Viewer Gender Confusion/Music
Examples of Viewer Gender Confusion in Music include:
- Victoria Lengrand from Beach House has been mistaken for a man on multiple ocassions due to the tone of her voice.
- Taylor Hanson from the teen pop group Hanson: ambiguously pitched voice, long hair, and gender-neutral name.d closer, and realized it was himself!
- Kalan Porter from Canadian Idol definitely confused many people.
- Pick a J-rock band. Particularly male jrockers that dress in Goth Loli, like Mana.
- Pick any J-Pop boyband, especially those under Johnny's Jimusho. Those guys make prettier girls than most of their fans.
- Back when the Culture Club was all new, a good few people assumed Boy George was female.
- Similarly, during one of the episodes of I Love the 80's, when discussing the Dead or Alive video "You Spin Me Round", one of the commentators said that growing up he thought Pete Burns was either the prettiest man or the ugliest woman he'd ever seen. Either way, It Got Worse.
- Bill Kaulitz of Tokio Hotel is this trope personified.
- Many were surprised to find out that Noodle of Gorillaz was a girl. Less so once she started being depicted as a teenager who sometimes sports makeup and more feminine clothing, though she still leaves a few confused.
- Less so in Phase 3, where she has some very feminine characteristics.
- Jody "I'm not a girl" McBrayer fits this trope nicely. He must definitely looks masculine, but if you don't know who's singing... Well, just listen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb 8 kgaa 3 Xsg
- Tracy Chapman. Judging by her voice, rather muscular physique, and most pictures, it can be pretty tricky to tell. Her gender-neutral name doesn't help.
- The lead singer of Placebo, Brian Molko, has confused many with his highly effeminate appearance. Pictures like this and this definitely do not help.
- An anecdote from the early days of ABBA relates how Bjorn Ulvaeus initially got a number of letters from fans who thought he was female. The explanation he gave was that the letters had come from Eastern European countries, where photo quality broke down through multiple copying, leaving his defining characteristics as his androgynous clothing and long hair. But it probably didn't help that he dressed more effeminately than Benny usually did, either...
- Marilyn Manson: This trope is actually one of his trademarks.
- Amber from the Korean pop band f(x) to the point where her group members even thought she was a boy at first. It doesn't help that she's "pretty" enough to look like most male pop stars or that SM Entertainment always puts her in masculine clothing, such as a boy's school uniform or a male hanbok.
- Michael Jagmin [dead link] of A Skylit Drive tends to have this effect on people: long hair, girly voice, short stature.
- Japanese goth/electronic/visual kei/oh who knows vocalist Selia (one half of Seileen, along with DJ Sisen) falls into this all too easily. He looks like a woman, but in Japanese music this isn't anything new. No, the real confusion comes when he starts singing.
- The same goes for Arch Enemy vocalist Angela Gossow, who's death vocals cause many to mistake her for a man at first listen.
- The Silversun Pickups's lead vocalist Brian Aubert has a somewhat effeminate voice when singing, leading to some confusion—especially since even when you know he is a guy he looks nothing like you'd expect for a guy with that singing voice. His speaking voice is unquestionably male, though.
- Justin Bieber. He's made his career over the fact that he's a teenage boy whose voice hasn't cracked, so this is a given. If you just listen to his music and don't know his name, you might think he's a lesbian. The amount of Viewer Gender Confusion has become memetic due to his Hatedom.
- There are a lot of K-Pop idols that fall under this. Super Junior's Heechul [dead link] and SHINee's Taemin [dead link] are two of the worst offenders. Even the more masculine ones are prone to this... Shinee's Minho was once mistaken for a labelmate's girlfriend.
- JD Samson of Le Tigre. An out lesbian who identifies as female, she nonetheless uses a very macho variation of her given name (Jocelyn Samson), dresses in traditional male clothes, maintains an extremely masculine appearance, and proudly sports close-cropped hair and a robust natural mustache. Even when you know she's a gal, seeing pictures like these makes it pretty tough to grasp.
- Shelly West (daughter of Dottie West) has a rather low, rough voice for a female, particularly on her Signature Song "José Cuervo". If you didn't know the artist's name, you'd certainly be forgiven for thinking a man sang that song.
- Ryan Ross, especially in the early years of Panic! at the Disco.
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