# Do you tend to listen to music by artists of your same gender?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 23, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692 "2011-03-23T05:18:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Carmady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carmady)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/1 "2011-03-23T05:18:13Z")
In the Sexist Kindle thread, someone posted that they tend to read books written by men, but listen to music by women. I mostly read books by men, but my most-listened-to and favorite artists are evenly split. Is this a trend?
What percentage of your most-listened music is made by your own gender (going by vocals)?
Also, is there a divide between female artists listened to by men vs those listened to by women? I’m wondering if my favorite female artists (see list) have largely male audiences, while female artists I don’t listen to (e.g. Tori Amos, Alanis Morissette) are mainly listened to by women.
Radiohead
PJ Harvey
Nirvana
Belly
X-Ray Spex
Neutral Milk Hotel
Tom Waits
Big Star
Nina Simone
Cat Power
Richard and Linda Thompson
Leonard Cohen
Sonic Youth
Pixies
Breeders
David Bowie
Beatles
Bjork
Rasputina
Tim Buckley
Aphex Twin
Amon Tobin
Lisa Germano
Garbage
Throwing Muses
REM
Velvet Underground
Mazzy Star
Cocteau Twins
Mr. Bungle
The Smiths
Gillian Welch
Neko Case
Joy Division
Love
Flaming Lips
Boards of Canada
Nico
OOIOO
Jeff Buckley
Luscious Jackson
Can
Broadcast
Nick Cave
Pink Floyd
Deerhoof
Portishead
Stereolab
Tindersticks
Mouse on Mars
22 female vocals
21 male vocals
3 mixed vocals (1 mostly male)
4 electronic
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### Author:  [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/2 "2011-03-23T05:52:04Z")
Male here. Not going to do a strict scientific survey right now, but from the top of my head, I think I listen to more female artists. Or at least, there are more of them in my top playlist. And a lot of them tend to be lesbians or at least Lilith faire.
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### Author:  [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/3 "2011-03-23T06:58:09Z")
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do one of my favourite nerdy pastimes: analyse my Last.fm stats.
Of my 100 most listened to artists (since September 2008), 44 are female or all-female groups, 43 are male or all-male groups, and 13 are mixed groups. Of those 13, four are bands with almost exclusively female vocals, three are bands with almost exclusively male vocals, three are casts from movie musicals that feature both genders pretty equally, and three are bands that feature male and female vocals pretty equally. I, myself, am male.
So I think I have a pretty even split, which I think comes down to how many different genres I listen to - if I were just a hip-hop or metal fan, my list would likely be dominated by men, and if I were just a dance-pop fan then my list would be full of women.
I’ve even heard people say “I don’t listen to male/female singers” which I can’t fathom - imagine all the amazing stuff I’d miss out on if I listened exclusively to one gender!
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### Author:  [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/4 "2011-03-23T07:44:00Z")
Female voices hurt my ears, so I usually listen to males.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/5 "2011-03-23T07:50:31Z")
I tend to listen to males. It was never a conscious decision, but it happened that way. I tend to listen to Ben Folds, Wilco, Counting Crows, and bands like that.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/6 "2011-03-23T11:27:50Z")
I don’t have hard stats, but I’d estimate the quota of female voices in my music collection to be smaller than 15 %, but this hasn’t anything to do with a preferred taste for male voices. I think there are two reasons:
1. As a man, I usually can better relate to male perspectives in the lyrics (this is the minor reason).
2. In the genres I listen to (all kinds of rock, soul, folk, a little country), men have always been overrepresented, and I think the above quota reflect this fact.
With all that said, you can only take away my Aretha, Joni, Sandy, Dusty, Emmylou or P.J. (and much more) records from my cold dead hands.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/7 "2011-03-23T11:37:43Z")
No preference.
And, since I think the two greatest vocalists of all time are Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, no preference.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/8 "2011-03-23T12:41:29Z")
Probably more male than female, but that’s more a function of what music I like than the gender of the singer. If the groups I like had a female vocalist but played the same music, I’d still like them.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/9 "2011-03-23T14:01:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#):
>
> 1. In the genres I listen to (all kinds of rock, soul, folk, a little country), men have always been overrepresented, and I think the above quota reflect this fact.
My favorite artists / bands are almost all male, and that seems to be the likely explanation to me, as well. Progressive rock and hard rock, some pop, from the late 60s through the 80s…yes, there are some noteworthy female artists there, but not very many.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/10 "2011-03-23T14:24:22Z")
Probably equal . . . except for instrumentalists, where men outnumber women (not my preference, just reality).
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/11 "2011-03-23T14:36:48Z")
It seems that some people are classifying group artists as male or female strictly by _vocals_. But there are lots of groups where women vocalists are backed by male instrumentalists (or DJ/producers)–I wouldn’t call those “female artists.”
I’m sure my collection includes the work of many more men than women (counting all roles equally), but I ascribe that to the fact that many more men than women make music, not to any preference of mine.
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### Author:  [@DeepLiquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepLiquid)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/12 "2011-03-23T15:06:38Z")
Strong preponderance of female singers in my music collection. But my collection is heavily weighted with the _Womyns music_ genre so that’s to be expected.
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### Author:  [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/13 "2011-03-23T16:03:06Z")
I think most of the music in my collection is sung by males, but if you looked at the music I love the most, a much higher percentage is sung by women.
I’m more picky when it comes to female singers, though – men can sing in a whole host of styles and ranges, but I only enjoy women who have low, strong voices. The only whispy-voiced/high-pitched female singer I can tolerate is Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins.
It kills me that one of my very favorite male singers, Mark Lanegan, has released 3 albums with a woman whose whispy voice is incredibly irritating to me, Isobel Campbell. This means I can’t listen to them at all.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/14 "2011-03-23T16:04:55Z")
Female voices usually tend to be a little too high-pitched and even shrieking for my tastes. When I do listen to women, I prefer a more throaty voice. I’d say 95% of my music is by men.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/15 "2011-03-23T16:11:09Z")
Depends on the genre. A quick scan of iTunes shows that for straight-up rock, males predominate, singer-wise. But country, alternative, folk, jazz and world categories are heavily weighted towards female vocals.
Of course, if you count males as instrumentalists as well, the whole list skews male by far, because there are a buttload more men making professional music than there are women.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/16 "2011-03-23T16:20:41Z")
I find it very difficult, if not irrelevant, to know the gender of a performer through their instrumental work. Also, the sex of the composer is not of any great interest to me.
My preferred singers are women, mostly. I have about an equal amount of Siouxie, Rickie Lee Jones, and ABBA on my gadget right now. (Does Heather Alexander still count as a female singer?)
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/17 "2011-03-23T16:25:18Z")
At least among professional (popular) singers, do men typically have a wider vocal range than women? That’s my general impression, but I don’t know if it’s actually true.
I listen to both, but a lot more men than women vocalists. I suspect this is largely because males are more common in the genres I like, but also because men tend to have more versatile voices, which is apparently important to me.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/18 "2011-03-23T16:34:31Z")
I’d say about 95% of all the music in my MP3 collection is sung by and played by men. I will admit to specifically disliking female singers, except for a few - who happen to be co-lead-singers with men in the band.
My excuse has always been that I sort of need to be sexually attracted to someone singing to me. That may be a crock of shit but it helps me feel less sexist (I am a woman).
I do find that I am more amenable to female singers as I get older. A friend and I just traded some music and she gave me 2 or 3 collections of female singers and I am enjoying them much more than I thought I would.
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### Author:  [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/19 "2011-03-23T16:39:58Z")
I don’t listen to much music anymore, but I listen mostly to metal and hard rock, so mostly male. Off the top of my head, my phone has about 20 artists, and only L7, PJ Harvey, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack have any female components.
Joe
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### Author:  [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-tend-to-listen-to-music-by-artists-of-your-same-gender/575692/20 "2011-03-23T17:00:32Z")
Same gender for me. My music collection is probably easily 90% female vocalists.
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