[Closed] Strong images that pop musicians have or had

So it would appear that there are musicians with strong images that exist nowadays but not really in the mainstream by and large and with the fragmentation of pop music and my dinosaur tendencies I have not seen it

not really in the mainstream

The mainstream is exactly where you'd put something to hide it from a bunch of 50-somethings 🙂

When was the last time you saw/heard a rundown of the top 40?

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When was the last time you saw/heard a rundown of the top 40?

Good point. Now I feel really old and beige.
*sulks*

Is it the drugs? Dr John took far too much acid. He probably thought that was a normal way to dress.

Dr John is from New Orleans - his look is more influenced by the Mardi Gras Indians.

The role of drugs in music or any of the creative arts is overstated really - there would be far, far more musician and artists otherwise!. People like to imagine that drugs somehow write the music or bring about significant change in the artist.  Drugs don't have ideas for you -  they're just a mood-adjuster. Music is a mood adjuster too. So while its true that every music has its drug thats only because some drugs suit the mood and aesthetic of certain styles of music.

Not so sure maccruiskeen
" they call me Dr John - known as the night tripper. Got my sizzling gris gris in my hand" ( dunno what gris gris represents tho) Check the full lyric - full of drug references

I think the drugs often are airbrushed out and are integral to the music - altho you are right in they do not turn a tuneless no talent into a master

Would Dr Feelgood have had the same energy without the amphetamines? Would Sgt peppers ever been written without the acid?

Would reggae have developed as it did without weed? When cocaine arrived in the reggae world it changed it to a much harsher less kind sound and sentiment

YOu can map Lou Reeds drug use against the music - White light white heat on amphetamines, Heroin self explanatory and the pace of the music matches the drug. Morcheeba is full of drug references - the very name of the band and they acknowledged the use of heroin and other downers in creating the mellow mood

Its a bit chicken and egg but many musical genres and fashions have come and gone with the drugs associated with them

Edit - trip Hop? Acid House? the rave movement lived on MDMA

Peter Gabriel of Genesis used to wear a fox head, or a sunflower etc. There was so much pretentious music in the 70's that it was actually refreshing to see Dr Feelgood play in a pub. Stripped back cos it was all about the music.

Agree with you there CG

Check the full lyric – full of drug references

Streetband wrote a song about toast but I don't think it was a white carb induced spiritual revelation that lead to the creation of the song :-). And again Dr J is referring to New Orleans voodoo culture. Gris Gris is a voodoo talisman.

YOu can map Lou Reeds drug use against the music – White light white heat on amphetamines, Heroin self explanatory and the pace of the music matches the drug.

My gran took amphetamines and Queen Victoria took heroin

Di yer gran feel the need to strap on a guitar and strut around 😉

She was keen to start the washing up before my grandad had a chance to finish his dinner 🙂

CG - have you watched the Brian Pern/Peter Gabrial piss-take documentaries on iplayer? They are absolute comedy gold! And fair play to Peter Gabrial for doing a cameo to take the piss out of himself

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v65kw

And never being one to miss out on a bit of self-promotion, heres a recent commission I've done of someone who had quite a strong look

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487542403_e01bc8f8c0_h.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49487542403_e01bc8f8c0_h.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2ip3AeH ]Adam Ant[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/14162682@N00/ ]bin lid[/url], on Flickr

You can’t judge by one photo you find on the internet.
FWF for example, you see them at a venue, or in the street, you go, man, who are they? They have a strong image I can tell you. It may not be flamboyant, done upto the nines ponces... see also one of the most recognizable (ipad’s z) pop stars of our time, that Ed thingy bloke.
Some others from the mainstream to look up, if you still think there are no strong images - Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, The Weeknd, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Lizzo, Lil Yachty.

Lizzo is ace! And has something of a ‘look’. I’ve not had chance to see her live yet, but she put on one hell of a show at Glastonbury...

TJ, a good question and I see where you're coming if, as you say, you're looking for a musician who has propogated not just music but a whole sense of fashion and youth movement. However, I get the impression from my own kids and their friends that they just don't need a figurehead to guide them, they all seem brilliantly individual and more power to them.
Also, if you don't know who Billy Eilish is then, yes, I'm afraid you're a dinosaur. She's kind of a big deal at the moment 🙂.

Just also read the bit about the Top 40. My kids (14 and 11, and music fans) had no idea what the Top 40 was when I asked them. It's pretty irrelevant these days and that's no bad thing.

that Ed thingy bloke.

Why do people pretend they don’t actually know the name of someone just because they don’t like there music.

These fellas certainly have a look...

Why do people pretend they don’t actually know the name of someone just because they don’t like there music.

I wasn't - I was making a point about his image, which you sucessfully proved.

I don't know what your point was, looks like you were just called out.

Yeah, incorrectly. Thread about pop stars’ images right? TJ seems to think only flamboyant, poncey images like the ones he remembers, are the only strong ones. Yet, you know who Ed bloke is (Sheeran, in case you don’t) just by me using his 2 letter first name and referring to him as ‘that bloke’. I’d say that down to his strong image in part, as just a ginger bloke, what sings good.
Sometimes I guess you have to spell it out for people.

N no dez you missed the point

However I have been shown to have missed a bunch of people but beige is not the strong sort of image I was meaning

I don't know why you need to attack so personally over a non serious thread

Billie Eilish, Lizzo - thats the sort of folk I meant. Someone who has a strong sense of style that sits outside the mainstream and who changes the paradigm of how to dress and look.

Ed Sheeran certainly does not come into that category at all. He dresses like a gazillion others.

Black veiled Brides have a pretty "strong look", but I think you've probably proved your own point. the samples in your OP stretches over decades, For every Suzi Quattro and Bowie there's a hundred Velvet Underground in tees and jeans, and you can't compare contribution to look....Ignore DezB he always seems to get hugely over-possessive of all music threads.

To get the answer to your question you shouldn't have asked a bunch of old beige blokes.

Lolz @stevenmenmuir

I would disagree with this to some extent. Punk and two tone changed the way we dress right across the world. 1975 we were all in flares. 1979 flares were no more. That was completely driven by those two musical movements.

Not really.

There were people and cultures who avoided flares and their associated platform shoes, wide lapels and large collared shirts - skinheads, original mods who became smoothies or stayed as mods during the 70s, whose style was picked up by The Jam around 1977.

Plus the football casual fashions that arrived around 1977 and spread rapidly in the late 70s.

Punk and two tone were influential but did not completely drive the changes.

I don’t know why you need to attack so personally over a non serious thread

Music is serious business for Dez.

As well as Lizzo, here's a couple with strong image who are still doing stuff / not dead:

and these guys:

Colournoise
Mr P.orridge would surely deserve his own thread. An image that would crush most people!

Music is serious business for Dez

It is!! 😂
Thing is though, just because I disagree, and I definitely do, not sure why it’s deemed “serious” or an “attack”.I’m just typing words.
As for @nickc’s “Ignore DezB”, well yeah, of course you just want thread full of people all agreeing with each other, that would be really interesting. Or just ignoring each other? even better!
****.
Anyway, I’m really ****ing bored, so might go to town on stuff, it ain’t serious. Just an alternative opinion.

Yeah, incorrectly. Thread about pop stars’ images right? TJ seems to think only flamboyant, poncey images like the ones he remembers, are the only strong ones. Yet, you know who Ed bloke is (Sheeran, in case you don’t) just by me using his 2 letter first name and referring to him as ‘that bloke’. I’d say that down to his strong image in part, as just a ginger bloke, what sings good.
Sometimes I guess you have to spell it out for people.

haha, yeah... thats what you were doing... of course.

How silly of me 😆

(must have taken a while to think backwards out of that tbf... well done)

Does it matter that much to you that you have to be right? Ok then , yes I was pretending to forget Ed Sheeran's last name because "people" who don't like things pretend to forget their names. Yep, I've done that countless times! Busted. Oh, whoops. I didn't like them either.

To be honest I prefer beige dressed artists playing good music to weirdly dressed types producing bilge. But then in my youth I was jeans, teeshirt and pumps.

Does it matter...

Not in the slightest, it was just an observation initially, but the mental gymnastics to wriggle out of it were very amusing.

was intended to be lighthearted but it appears music is [b] far [/b] too serious a subject for that.

Dez - its not that you disagree. Its the frankly unpleasant tone in which you do so

Rammstein and Marilyn Manson get my vote.