One thing I've heard fairly often (over the past few decades), both from people who book music acts and just in casual conversation is that "people generally tend to prefer male voices to female voices (other things being equal)."   Perhaps that reflects a general preference for lower-pitched voices, perhaps men tend to have more powerful voices. DK. But I've heard that opinion expressed a number of times.

It's also been mentioned that live audiences and video audiences tend to accept male musicians as entertainers no matter what they look like but often expect the females to be younger, slimmer, and/or prettier.   

Even in the assisted living and retirement communities where I often do music, more male entertainers than females are hired, and activity directors are often quite up-front about saying "Our residents [who are about 80% female, on average] prefer male voices."

With senior populations, the preference for lower voices may partly be attributable to age-related hearing loss as well as to how hearing aids may distort sounds. It's probably also partly that when you have a lot of widows together an adult male presence is valued whether he can sing/play or not. *g*

But I wonder whether men or women are generally more inclined to be audiences for live music.   And is there any tendency for one sex or the other to prefer watching/listening to a performer of the opposite sex vs. one of their own?