relatively big city with adult bookstores that carried homosexual titles. This was often problematic, because it meant you’d be showing the bookstore clerk your gay porn rental in a time when being gay wasn’t nearly as accepted as it is now.
4. There were no tattoos.
Why didn’t gay porn stars have tattoos in 2002? Coming out of the AIDS crisis of the 80′s and 90′s, the industry (and gay media in general) was focused on presenting big, strong, mostly hairless, healthy bodies. Covering anything up with tattoos would be counterintuitive.
5. There were no “scenes,” there were only full movies.
Studios made full features with loosely connected plots and storylines, usually consisting of 4-5 scenes. It took a long time to get through a movie, but if you didn’t like a certain performer, you could always fast forward to the next scene.
6. Stars were paid per movie, not per scene.
Most big name stars were paid for each movie they did, not each scene. Old school talent agent David Forest recently told me that his clients (Ken Ryker, Ryan Idol, Jeff Stryker) used to make $12,000 per movie, and they’d usually only make two or three movies per year. And speaking of pay in general, newcomers would regularly earn $1,500+ to appear in their first movie. Now? A newcomer earns as little as $200 for doing a web scene. (Some studios like Sean Cody and Randy Blue still pay over $1,000 per scene.)
7. There were magazines.
If a gay porn star wants press today, all he has to do is answer questions in an email—and sometimes the person writing the email doesn’t even have to be the person they say they are! Back in 2002, gay porn stars met with a magazine’s photographers and editors for customized photo shoots and in-depth, in person interviews to coincide with the release of their latest feature. Every single major gay porn magazine has since been shut down, including Inches, All Man, Mandate, Honcho, Men, and Unzipped.
8. There was no bareback.
With the exception of two or three underground studios, there was no bareback gay porn in 2002. Even the suggestion of producing a condomless movie in 2002 would have gotten you blacklisted from the entire gay porn industry. Facial cum shots were looked down upon, too. Condoms weren’t just a requirement, they were also considered sexy, at the time.
9. There was less diversity.
As over-saturated as the market is now with niche sub-genres (Eskimo tranny midget porn, anyone?), we at least have the option to watch literally any kind of gay porn we want. 12 years ago, you could count the number of black gay porn stars on one hand (Jack Simmons, Rick Pantera, Jeremy Tucker, Tiger Tyson), fetish porn was practically unheard of (remember how they used to censor all the fisting scenes in the old Falcon movies?), and men over the age of 30 didn’t even exist (Dirk Caber would’ve been cast as a corpse, whereas at least now he’s cast as a creepy old man).
10. The guys were hotter and the movies were better.
12 years ago, gay porn studios were run by gay men with better taste and (because they were actually gay men) direct experience with what their audience fantasized about. Plus, most of them cared about the quality of the movies they were releasing and the role those movies played in gay culture. For a lot of people for a long time, gay porn was the only place gay people could see other gay people portrayed in a positive light (or any light at all)—even if it was “just porn.” Now? Competing gay porn studios and their straight-owned parent companies are tripping over each other in a mad dash to produce 47 scenes per week—most of which usually end up on a free tube site 30 minutes after being released—and they’ll cast anyone with a dick and a valid ID to get the job done.
Today, literally anyone—anyone—can do gay porn. 12 years ago, gay porn stars like Mike Branson (above, left) were famous because of how good they looked while having sex with other men. Now? “Gay porn stars” like Max Payne (above, right) are famous—in fact, he’s been the most searched for name on this blog all year—because of their social media embarrassments and how awkward they look while trying to have sex with other men. That’s not the gay porn industry’s fault (Payne’s ridiculous Vines were filmed long after his two gay porn scenes); it’s simply what people are searching for. And hey, good for Max Payne, and good for his fans/haters. Every generation gets the gay porn star they deserve.
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