I'm gonna try clear the air a bit... :S
Where's Mr Softie in longer hair? Where where where? I wanna see!
uhm.... I don't know about looking like a musician, but I wear long / short coats / jackets / hoodies when I go out. Yes, even in our crazy weather. It was sorta my usual trademark look when I go out sometimes.. like that girl in the corduroy mango coat, yeap, definitely sage lol
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I went completely ballistic when I left my coat at a previous gig performance venue and couldn't find it... Called them up nonstop and was practically going through sleepless nights..
I tried stopping this habit some time in the past when I'm not in the mood for the stares, but it was so uncomfortable going out without one that I got over the whole looking business.
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My reasons for wearing them are a weird mix, which I shall not mention unless you intend to marry me or something..
Otherwise, I don't think I look like a musician though; Just a nutcase.
Speaking of which, I'm just wondering.. is the general society picky on musicians dressing up these days?
I don't care for dressing up on stage much, firstly because being in a metal band (for example), my hair length seems to be the most important "outfit" I'd need to headbang with the crowd, and with the amount of movement I have to make on stage whilst keeping air reserves for singing my notes, I need to pick out clothes that doesn't hyperventilate, twist me in a loop, or make me fall off and squash the fans flat. I depend on my facial expressions and body language to do the bit for the music's showmanship (which I can express much better than flaunting what I'm wearing, fortunately or unfortunately
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BUT! I do wear single, minor articles (such as bracelets, makeup or a corsette look somewhere) to fit into the music my band is playing. I do wear at least one piece of attire that stands out, because my band's music needs me to do this
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Everything else is just simple giordano-esh tops and stuff lol.
Wasted lah I'd rather wear something easier to mosh in, like an oversized shirt and my ripped jeans
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Black, leather and spandex under the stagelights is a one way ticket to the oven!!!!!!!
That goes for my metal band.
On other simpler gigs (acoustic pop, songwriter-ish, etc), I just don regular clothes and let the music do its work. Sometimes I could arrive for a gig in my usual coat attire, but strip down afterwards, remove my makeup, etc and dress like any other normal person for the performance
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It's quite odd explaining this to my friends sometimes, and my answer to this is that "this isn't the gig to have my voice compromised by what I wear. I wanna bounce the vibe off between me and the audience, and looking different isn't gonna help."
All I'm trying to say is............
I think it depends lah, on the music, the stage, the audience, and most importantly,
>>> your self-esteem and your music initiatives / priorities and how they work together IF there was a connection in the first place <<<
Like.. doing music aside, like I mentioned in the previous bit, going about with coats / jackets / hoodies is just my (personal) identity, which I always strain to keep seperate from my "musician look" (because I am not -only- a musician / metalhead etc). Nothing wrong with being what I am, with or without the "MUSICIAN!!" label over my head,
and I think there should be a clear distinction with this (personal identity) and the identity as a musician; They can be worlds apart, depending on the person.
Reading through heckler's posts and the counter-posts to heckler, it seems to me that there's a crazy jumbo super-size mix of a lot of different factors... human nature, musician nature (image), musician nature (music), music fans nature, music fans natures within different genres, philosophy, psychology and some schools of thought....
it's not gonna get any concrete I think, unless everyone's talking about the same thing? :/ Don't fight lar.........
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Here's another bounce-off, that is purely on my own personal theory (so don't hantam k)
I do agree, though, that musicians and music fanatics DO look different.
But... it's not on the obvious things like what. they. wear. This is my OWN personal observances, maybe I'm nuts or too free (highly possible);
They have a certain air, a certain walk, a certain smile, a certain expression, certain responses, etc etc
AND
these vary between their genres! Gasp.
Like some musicians look just like a regular Singaporean teenager but you just get a gut feeling there's something up with the fella when you look at his body language, responses after some time, etc; like they're psycho or their families are broken or have a crazy fetish or something. And you have no idea what it is, until you find out he's in a band or doing trance compositions or something.
Unfortunately, I have also met some "unique" non-musician or non-musically-inclined individuals that exhibit a handful of the similar dispositions :/ hmm.. I still think there might be a subset to these for a musician only. I'm willing to bring in a controlled experiment to this, but I can't find enough volunteers who are free enough. Maybe I'll start next year when I'm resuming my studies.. Anyone interested? Pretty little curiousity to poke into~
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