Grasping the concept of an identity proxy in popular music can help us understand more about why we tend to favor certain otherwise unusual characteristics in our entertainers.

For example, the world of male rock vocalists is almost exclusively one of high tenors.  Why?

Bear in mind that the people who rely on rock most heavily to make an identity statement are teenagers.  And for teenagers, a big heavy male voice might sound too old.  Instead, rock listeners express the ambivalence and uncertainty of identity that characterizes teendom via higher voices.

These are not usually outright childish ones, however. They also tend to have a bit of a rasp or snarl to them—not only to keep the high pitch from sounding effeminate, but to project the required "attitude."

How about country music?  Why do so many really thick, twangy, mossy-side-of-the-Ozarks accents get between us and the musical content of the songs?

Again, think proxies.  When we hear the voices of country singers, we’re supposed to say, "That’s me, the common man—not too damn fancy."  We not only accept, but actually demand voices of this type, because the whole point of country is to be unaffected, and the hell with anybody who doesn’t like it.

In fact, country’s intensely "feely" quality is precisely what makes people adopt it as a response, not only to the dehumanizing mechanization of many blue-collar jobs, but also to the dehumanizing degree of "polish" required in many white-collar and professional ones.

Understanding why we pick the singers we do can produce a pleasantly enlightened sensation.  But it can also trigger more disturbing ones.

For example, there is an almost complete absence today of big, virile, self-confident baritone voices on male singers.   This has not always been the case.  In previous ages, a lot of people have wanted to listen to the sound made by a "good male specimen."  Why not now?

Perhaps we just don’t consider them very viable proxies for ourselves.  It may be that such voices make us think of classic alpha males—guys who have the world by the tail—and not very many of us today can relate to that kind of feeling.