ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the gendered dimensions and meanings of this media practice. It explores how the mediation of the popular practice of covering may affect the way masculinity is embodied by male cover fan-producers. The genre of cover song videos is typified by a shared approach to how original songs are appropriated. Queer interventions are able to expose and challenge the discriminatory practices of heteronormativity by giving a voice to those who have been excluded or treated as inferior because of their gender or sexual identity. It is important to take into account that these queer cover songs come from a general desire to be authentic, which is shared by many fan-producers of cover song videos. If anything, the cover song video represents two men who form a strong homosocial bond and who are not 'afraid' of covering an emotional song together.
