So many male singers in the late 70s/early 80s sang with very high pitched or soft voices

At age 12 listening to FM radio, I genuinely thought the guy in the Eagles who sang I Can’t Tell You Why, and the simpering sad guy who sang “You Left Me, Just When I Needed You Most” were both women.

I thought for sure the guy from Ozark Mountain Daredevils who sang "Jackie Blue" was a woman, and for years I thought it was Joni Mitchell.

Every Neil Sedaka song I thought was a woman

Shawn Mendes eat your homo heart out.

All these years I thought Jackie Blue was sung by a woman. Kind of like the Moody Blues song Knights in White Satin is really Nights in White Satin.

Morten Harket in a-ha has a joyous exhilarating young man's voice. It's not high pitched or soft in my opinion. He's perfectly pitched through several octaves (some claim 5!). Male pop singers have broken into falsetto for decades. It is a traditional technique in male pop singing, not a distinctive feature of the era OP names.

Yes Shawn Mendes could only dream to be able to sing like some of these brilliant pop singers.

Yeah, I never thought the A ha dude was a girl.

Sylvester, Jimmy Somerville and Andy Bell sound or sounded more femme but I don't really count them in this catehory - it would not be an unreasonable expectation for a gay singer to sing in a higher register.

It was the time of the sensitive singer / songwriter with long, feathered hair. The song Wildfire comes to mind.

The era of poppers

Back in the 70s my grandmother said something like, "I am not fond of modern music but that woman in The Stylistics has a lovely voice."

Elvin Bishop, " I Fooled Around and Fell in Love.". I love that era of music.

R12, fun fact you probably know, that was the first hit with little Mickey Thomas on vocals. He joined Jefferson Starship a couple years later.

He and Ann Wilson really should have done a few powerhouse duets together back then… their talent was so similar.

Everyone was literally going ape shit over Englbert Humperdink. Old ladies, all-age gays, invalids, bitches in the suburbs.