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The Cover Changes the Gender: Difference between revisions
Transplanted/merged material from accidental duplicate trope Crossdressing Lyrics before deletion of same
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Music may be a universal language, but it's nigh impossible to find a song with lyrics that apply to ''everyone''.
Sex is quite possibly the most common barrier. Many songs, (particularly ones about love or [[Intercourse with You|sex]]), are unambiguously addressed to a woman or a man, or specifically sung from a male or female perspective. While it's not uncommon for musicians to perform songs "in-character" rather than as themselves, some people can't accept an artist singing from the viewpoint of a different gender or sexual orientation than their own. So, when covering a song that was originally sung by (or just written for) a member of the opposite sex, what's a singer to do?
Change the lyrics, of course! Most of the time this will entail no more than switching a couple of pronouns or changing "boy" to "girl" (or vice versa) but in some cases it can require a much more extensive rewrite. Another common way of doing this is giving the song a [[Perspective Flip]] - i.e. "then he kissed me" becomes "then I kissed her."
Sometimes this is done to rescue or recycle a song which might have been discarded by another artist, or otherwise never seriously considered for recording. In less enlightened times, a male artist or artists might sing a "female" song for the dubious humor deriving from implications of homosexuality or other nonstandard gender perceptions. In Japanese works [[Bokukko|female vocalists will frequently use 僕 (ぼく, boku)]] as a first person pronoun despite its masculine stats because at only 2 morae it has a better and more versatile flow than neutral or feminine equivalents like わたし (Watashi) or あたし (atashi) and their three morae.
And sometimes the artist just might not care, because the song either appeals to them as-is, is just ''that good'', or both.
[[Tropes Are Not Bad|This can work well in many cases]], while sometimes it can seem forced and awkward, sometimes becoming more of a distraction than it would've been if the artist had simply used the original lyrics. It can also come across as [[Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?]], especially if the original version is particularly well known.
For obvious reasons, the trope is almost always [[Averted Trope|averted]] by openly gay artists -- and frequently averted by still-closeted ones as well. Not to mention gay artists putting a [[Gender Flip]] on the object of a song that ''is'' traditionally sung by their gender, in order to accommodate their sexuality.
See also [[The Cover Changes the Meaning]], [[Gender Flip]], and [[Perspective Flip]]. [[Double Standard]] may or may not be involved.
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* [[Shirley Bassey]]'s cover of [[Ben E King|Ben E. King]]'s "I Who Have Nothing" is another perspective-flipped example.
* Used in [[Cat Power]]'s version of "Satisfaction", but averted in [[Bjork]] and [[PJ Harvey]]'s version.
* [[One-Hit Wonder]] [[Toni Basil]]'s only charting song, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSfnopkT37I "Mickey"], was a [[Covered Up|
{{quote|''Oh Kitty, you're so pretty, can't you understand...}}
:became
{{quote|''Oh Mickey, you're so pretty, can't you understand...}}
* [[Joss Stone]] covered [[The White Stripes]]' "Fell in Love With a Girl" as "Fell in Love With a Boy," despite the fact that it doesn't fit with the song's rhyme scheme.
* [[Tiffany]] covered the Beatles with "I Saw Him Standing There."
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* In recent years, since [[Ashley Tisdale]] did a cover of "Kiss The Girl" in 2006, it's become common for that song to be sung by women. Before that, in [[The Nineties]] it was a rarely covered song and it was done by men, but look on [[YouTube]] and you'll find cover songs of "Kiss The Girl" done by women outnumber those done by men by about 20 to 1. It's gotten to where people forget that it was sung by Sebastian and not Ariel in [[The Little Mermaid]]. The unusual thing is, the words entirely remain the same, but the connotations completely change, when sung by a man it's always a third person urging to just follow his heart and kiss the girl he loves, when sung by a woman it becomes a not-so-subtle hint to the guy she likes that she's growing impatient with his hesitation.
* Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through The Night" from 1971 was originally intended to be sung by a man.
* Although [[Pat Benatar]]'s [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5kisPBwZOM "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"] is not exactly a cover, when one listens closely to it, it's pretty
{{quote|''Well, you're a real tough cookie with a long history
''Of breaking little hearts like the one in me.
''Before I put another notch in my lipstick case
''You better make sure you put me in my place.''}}
* Hitomi Takahashi's single ''Bokutachi no Yukue'' (best known as the opening for ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]]'').
== Multiple flipflops ==
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* The ''[[Sucker Punch]]'' soundtrack is mostly female singers doing songs by male artists ([[The Beatles]], [[The Smiths]], [[Jefferson Airplane]]) - but the lyrics are unchanged (the most blantant is [[The Stooges|"Seek and Destroy"]], which is still "I'm the world's forgotten boy...").
* [[Judy Garland]] averts this completely when she sings "For Me and My Gal."
* Wally Cox's 1953 recording of the folk song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_KomqNtKY "There Is A Tavern In The Town"] (AKA "The Drunkard Song" and "Fare Thee Well For I Must Leave Thee"). He (and the all-male-tenor chorus) are unambiguously singing a song whose "narrator" is a young woman, and are playing it absolutely straight. Oddly, despite Cox's girlish voice, the performance is clearly not intended to evoke snickers at implied homosexuality.
{{reflist}}
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