K.D. Lang: All You Get is Me

This first full-length bio of country/pop chanteuse k. d. lang suggests that its subject is noteworthy both for her courage as a self-proclaimed lesbian and for her refusal to submit to industry control of her image or her music. The first claim is undoubtedly true; Starr, a freeelance journalist and radio-program producer, convincingly asserts that lang's status as the ``first openly lesbian pop icon'' paved the way for other celebrities to ``out'' themselves without stigma. But the latter assertion is arguable. If lang has successfully resisted record-label attempts to market her music according to notions of commercial viability, Starr's portrait reveals that lang has always carefully packaged herself. Attracted to the spotlight, she would appear to have embarked on her career less because of a true passion for music than out of a desire for fame. She does emerge, however, as an inspiring example of a performer who has retained control of her career despite pressures to conform. Starr's detailed bio is frustratingly impersonal, providing little sense of lang as an individual. But her account of the politics of sexual orientation, especially in the spotlight, is absorbing. Photos not seen by PW . (June)