As a follow-up on the why are songbirds so pretty? post, where I suggested cross-assortative mating between attractive females and musical males, I found out that Linda Perry, the lead singer of 4 Non Blondes, has a mother who was a model and father who was a musician. (And like Mia Rose and Ana Free, she's of Portuguese descent). Since she lead a grunge-rock band, and since she entered young adulthood as a lesbian in San Francisco during the late '80s and early '90s, we can assume she tried to downplay her sex appeal as much as possible.
Indeed, in the video for "What's up?", their breakthrough hit of 1992, she's sporting some very hideous dredlocks and a big goofy hat. But you can still tell how beautiful her face is, and that she has nice legs. (Here is Vega's cover of the same song.) A Google image search confirms this; she looks pretty good for 42.
hm, interesting. i just watched that video. i wonder if this is from where Mystery got his peacocking idea of top hat and aviator goggles? the guy is a noted fan of everything 80s and early 90s.
ReplyDeletein fact, come to think of it, a lot of the routines, "negs" and cocky lines he uses are pulled from popular 80s teen movies.
One quibble, as part of the early 90s alternative explosion/corporate branding, 4NB arose out from the 1980s college rock scene rather than the NW regional hardcore and metal derived sound of grunge.
ReplyDeleteUgh. Not another lesbian. Sometimes it seems like half the hott women in the country are lesbians :(((
ReplyDeleteGrunge? I had never seen the video and always believed the song was from the 80s or 70s. Mudhoney & the Melvins can't help but sound like anything but grunge.
ReplyDeleteOK, so "grunge" in a more style sense -- i.e., she's going to try to dress like a homeless drug-addict, sex appeal should be minimized, etc.
ReplyDeleteI should clarify that I don't think that your cross-assortive mating theory is wrong. Lots of attractive traits tend to pool together. Its just that the main reason so many popular singers are good looking is because of audience preferences. Its going to be tough to test the effect of the former, when the effect of the latter is so strong.
ReplyDeleteBTW my take on Gwen Stefani is up here.
Linda Perry´s nose is grossly big for someone whose mother should be former model. The rest of her face is even 7.
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