[jasonfarnon]

"If a woman sings in a high voice with a girly-girl image, she will tend to attract men." You mean attract them sexually? maybe. I don't know any guys who are musically into the celine dions or mariah carey's.

"If a handsome crooner with a deep voice sings sweet love songs, their fans will consist of hetero women." Maybe, but male tenors will get that and more, and it's been that way since I was a young man non-tenor in a choir.

From a '96 Royko column:

"Then there are their voices. Clinton's voice is high-pitched. Dole's is much deeper. Does that matter? You bet it does. Clinton has a voice for today. Just listen to popular rock music. All of the singers have high- pitched, eunuch-like voices. It's almost impossible to tell the men from the women, if there is any difference. There was a long-gone time when a baritone such as Perry Como or a bass such as Vaughn Monroe topped the hit charts; when a deep-voiced singer would bellow: "Old Man River, that Old Man River... he don't plant taters, he don't plant cotton." But today, the lyrics would have to be changed to "Old Person River, that Old Person River... he or she does not plant potatoes or cotton because the work is demeaning."

And today's deep-voiced singers are found only in the country music field, self-pitying losers groaning about their two-timing women going honky-tonkying and leaving them with a sink full of dishes and not one beer in the fridge. Their fans will be too"

[RupertSalt]

There is also the aspect of identifying with the singer, rather than being sung to. A deep-voiced man may enjoy singing the same love songs as Isaac Hayes or Barry White. The women may liken themselves to Mariah or Celine (Shania and Shakira are more my speed, tbh).

Also that Royko column (I assume Mike Royko, journalist?) He doesn't take into account other genres. How many rappers have gruff or menacing deep voices to go along with rattling basslines? How about death metal singers who sing in the signature "death growl"? Plenty of goth, industrial, No Wave vocalists pulled it off too, such as Andrew Eldritch, Sascha Konietzko, Michael Gira, Lux Interior. Baritone/bass vocals were not uncommon, but they were definitely drowned out by the radio and MTV.

[projektfu]

Hope nobody tells him about Paul Anka, Frankie Valli, Bing Crosby, or John McCormack. It's almost as if there are popular tenor and bass voices in every year.