In this article, the author investigates why the popularity of the vocoder effect in popular music ballooned during the late 1990s and early 2000s. She gives a particular focus to the recent (ca. 2001) appropriation of the vocoder by female artists, asking what effect it has had in terms of the representational practices of the voice, computer music, femininity, and homosexuality? She begins the article with a brief history of the vocoder and its uses.