Through this project, it can be said that there were two types of relationship between music and fashion.
1. Imitation of musicians. Some fans looked musicians as idols, and was eager to approach them.
2. Other sides of social groups. When people made groups with others having same direction, they often became to have similar likings.
According to Hebdige, "as the music and the various subcultures it supports or reproduces assume rigid and identifiable patterns, so new subcultures are created which demand or produce corresponding mutations in musical form" (69, italicized).
In short, first new cultural groups appear, next new forms of music or fashion are created.
But one new question comes. Recently, both music and fashion became diversified. Then, even if people belong to the same groups, created forms of music or fashion may have differences. For example, in Japan, "fashion punks," such as people influenced by the comic "NANA," are attacked by punks based on punk music.
Must people have cultural bases to decide what to wear? Must taste in fashion match with in music?
I think no. We can use their relation in order to analyze some culture, but cannot criticize others.
You raise a very interesting issue about the relationship between music and culture: Do the cultural groups seek to define their own music, as well as other artifacts like fashion and dance, as way of establishing identity? Or does a love and affiliation for a kind of music draw people into a cultural sub-group? I feel I have experienced both. Rock was a means for my generation to express it's political and social voice, in protest to the war, conservatism, and consumerism of 1950s America. But then I later came to love jazz music and was drawn into a different world in order to explore and learn more about the music.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you provided a very nice narrative of music/fashion trends in England, and found great images to illustrate. I might use a few of these images when I teach the course next year.