Visual Image

[Stumpy]

now that a band has a good sound and a strong product where does one turn to to get their image inline with the music type, the genre?

Any ideas?

Please no "you should wear what makes you feel good, man" stuff.

I am not looking for the hair band thing, nor the goth thing, but ...

[tZer]

I think that is a good question. I am going to be engaging in that exercise soon enough.

My thoughts regarding image, look, visual presentation:

A band's musical style should offer some insight, based on groups that have gone before, toward a general presentation.

Eg: Rock - Zeppelin, Hendrix, The Beatles - Strong, masculine, sometimes fantasy/psychedelic - bold colors -

Alternative: Artsy, costumed, theatrical, sometimes hyper-fun, sometimes hyper-melodramatic

Jazz: Intellectual, fashionably stylish, cool (as in Tony Bennet/Dean Martin/Nat King Cole cool)

Funk: Outrageous, bold, loud, unashamed, hyper-sexual, hyper-party, pimped, proud...

So When I take my project through this exercise, we are going to talk as a group about the things we have seen before that we like, relate to, feel connected to and that we believe accurately represent how we feel about our project from a visual perspective.

We have a mix of rockers, jazzers, world-beaters, and folkies in this project. Devotees of Neil Young, Hendrix, Rusted Root, and so on. There are some common threads that run through all of these musical ideologies - paisley, oriental rugs, incense, beat-up pick-ups, beater acoustic guitars, long hair, a connection to the psychedelic thing...

There is also a stong connection to anything the Beatles did - so add to the above discussion, that "Brit-pop-rock" thing...

So when we begin to craft our image, I am going to lay out pictures of all the things above and we will start picking and choosing things we want to adopt and convert to become our thing.

As a starting point, anyway...

[chaosMK]

The general aesthetic of all your products sort of tie into that.

Take the band White Zombie-

Grungy/smutty album art, grungy smutty vocals/lyrics, grungy/smutty band costumes, soft core vintage porn at their shows.

I mean say they had a sleek aesthetic instead of what they ended up doing, the band would never have made it all that far.

Another band that really used image for their marketing- Marilyn Manson. His music was pretty crappy, but he was selling the whole lifestyle practically.

[BellBottomBlues]

what kind of music do you play?

[theshadow2001]

no button down shirts

[Stumpy]

Originally Posted by BellBottomBlues

what kind of music do you play?

Uhmmmmmmmmmmm....

go here http://www.myspace.com/crashthemachine and tell me. I am not sure what the genre is

On myspace I would think that it is power pop, It sounds like U2, The Frey, and others... Dunno

[GillesUnchained]

You should dress like this...

http://www.nick-cave.com/gallery2/al...rmal_bw_32.jpg

It never hurts.

[Stumpy]

Originally Posted by GillesUnchained

You should dress like this...

http://www.nick-cave.com/gallery2/al...rmal_bw_32.jpg

It never hurts.

How about the "clock werk orange" look?

[B-NoteCowboy]

Definately a U2 vibe I picked up on. Ask yourself WWBW



What would Bono wear?


Go for collared shirts (no tie and top two buttons undone) under a black leather sports jacket. Don't wear the glasses though! Think Johnny Cash....

[billjr]

With that sound, I would stay away from jeans and t-shirts. I can visualize two similar looks. All black, like black pants, black dress shirt and black blazer, or use a dark blue shirt. You know, the bass player for Bon Jovi, McDonald or whatever, has a pretty sophisticated look that would work.

With your sound, I just don't see your typical grunge or hard rock look. You need to dress it up somewhat. I like the WWBW idea. Maybe look at what the guys in Oceans Eleven wore.

[chaosMK]

Sophisticated look, possibly with white belts.

[Stumpy]

Great responses. Just the kind of info I was looking for.


My current look is...

Black shoes and socks. Black jeans. Black collared shirt over some kind of olive green shirt. The sleeves rolled up on the black shirt and the buttons open to about the middle of my belly.

What do you think?

[SOA_bassist]

if my new band ever makes it to the stage ( only been around for about four weeks, two of which the guitarist had to be in Maui ) I have something funny planned out

We are going to start every show as a joke band or tribute band for half of a song. We will walk on the stage and say " (NAME) couldn't make it, so we are going to take their place today. " We will dress for that occasion, whether it is emo, disco, pop, or Angry Anals

[beyondhairy]

Originally Posted by chaosMK

The general aesthetic of all your products sort of tie into that.

Another band that really used image for their marketing- Marilyn Manson. His music was pretty crappy, but he was selling the whole lifestyle practically.

i take offense to that, manson's music wasnt crappy, it might be heading there now, but it wasnt crappy at all, that was my favorite band for all of 4 years, and i didnt like them because they looked the coolest, they had great freaken music




back to topic:

what i wear on stage wouldnt be any different then what i wear in the streets, jeans, band t-shirt, rugged facial hair.

i wore a button down shirt my last gig thoug lol

[jimb213]

Originally Posted by Stumpy

Uhmmmmmmmmmmm....

go here http://www.myspace.com/crashthemachine and tell me. I am not sure what the genre is

On myspace I would think that it is power pop, It sounds like U2, The Frey, and others... Dunno

What's wrong with this:


Y'all have a unified enough look (without looking like a uniform) that fits the music I heard on your myspace.

Keep doing what you're doing.

[bradjonesbass]

Is that a brick wall?

[Stumpy]

Originally Posted by jimb213

What's wrong with this:


Y'all have a unified enough look (without looking like a uniform) that fits the music I heard on your myspace.

Keep doing what you're doing.

Thanks...

The wall is actually a huge place in San Francisco

[Shroom]

Well, I'm in a ska band and we're going to a battle of the bands next week all in suits, which will hopefully all be black and white. I'm the drummer, though, so I think I'm gonna wear something a little light so I don't overheat, BUT I also think I'm gonna but on the head of my bunny suit

[uethanian]

HAHA MALICE MIZER!!!

http://foto.rambler.ru/public/b/a/ba...agroup-web.jpg

http://www.malice-mizer.co.jp/img/bio/kozi.gif

http://gween-doll.tripod.com/harajuk...-Mana_Kozi.jpg

take a listen, u might like what u hear.

[Stumpy]

Originally Posted by jimb213

What's wrong with this:


Y'all have a unified enough look (without looking like a uniform) that fits the music I heard on your myspace.

Keep doing what you're doing.

That is me in the brown coat.