One of my best friends is gay and fits the musical stereotype referred to. He loves the warblers like Mariah, Celine, Leona and the pop goddesses Katy, Rhianna, Gaga, Britney. Thankfully (on a purely selfish note ) he also likes NIN, Rammstein, Manson and the likes. He does prefer female vocalists though.

I'm a straight man, and I always thought Cheryl Cole was a
talentless idiot!

About the question...well, I think an older generation of gay
men used to admire diva-ish singers, especially if they
had a tough life. There was the "Time" magazine review
of a Judy Garland concert where the reviewer noted
"most of the audience seemed to be homosexual men".

Not sure if this holds true anymore-and in the 1970s, there
was a boom in the number of overtly bi/gay male rock singers
(David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Tom Robinson,
Lou Reed, etc).

lol....There was a boom for sure. Empathy is a theme.

I am gay and most of my favourites are women.

And most of the male artists that I do love (Eminem, Snow Patrol, T.I., Coldplay) don't really make pop music

I think it's just that there aren't alot of male artists who make good pop music, and it's usually pop music you hear in clubs and stuff. I was out recently at a gay club and I think the only male voice in the music was that Olly Murs "Heart Skips A Beat" song.

But I am not really into the whole "diva" thing like Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. and I hate ABBA with a passion. My favourites would be the likes of Robyn, Siobhan Donaghy, Roisin Murphy, Sia, and I do love Britney too

oh his backside is a MASSIVE feature for gay guys
People go on a field day about it lol....and ever since he showed it on the xtra factor....

I'm gay and my taste is very 50/50 split between men and women. Actually, it is probably more weighted towards male singers only because the genre's I listen to most have more male vocalists...

I find it kind of annoying and small-minded if a gay guy will only listen to Britney, Gaga, Katy Perry etc. (though I do like that stuff too)

Love Kylie and Abba but I also like lots of "non-gay" music.

Well, most of my favourite artists/bands etc. are actually men.

Most of my favourite people in the industry atm are women but I think thats just because they are currently better than their male counterparts.

I'm a strait guy who listens to 90% female artists and a lot of them are very girlie!

Artists like Marie Sernehlot, Mandy Moore, Hilary Duff, Alistha's Attic, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and many more.

Because straight guys are always singing about girls? Because most non-female singers in pop at the minute are extremely disparaging to women (I'm looking at you, Flo Rida)

I also think its a stereotype that isnt necessarily true. Not all guys like the colour blue, but we see everywhere that they do so we assume that they all do. Same goes for this.

Majority of the gay guys I know are indie and rock fans - Muse etc, and dubstep, and metal stuff.

Also I think a lot of the music sung by females is less specific - can just be about having a good time, taking care of yourself, learning self-acceptance etc whereas music sung by males is very focused on being in love, taking care of someone, or how the guy singing is great with women. In mainstream pop, that is. Most of Katy Perry's music bar the obvious doesnt make it clear what gender either she is or is singing to, whereas songs by someone like Olly Murs or JLS are clear the whole way through that its a girl who's the object and a man who's the voice.

You could ask the same question about straight males. Many guys I know listen ONLY to hip hop, and absolutely nothing else.

I rememeber at school there was this person who we were talking about music, and he started writing a list of artists he liked that I should listen to. He literally wrote about 50 artists, and they were ALL male.

So there's also many straight males out there that only listen to male artists.

Matthew Dear
The Darkness
Jimmy Cliff
Twin Shadow
Maroon 5
Sam Sparro
Dexys
Scissor Sisters
Meatloaf
Mika
Split Endz
Jace Everett
Duran Duran
Robbie Williams
POD
Puddle Of Mudd
Queensryche
Ozzy Osbourne
Erasure
Pet Shop Boys
Boyzone
Morrisey
Nickleback
Serge Gainsbourg
Blake
Climie Fisher
Queen

These are all the male groups on my Spotify

Blondie
Pink
Tina Turner
Scissor sisters
Kate Bush
David Bowie
Pink Floyd
Coldplay
Cyndi Lauper
Billy Joel
Beth Orton
The Beatles
Alexis Strum
Alanis Morissette
Anastacia
Kylie
Madonna
Elton John
Eurythmics
Finley Quaye
Florence & The Machine
No Doubt
Hurts
Jack Savoretti
James
The Killers
LL Cool J
M83
The Maccabees
Maroon 5
Neil Diamond
Nickelback
Norah Jones
Queen
R.E.M
The Rasmus
Rusted Root
Savage Garden
Seal
Sia
Stereophonics
Tori Amos
Texas
U2

I think I'm a mixed bag. I like all kinds of artists

Although I will say Kate bush is my favourite artist but thats because of her voice and the depth of her songs

Whilst I admit to loving the likes of Madonna, Kylie, Gaga etc, they are by no means the be all and end all of my iPod. I don't really tend to venture out into non-mainstream stuff though.

Similarly, I don't have much time for those fans who obsess over one artist and for that reason slate all others. If I like a song I buy it. I couldn't care less who sings it or even who wrote it.

I saw a post on Pink's forum and this straight man said that his brother and his friends called him gay for liking Pink. So some people obviously don't understand why straight men can enjoy/relate to a female artist.

It's sad that society has created specific boxes for people, everyone should be free to like what they like, without judgement.

To be honest, I don't really understand the point of this whole thread. Quantify "so many gay guys", for starters.

My opinion is that the actual number of gay guys who ONLY like female singers will be so low that it doesn't really warrant a discussion on the matter. I don't have any evidence to base that opinion on, of course - other than it stands to reason - but neither does the OP. The question should probably be: "why do so many of the gay guys *I know* only like female singers" and, even then, the OP is the only person equipped to form an opinion on it! Anything else leads to the most outrageous of stereotyping and generalisation, to the point there's no actual answer and, really, what's the point of trying to work it out?

But I do have to say that putting people in boxes based on what they like is exactly what marketers do. It allows them (me included) to make products that appeal, have valuable benefits and are easier to sell. The difference is that type of segmentation usually has some good, proper, unbiased research supporting it.

I think some people are just innately more drawn to female vocals and others to male vocals. And I think gay men are more likely than straight men to prefer female voices. Obviously it's not true of all gay men, and there's probably a lot of straight men who hide their love for girly pop, but I do think it's generally true. If you read the Popjustice forum (which is highly oriented towards female artists) the majority of posters are gay men. The reason why something becomes a stereotype is because there's generally some truth to it.

But isn't Popjustice also run by a game man, gay people?
I think it's more his personal taste that he writes about. I follow him/them on twitter

I remember reading a theory put out by Daniel Wang in which he thinks there is some theory to gay people liking certain timbres/textures to peoples voices - namely female, and that gay people react to certain chord changes/types of melody.

He used Karen Carpenter as an example, as he'd been to a convention of Carpenter fans which was predominantly gay.

i would say that gay people & females have, historically liked melodies/chords which have a yearning timbre to them.

Before anyone accuses me of trying to 'label' gay people and music, its just based on my own years of experience & interest in music. there will always be people that dont 'fit' the box, me included

I apoligise if this thread has caused offence to anyone and it's not criticizing but for me it's a general observation as the majority of gay men I have met in my life mainly only like female artists so it's just a question really.

Dont worry about it!

Theres an epidemic out there, its called "Naff Queen".
They need to be rounded up into wembley stadium and force fed an aural diet of 'meat & potatoes' rock muzak....

Your choice of gay friends is not truly representative

Why do teeny girls like boybands?

I either like female pop signers or indie bands (no not the s**** you hear on Radio 1), little in between. It's pretty strange.