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Call It What You Want by Taylor Swift, covered by Johnathan Cochran. 

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Riptide by Vance Joy, covered by Jasmine Thompson

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Hot In Herre by Nelly, covered by Jenny Owen Youngs

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I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie, covered by Daniela Andrade (no pronouns)

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Let Her Go by Passenger, covered by Alex G

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Otherside by Red Hot Chili Peppers, covered by Silbermond.

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Creep by Radiohead, covered by Kina Grannis.

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Wild World by Cat Stevens, covered by Joanna Wang. 

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Closer by Nine Inch Nails, covered by Kawehi. No gendered pronouns, as in the original. Thanks for the submission, anon!

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All The Things She Said by Tatu, covered by Evarose with its original female pronouns. Thanks for the submission, anon!

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The A Team by Ed Sheeran, covered by Daniela Andrade.

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Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, covered by Daniela Andrade.

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The A Team by Ed Sheeran, covered by Caitlin Hart.

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do u ever think it's inappropriate to /not/ change pronouns? because i saw a male do a cover of she keeps me warm by mary lambert, keeping the female pronouns. which i feel kind of defeats the purpose/meaning of the song? like 'i couldn't change even if i tried' makes no sense in a straight situation :/ it made me cringe because he was like 'equality!!!' so i know he meant well but you know it left a weird taste in my mouth :/

hello anon!

although this is kind of a wobbly line and possibly a divisive topic, the short answer is yes, we do think so. what I believe happens in scenarios like this, is that no matter what the intentions of the person may be, they’re removing context from a piece of media or representation in which that context is rare and very important to the people that it’s about or for.

sometimes removing context from a piece of media is totally fine, especially if that media isn’t saying anything particularly new or representing something that is under represented in the mainstream. it can make for some really interesting retellings of the same old thing if you swap parts out! on the other hand, when the context you’re removing results in erasure of something rarely seen in media, then it’s much less cool.

it’s even less cool when there’s a history of that representation being removed, erased, stifled, and aggressed as is the case with queer representation and queer folk in general. changing the pronouns and lyrics in general to “avoid!! the gay!!” when singing a cover is an example of how a kind of microaggression against queer people (or against male-femininity, another topic) is totally normalised by compulsory heteronormativity, and is an immediate example of that history of accepted erasure in this exact environment.

so though a cover artist might have great intentions, or might love a song that is explicitly about queer rep or by a queer artist, or want to show support, we do feel like there is a pretty staggering amount of ignorance required to not see the effect of that act in terms of context removal. it takes about zero seconds to think about that as a queer person and think as a dude covering a love song between two women, that makes it ““straight”” and to know that’s a bad idea and inappropriate and that you’re taking something away from a minority who has already got pretty big losses on their side.

- t

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“Same Drugs” by Chance the Rapper, covered by MisterWives.

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Dancing On My Own by Robyn, covered by Kings of Leon.

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Beauty and a Beat by Justin Bieber feat. Nicki Minaj, covered by Postmodern Jukebox.