Stephan Pennington’s landmark publication “Transgender Passing Guides and the Vocal Performance of Gender and Sexuality” (2019) explored how cisgendered vocalists may be fluid in their performances of gender through adopting masculine and feminine vocal codes. I extend this research by arguing that audio production and engineering techniques serve an equally important role in how artists negotiate their expressions of gender identity. Using Donna Haraway’s (1985) metaphor of the cyborg and Jean Baudrillard’s (1994) conceptions of simulacra and simulation as hermeneutic lenses, I look at how the genre-norms of hyperpop grant vocalists the ability to abstract the voice from the body. I argue that the more technologically mediated a vocal signal is, the closer it becomes to a simulacrum rather than a faithful reproduction of an original source. As a result, hyperpop artists can create multifaceted, nuanced, and contradictory portrayals of gender that add a layer of subtextual commentary to their work. I then use three case studies to exemplify how this may be achieved in existing repertoire. I begin by looking at Dorian Electra’s “Flamboyant” (2019), which features fluctuations in both formant and instrumental texture. This allows them to choose how and to what degree they align with various points on the gender spectrum and add implicit commentary to the corresponding lyrical content. I then look at Charli xcx and Caroline Polachek’s collaboration on “Everything is romantic featuring caroline polachek” (2024). I argue that pitch correction and spatial positioning allow them to apply masculine vocal codes to create a “sonic mask.” This then grants them the ability to express their discomfort as they navigate the challenges of fame within the frame of femininity. Finally, I examine how Addison Rae’s “Fame Is a Gun” (2025) constructs two sonically distinct identities to usurp listener expectations, offering a critique of celebrity culture and female robotic tropes. In moving fluidly between portrayals of female purity and danger that are present in each persona, I assert that Rae flexes the power she possesses in her position and reminds the listener that she is the one who is truly in control.

When resistance of the voiceless confronts the perennial voice of hungry listening–a listening positionality which is inherent to the logic of settler colonialism as contextualized within the germination of the United States–a rich history of indigenous composers comes to the forefront. The Diné (Navajo) composer Raven Chacon critiques the reality of listening through the framework of settler colonialism in the United States by grounding his sound in history, community, and the spaces these phenomena occupy. In 2021, the Wisconsin Conference of the United Church of Christ, Plymouth Church UCC, and Present Music commissioned Raven Chacon to write Voiceless Mass for the Present Music Thanksgiving Day Concert at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, WI. A year later, Chacon was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Voiceless Mass ruminates upon the intersection of voicelessness and space, a salient relationship that indigenous peoples in the US and Canada have faced due to genocide and displacement since the inception of each nation. It is the interdiction of voicelessness at the behest of institutional subjection by making present the voice of the voiceless, a form of testimony through Chacon’s Mass. But is this testimony forced? In this paper, I will analyse the historical precedent and interpretive meaning of Chacon’s Voiceless Mass through the synthesis of spectral analysis and hauntology. I root this methodology through the praxis of Dylan Robinson’s seminal text Hungry Listening, reckoning with the haunting of the settler colonial ear and delving into the paradoxical and pluralistic listening experiences embodied by different positionalities experiencing this piece. By situating a relationship of the voiceless alongside the phenomenon of the specter, I will observe the acoustic architecture present in various spectrograms to orient Voiceless Mass within a discourse about voicelessness–this ontological positionality as it concerns indigenous peoples in the US–and the paradox of the voiceless being made into voiceful.

Katie Gavin—lead singer of indie-pop band MUNA—employs contrasting vocal techniques between studio recordings and acoustic performances, creating noticeable differences that alter the emotional effect of these songs. MUNA studio recordings pull from ‘80s musical influences to create synth-heavy dance grooves and layered vocals. The band often contrasts this quintessentially MUNA sound with stripped-down performances that more aptly match singer-songwriter styles (Murphy 2023). My work dissects the changing vocal timbres in these contrasting versions to decipher how timbral choices affect the expressive features and interact with both formal and melodic elements in each version. I contend that these timbral differences result in marked and unmarked effects in Gavin’s voice. In this paper, I analyze the studio and acoustic versions of two MUNA songs, “I Know A Place” (2017) (IKAP) and “Anything But Me” (2022). For the acoustic versions, I argue that Gavin’s vocals demonstrate two particular vocalizations—a yodel and a glottal phenomenon—which are marked vocal styles that serve in shaping the musical narrative and accentuating the emotional significance of her phrases.

Wise (2016) defines the yodel as a break in register, occurring over a single word or syllable with a change in pitch. Gavin inserts yodels into acoustic performances of “Anything But Me,” and these melodic alterations shift this poppy dance song to a folk tune, bringing storytelling to the forefront. Perhaps more significant, however, is Gavin’s vocalizations that challenge this yodel definition. Gavin typically sings at her break between her chest and head voice, resulting in a fast-paced release of air pressure from her glottis that brings an abrupt shift in register, and the sound quickly disperses in a fading shrill. I have named this vocalization the glottal phenomenon (GP), which occurs in acoustic versions of “IKAP.” The GP distinguishes itself from the yodel because it lacks a change in pitch, functioning rather as an embellishment than structural component. GPs accentuate specific lyrics through rapid shifts in register. The placement of these vocalizations—which rarely occur in studio versions—emphasize the formal boundaries and deliver new emotional emphases, and thus they function as deliberate expressive features that shift the lyrical interpretation.