“Salt” was released in 2014 on Bad Sun’s album “Language and Perspective”. While the fight for LGBTQ+ rights has been going for years, one movement for the community in 2014 was Obama signing a new Executive order to protect LGBT workers. This act prohibited Federal Contractors from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. During 2014 many states were continuing to approve same-sex marriage, but some states, particularly in South were making same-sex marriage ambiguous, meaning they did not change the status of it. 

Bad Suns is an Indie and Alternative band. As an alternative band I believe that using this song as a platform to advocate for the transgender community is a perfect place to do that. Alternative is not mainstream music, and while I am sure that people of the LGBTQ community have listened to their fair share of mainstream pop, I believe that this community would identify more with alternative music because that is where people are free to express themselves without judgment from the mainstream media. Without the watching eye of the media Alternative artists are able to express ideas like gender identity without it having to be a controversial topic. It is very hard for people in the queer community to identify with the mainstream artists because most of the time they are cis, white and straight. Alternative groups give an alternative option to great music by people that do not fit the norms. 

“Salt” was written by the lead singer of Bad Suns, Christo Bowman. He wrote it about a friend’s journey through her gender identity. The lyrics of this song are inner conversations of someone who is struggling with their gender identity. These lyrics go from what it feels like to look in the mirror and not recognize yourself and also the idea of not being or feeling like everyone else around you. The first verse brings a bit of empowerment to the issue. There is a stigma around being transgender and Christo uses the words “reclaim, with different eyes and no shame.” Not having shame about not feeling like yourself and therefore taking the steps to feel like yourself is a powerful emotion to encompass. Christo also captures the idea of not knowing if taking the steps to transition is a good idea in the line, “But I’m taking this route, it’s alright, right?” It is as if he is questioning the audience about whether or not they think it is a good idea which alludes to the idea of the need for social approval which is one of the main reasons why people are so scared to transition. One of the lines in the chorus reads, “but these memories are nothing to me, just Salt.” This focuses on how when a person does not feel themself in their own body the things they do and the memories they make are not themselves so they do not mean anything.