IS HE HOT OR JUST A MUSICIAN?
- isabelkraby
- Apr 14, 2025
- 3 min read
The age-old question is as pertinent to the Gainesville music scene as it is anywhere else…
By: Isabel Kraby
Charles Darwin, known for his transformative theory of evolution by natural selection, essentially said that musicians are hot. In “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex,” he wrote, “Musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male and female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex.”
So is it that musical talent makes one more attractive? Or that people who end up in bands just happen to be good-looking? The chicken or the egg…
Perhaps it’s a bit of both, but the former seems more promising. I’m no expert — as opposed to the Austrian scientists who have literally researched this topic — but I’ve fallen for a few of the musically inclined in my time, and I bet you have too.
Let’s face it, the Gainesville demographic is largely that of lascivious UF students. When thrown at the front of the sweaty pit at The Wooly, face-to-face with their new favorite indie band (The Nancys, likely), the audience becomes all the more lustful and enamored with the instrument-wielding divinities before them. Without a microphone, guitar or drumsticks in hand, I wonder if the smitten girls pressed against the stage would even be in that room at all.
It’s hard to disagree that a musician has a certain appeal, whether or not they are genuinely talented at their craft. Of course, the ability to skillfully shred on guitar is inherently impressive and attractive, but the sheer vulnerability and audacity to perform to a crowd is pretty sexy too. This is especially true of songwriters. Women like sensitive men. But, they also love their bad boys who tear up drum solos and break several pairs of sticks per gig. It’s an interesting juxtaposition.
There are elements of a show’s environment that are also at play here. Take the fact that they are often on stage, elevated above the crowd. Anyone with minimal photography experience knows that observing the subject from below gives the subject power. It creates the illusion that they’re rich, famous and not struggling college students that you probably pass on campus. Still, there’s an intimacy to being on the same level as the artist. I bet you felt Buboy was singing directly to you at his EP release house show. You weren’t the only one.
Oftentimes, you can tell that someone became a musician just by looking. Below, I have photographic proof that joining a band or taking up an instrument is akin to a glow up. Here are a few victims from around town...
Still convinced these are two separate people.
Credit: Brooks Chandler of The Bliss band
Jazz trumpets are the new chick magnet.
Credit: Connor Dyer
Call it puberty, call it aging 10 years. I’ll call it taking up the electric guitar.
Credit: Derek Rosales
Gainesville isn’t safe from the “musician effect” epidemic and is home to its own host of attractive artists. While many individuals are good-looking by nature, being in a band can nurture an attraction so powerful, you’d think the girls (and guys) at Indie Night Live were possessed by Elvis.
I’ll end with a quote from a Huffington Post blog: “Psychologists say women are attracted to those with musical ability because back in caveman days, if a man had the time to be creative, it meant they were so talented at basic survival skills they had chance to conjure up art in their spare time.”
While men still haven’t evolved much since caveman times, who cares, as long as they’re in a band, right?
Isabel Kraby is a first-year transfer student from Ormond Beach and is studying journalism. She loves going to rock concerts, crocheting and picking up her guitar every once in a while.