Hate being told I don't look rock and roll!!!

[wmhill]

a bigass handful of hairgel and a jack daniels t-shirt!

 

[Capt.Obvious]

Looks like your left hand is sending a "subliminal" message

It's called the "Simandl bird," I do the same thing with my left hand when I play electric. I'm guessing it's for those that transfer the double bass left hand technique to the electric where you aren't using the third finger until higher up the neck. I know a lot of you cats that can make the stretch comfortably and use all four fingers, one per fret, even in the first position, but not me. I don't have huge hands to begin with, so it's just not a comfortable option, plus I get to unwittingly flip the audience off periodically.

 

[Staccato]

Laugh it off because some people never really have a youthful look, and others look old before turn 30.
Keep that look as long as you can! The people making those comments are probably bullies at heart, anyway.

 

[rmbassman]

haha！hey guy,you really look like a jazz man !I am your style now !!

 

[kenneffdupriest]

You resemble Van Morrison and your flipping me off. Thats very Rock-n-Roll.

Besides if your any good you'll get used to folks talking ship on ya. By the time that happens you'll b thirty, all the haters will have faded away and a different crowd will be telling you something completely different. It happens. Haters gonna hate. I'm just sayin

 

[Gaolee]

It's called the "Simandl bird," I do the same thing with my left hand when I play electric. I'm guessing it's for those that transfer the double bass left hand technique to the electric where you aren't using the third finger until higher up the neck. I know a lot of you cats that can make the stretch comfortably and use all four fingers, one per fret, even in the first position, but not me. I don't have huge hands to begin with, so it's just not a comfortable option, plus I get to unwittingly flip the audience off periodically.

Ah, there's a bonus for doing it right! Hmmm... I might have to learn to do it right then.

 

[bluesblaster]

wear brighter colors

 

[ImNotJoel]

When people say you don't look rock n roll tell them that's what all ugly people say.

 

[Low town]

Do this more often when you see people, be it in the street or at a gig.

 

[Capt.Obvious]

Do this more often when you see people, be it in the street or at a gig.


View attachment 525020

I laughed longer than was appropriate for a man of my age. LOL

 

[Big Hoss]

What exactly does Rock & Roll look like?

Sure you aren't doing the glam rock thing and that's good. Do your own thing and go with it...

 

[zontar]

Wow--page 8, mostly to either make jokes or to say just be yourself.
Cool.

 

[Stick_Player]

What exactly does Rock & Roll look like?

Hint:

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[Red Four]

Setting aside the "be yourself" stuff for a moment, I think the main issue with your look as shown in your photo is it's neither here nor there. Your look is neither rough around the edges nor fashionable enough to say "rock & roll". Look at the pics people have posted here - they're either more grungy and tough looking, or way more stylish and daring than your look. Lemmy is grungy looking, McCartney & Deacon are stylish, Bolan is flamboyant - all of that is rock & roll. But you're just safely somewhere in the middle, not much of anything. The safe all-black look, the club shirt, the little subtle necklace, the nice bass, it looks like well-to-do kid playing trust fund equipment. Everything's well-mannered but nothing stands out. There's no theatrical quality to it. You look like an audience member, not a performer.

I think the answer is to be more of anything. You don't have to grow your hair long or get tattoos or wear a certain kind of clothing. You just need to move demonstrably in some direction away from center, some direction that makes some kind of statement. For example, something as simple as a jacket can make a difference - take the look you have in the pic and add a sportcoat, and then under that a loosened tie, or an opened shirt with more showy necklace, or a cool band t-shirt, and just like that you've made an easy and noticeable step in a more R&R direction. But that's just a random example. You don't need to dress like Bootsy, you just need more of something. It's hard to make yourself look poor while holding a StingRay, so you may be best off going in a slightly more fashionable direction; not high fashion, but something in the Stones direction, maybe. And definitely tousle your hair. It doesn't have to be long or crazy, but yours is too neat and tidy. Lose the part, for a start.

I'd also suggest avoiding two R&R cliches: don't get any tattoos and don't take up smoking. No tattoos, because you will change as a person with time, and a tattoo will just be a permanent monument to what you thought you knew when you were young. Trust me, life will give you plenty of reminders of how clueless you were at this age without need for a printed reminder in the mirror each day. You may be health-aware enough to already avoid smoking, but it will cause long-term issues to you and the people around you (everyone via 2nd-hand smoke, and your loved ones in dealing with the future health issues).

Good luck deciding what kind of R&R you want to be, and being it more forcefully!

 

[tbirdsp]

Anybody else think the OP looks like Seth Macfarlane?

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[zontar]

Lemmy is grungy looking,

Lemmy would look like that if he had never been in a band.
He is being himself.

 

[Red Four]

Lemmy would look like that if he had never been in a band. He is being himself.

Maybe so. But you don't really know either Lemmy or the OP, so your comment is more speculative fandom than objective truth. And if you don't think there's anything theatrical in Lemmy's appearance, we'll have to disagree on that point.

Here's a young Lemmy:

In any case, you seem to be trying to contradict, but my point is that the OP should be more fully something, not something that isn't him.

 

[zontar]

And I can see someone going from that to what he looked like later.

the question then is--Does Lemmy look that way because he's in a rock band or is he in a rock band because he looks that way?

 

[Downunderwonder]

Lemmy would have surely been rocking when that photo was taken. He is now a product of rock'n'roll by default.

I was as baby faced as OP when I was 30, never got any comments on my appearance, can't even remember trying to dress up or down.

Liverpuddlians may be more sensitive to what is rock. When I was there the girls dressed up to go out of a Sat. night like nothing I ever saw before or since. I wasn't looking at the blokes. I guess OP looks much like an average punter at his local club....

 

[hrodbert696]

A little perspective, y'all: the OP posted this in band management, not OT or Bass Humor, and he's talking about being bothered by comments people are making at gigs about his appearance. While I agree that as a life matter, a person should be happy just being themselves, the fact is that entertainment is always an image business as well as whatever else (like musical talent). It's perfectly legit to suggest directions his look could go in if he's actually interested in developing a stage image. It really depends on the rest of the band, though, and what their image is. Or he could just tell people to get lost, or pass it off with a comment like "Pretty lucky I sound rock and roll, then."