Performative gender crossing

I loved asking this question. Most people had very different, contrasting answers reasons why it didn't occur, but all agreed that gender crossing was taboo. Tie (see below) got quite defensive when I asked him about this. I fear my actual wording of the question using the word "phenomenon" may have influenced or provoked this response.

(Excerpt from interview with Tie Conn)

Melaena: What about the phenomenon of gender crossing in the songs? Do you ever sing women’s songs—

Tie: (raising voice) How much of a phenomenon is that? If the lyrics can be sung by both, why not? The only time it’s a phenomenon is when a man does Britney Spears. But that’s a dare. That’s not a phenomenon.

Melaena: Like do you do songs by female artists?

Tie: I have.

Melaena: Like would you sing “La Isla Bonita”?

Tie: I ran up a hundred dollar tab, on a dare—

Melaena: No, but not on a dare. For serious.

Tie: But listen, you don’t understand how drunk I was. And I sang “It’s Raining Men” cause my friends paid my tab. And I made it worth my while.

But for serious… no, you’re not going to hear a lot of men doing female songs for serious, you will get a lot of women doing men’s songs for serious.

Melaena: Why is that?

Tie: It’s more socially acceptable. It’s like men dressing like women, and women dressing like men. Kind of the same comparison.

(Excerpt from interview with Colin Krieger)

Melaena: (laughs) Okay, how about gender crossing for songs? Like a man singing a song by a female artist?

Colin: You’ll rarely hear a guy singing a girl’s song: once in a while, and if he does, it’s probably a goof. It’s a joke. It’s, uh… we’ve got a guy here for example, really deep voice, always, he’ll throw in Britney Spears once in a while. Just for shits and giggles.

Melaena: Okay. It’s like a parody then, it’s funny? It’s a joke?

Colin: To him it is. You get guys that will put in something by InSync or Back Street Boys, and… in their mind it is the funniest thing that’s going on all night. Unfortunately I’ve seen it three times this week already. And it’s really not as funny to everybody else either, but… Women singing guy’s songs, that happens more often…

Melaena: Why do you think this is?

Colin: I couldn’t say. I think it’s more of… people are basically, generally linear thinkers. I think if you quantified society as a whole, you’ve got 85% linear thinkers out there, and it’s a song by a woman, so that’s who sings it.

(Excerpt from interview with Phillip Wright-Lindl)

Melaena: Have you ever sung a song by a female artist, like Madonna, or something like that?

Phil: Once.

Melaena: Once.

Phil: Badly. Never again.

Melaena: Okay, but why… why was it bad?

Phil: Because I couldn’t find anywhere near a pitch of rightness, so… whether I dropped it too low, or too high, or… I just… transposing on the fly is not my deal.

Melaena: Oh, yeah. It was hard for you to find the pitch.