Costumes Research

Costumes Research

When looking into different forms of music magazines I have discovered that bands and artists have their own individual look/costumes.

A clear representation of bold costume is Lady Gaga, and her diverse range of fashion statements, an example of this is the 'meat dress' which gathered lots of attention, both positively and negatively from the media. Common bands such as Paramore, are shown in Kerrang magazine to have simple and down to earth costumes, the three band members are wearing dark coloured shirts and tops of a casual attire that emphasises comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity.

Each individual artists have their own appearance to either stand out against others or just to give a true representation of their personalities. Music magazines represent this through main images of well known celebrities, this is usually found on the front cover as the background image, and can also be found in the magazine, often on the pages next to the featured stories.

Costume is important when making a magazine as it give the target audience a feel of what the magazine institution is based around and can also identify the genre of the music magazine. For example the readers would expect to see a brightly coloured magazine for musical artist in the charts as it is aimed at the younger generation, which are known for being interested  in eye catching features.

The costume relates to what the audience expect to see, as it portrays the celebrity. Nowadays artists that release music in the charts are stereotypically described as attractive in the media with desirable looks. Certain audiences look for escapism and aspire to be like the celebrity. Costume is the key aspect of this, because the dress code of celebrities represents who they are and would change if the appearance was altered. (i.e.. Rihanna commonly wears slightly revealing clothes, however, if she changed her look to wearing plan and oversized clothing, like joggers, the representation of her would be different in the media.)

Example of Costume change, and how it has been represented in the media

Amy Winehouse (before and after)

Even though Amy Winehouse appearance changed due to the affects of drugs, her dramatic costume change was portrayed in the media. It went from a positive representation when she was portrayed as young, attractive with a bright future however changed to a strong juxtaposition, where she began to be portrayed as an addict which has always had a negative aspect in the media (in the newspapers and television reports)

This image shows the clear contrast between costumes and how it can effect the interpretation of a person.




These artists represent the Indie/Rock genre. They all have similar costumes, smart casual which give a representative of the genre suggesting they are not necessarily interested in having a bold, and noticeable appearance but are more focused on the music that is being produced. Rock and Indie genre bands are commonly all male, stereotypically shown as masculine i.e.. in comparison to boy bands, that are usually portrayed as sweet (or just as young boys not men)