In my opinion, your visual appearance must extend your music; it must reflect your music. Björk has done this probably best over the past decades, while Lady Gaga did the exact opposite. She disguised the mediocrity of her music, which, to be fair, makes her sell more records than Björk. She wears these over-the-top outfits that, at the end of the day are mostly inspired by the avant-garde. It’s like she is flicking through the books, grabbing ideas without context. It sounds negative, but I don’t mean that. I prefer that over artists who dress themselves as if they were your neighbors. Another good example is Debbie Harry. Her face, her music, her whole character made her appearance so unique, while in theory she could have just been another “blonde” pop star. That is quite powerful because she stands out even decades later. Of course Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex was amazing. I am thinking about her early New Wave punk look, the way she posed; that worked well with artwork of those colored 7” vinyls and the album cover.
- Nic Endo answering the question: “Who were some women musicians you feel have used their visual in a progressive and powerful way?” (via iflybikes)
(Source: Rolling Stone, via iflybikes)
