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"New Rock": Selling music or materialism?
Responses to my last question have influenced me to write this. People have been telling me that bands like MCR are "great" and the "fans" don't "look at the band"*** but listen. Anywho, I now propose this:
If all these new bands aren't mostly about their image, why do so many kids mimic their appearance?
We shall use MCR again, as they are a good example. Black hair, girl pants, the works. There are kids who copy this style to the T. They may listen to the music, but they sure try and play the part too. What if MCR dressed more conservative? Do you think their fanbase would drop? Do you think the youth would start dressing more civil as well? I'll use my favorite band, Radiohead, as a counter example. They make millions of dollars, have a massive fanbase, but are far from eccentric. From performing to living their everyday lives, they dress down in the most casual of clothes. When you see them perform, the fans are mostly the same. No outrageous dyed black hair with gaudy excessive crap all over their bodies.
So, in summary, do bands like MCR sell more music or a style, and would they be as successful if they weren't so eccentric?
note: please don't answer this if you are an MCR fan and are coming to praise the band. this isn't an MCR question.
***I think some were confused when I said most new music is about image and not music.
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YES! I completely agree. I think it's stupid how if you go out and see hundreds of kids with "outrageous dyed black hair and gaudy excessive crap all over their bodies" Plus on top of that just a few weeks before they wore polos and all that expensive abercrombie crap and they just keep following the trend, style after style. Well, anyway I've been thinking that for weeks and thank you for saying it.
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I didn't see your last question but I will throw my 2 cents worth in.
I think with the advent of MTV and all the music video shows out there you are probably right. Its sad but true image is much more important than it used to be.
Strip the videos from the bands and I truly believe more than half would not be able to make it on their music alone. Most of the lyrics are horrible. The majority pretty much sounds the same.
If your average teen couldn't see the cute front-man for the band it would probably go away.
Look at some of the good bands from the past. Most aren't what you'd call good looking. Some are down right scary. But, people didn't care what they looked like. The music was the draw.
I could go on for days but I will stop. To answer your question, without ever having heard MCR (that I know of) They probably wouldn't be popular if not for their looks/style/video/eccentricities. :)
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I Think it depends on the fan. If someone had liked MCR before they were on MTV and they changed it wouldnt matter because to them it is all about the music. However if we are talking about one of those teenyboppers who have a million cut outs of magazines and wear MCR shirts even though they do not have either of there cd's they would label them as sellouts. So it think it is about the music no matter what along with other longtime fans of MCR and other bands but others would move on to another band if they changed. I also think the same goes for Green Day and Fall Out Boy
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Kids listen to music they think they can relate to. Therefore, kids that dress in black, wear girls pants, have 9483+ piercing are going to listen to bands that are the same; ones that they can relate to.
So yeah, I think that if MCR or bands like that change their apperance then there will be a big chance that they will also lose many of their current fans.
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