1

Music and Fashion In The 20th Century

Jerrell Funtila

Contemporary Fashion

March 16th 2017

Music and fashion are two defining aspects of a culture. Each culture has

distinctive taste in fashion and music. The two are complimentary towards each other,

playing hand in hand influencing each other greatly. In American culture musicians often

help fashion designers by wearing their designs at awards ceremonies, events, or just

casually wearing them on the street, this gives the designers and their designs exposure

and publicity. It is very often that when famous musicians are on the red carpet in

Hollywood interviewers will ask, “Who are you wearing?” The influence music,

especially famous musicians have on fashion plays a major part in the industry.

Celebrities have strong influential power in fashion. In the age of the internet and

media it is easy to follow your favorite celebrities everywhere that they go, and more

importantly see what they are wearing at certain events or on a regular day. Famous

people are always bombarded by paparazzi and photographers, that have an endless

catalog of pictures that most likely always make it to the internet or the media. This

allows fans to keep updated on what celebrities are wearing and also their lives.

Designers use this to their advantage. Famous musicians get enormous amount of

exposure almost instantly, so designers make sure that their designs are always intriguing.

Celebrities can create a trend, fashion companies also focus on what celebrities wear and

are ready to create knock offs or similar products for mass production for the population.

For example, “Outcomes include Jean Paul Gaultier’s whirlpool corset dress worn by

Madonna on her 1990 Blonde Ambition tour, which subsequently contributed to the trend

for wearing bra tops and less clothing (Lewis, n.d.).” Musicians are fashion leaders and

innovators while the rest of the population are fashion followers. Designers and
 3

musicians work together to push a trend and may even collaborate on certain designs that

they believe will gain popularity or acknowledgement through media/society.

Throughout the 20th century every decade shows the influence of music and

fashion on each other, and every decade is different from another, each with its own

unique taste of music and style. There are often musical/fashion movements within these

decades, in which the music and fashion are the defining factors of the culture as well.

During the 1920s is when you see a direct music influence on fashion. During this

time in American culture, people were relieved that World War I was over, and as a

response americans wanted to celebrate and just have fun. . Music and dancing became

more popular than ever which caused the need for women dresses to be freer flowing in

order to allow more movement of the body. Dresses would be created to be more

comfortable so that women may dance to music in them. Corsets would no longer have a

place amongst women and silhouettes flowed with the body instead of shaping body.

Men wore sack suits and tuxedos mirroring the times. Jazz became an expressive part of

American culture during this time.

“The aspiration of musicians to express their existence was palpable in songs.

Qualities of independence, risk-taking, visceral expression, and cultural

documentation illustrate the jazz aesthetic. As the pioneer to rhythm and blues,

and rock and roll, the narrative of fashion’s role in jazz informs related

associations with style in subsequent generations of music (McClendon, 2014).”

The style and music worked together to create the Jazz genre. Jazz is creative in

which musicians often will improvise melodies and different harmonies. McClendon

states;

“The tuxedo collar, through crisp form and white color, endorsed the regal

element when displayed by a jazz ensemble. The fabrications and closures of the

garment also contributed to this atmosphere. The satin-faced lapels that reflected

light in black-and-white photographs of early jazz bands suggested richness of

quality and luxury, while the buttoned placket of the shirt and vest intimated

precision and order.”

Jazz was very important during the Harlem Renaissance and played a major role

within the African American culture in the 1920s. African Americans used jazz as a way

to express themselves through music as well as artistically. They also used it as a

movement in order to gain respect from the whites as well as respects for themselves as

individuals.
 5

In the 1960s music was a mix of the folk, rock, and psychedelic genres. During
this time people were very free spirited in correspondence to the music being of the
decade. This also affected the fashion of people, people dressed carefree which included
a lot of colors and tie-dye was popular as well. Hippies were popular during this time and
often wore thrifted clothing as well as hand made clothing. LSD (lysergic acid
diethylamide) was a popular drug during this movement, which heavily influenced the
psychedelic themes. It was common to dress in clothes to and listen to music that
enhances the effects of the drug.

Following the hippy movement was the disco movement of the 1970s. During this
time people would go to clubs involving disco balls and disco music. The style was funky
as carried some of the same styles that were popular in the 1960s over into the 1970s. The

afro was a popular hairstyle during this time as well as voluminous curly hair. Women
began to wear flare pants as well as maxi dresses, mini skirts and hotpants. Men wore
flare pants as well but also leisure suits, and disco wear such as button up shirts. Disco
music was made to get people to dance and have a good time. The music was lively and
the fashion had an emphasis on the movements of the body parts, in a way sexualizing
some parts of the women.
During the 1990s music had a big influence on fashion through two genres.

Throughout 90s hip-hop culture emerged in America and influenced some designers to
 6

adjust to the popularity of the hip-hop street style during the time. One of these designers
that decided to join the trend was Tommy Hilfiger. The brand became popular and
musicians such as Tupac and Aaliyah would help advertise the clothing. Hilfiger himself
spoke on this topic stating, “Look, it fueled a lot of growth, but it took us away from our
roots. We came back to our roots 10 years ago; that’s when our business started to really
stabilize and grow again (Suddath, 2014).” Street wear became very popular during this
time. Another person took the fashion industry by storm was not apart of the hip-hop
culture. His name was Kurt Kobain, the lead singer of Nirvana. People who listened to
Nirvana often refer to their style as grunge, and Kurt Kobain popularized this class style,
he reinvented the “bad boy” look, which involved flannels and distressed jeans. Grunge
fashion can be described as antifashion. “Grunge was essentially a slovenly, thoughtless,
uncoordinated look, but with an edge (Price, n.d. )”

Youth subcultures articulate themselves through fashion. Fans or teenagers are

influenced by these musicians and start dressing similar to them in order to obtain the

same image that the celebrity may have. People look to them for inspiration on personal

looks and style. Rappers often dress flashy and bold often emphasizing on their jewelry.

This gives the perception to others as being rich and maybe even conceited. So fans may

want a number of chains as well to display that image to others. Of course the music has

an effect on the type of fashion that they are into, this goes into branding themselves to

the media and society. Rock stars make rebellious music so in return their image and

style resembles that of the classic “bad boy”.

Music creates numerous subsets of particular people within society in culture,

especially amongst the youth. Bobby-soxers are American teenage girls correspond with

rock‘n’roll music in the 1940s and 1950s. These girls wore “wore ankle socks, hair

ribbons, denim rolled-up jeans, felt poodle skirts with an embroidered and appliquéd
 7

French poodle, and blouses with small flounced edging, sloppy sweaters, and saddle

shoes (Lewis, n.d.).” Mods were around in the 1960s in Britain. Lewis states that they

wore graphics symbols such as targets, Union Jacks, horizontal color stripes, and cycling

images. Mods can also be described as, “Sound sophisticates who had rejected the

wooliness and unhewn skiffle and trad music for the poise of modern jazz, and later

rhythm and blues, blues, and bluebeat. Mods were fanatical stylist who understood that

nodes of change already existed and if they connected them they would become distinct

from the rest of society (Lewis, n.d.).” Mods are people who listened to modern jazz

music and hated the rock and rollers. Rave were people who listened to techno, house and
electric music. These types of people were known to go to big open places to listen to
music and party this would become known better as raves. Raves also often included the
drug Ecstasy. The girls wore tight leather or denim pants, waistcoats, fitted T-shirts, and
long-sleeved jerkins. Accessories included large silver rings often worn on the thumb and
index finger, masses of silver bracelets, and friendship bracelets and leather wristbands
like those that hippies wore. While, boys were less definable, though many wore fashions
by leading designers such as C. P Company, Stone Island, Paul Smith, John Richmond,
Nick Coleman, and Armand Basi. Their clothes consisted of Polo shirts, T-shirts, jeans,
anoraks, and reflected the current mood of menswear. The Fashion industry interprets a
music-led theme or trend. Musicians in a certain genre start wearing a distinctive product
or have a distinctive style and the fashion industry capitalizes on it.
There have been numerous musicians who have had a big impact on fashion
throughout the 20 century. The Beatles are one of the most popular bands in history, and
th

their success had to do with they image as well. Although, their music style matched the
image of people who wore leather jackets, instead they decided to look more respectable.
For that reason, they helped popularize the suits within the music industry. However, the

suits they wore were very high-fashion suits and still resembled the type of music they
 8

made; the suits were less formal and more casual and cool looking. The Beatles
represented a new type of masculinity. “This kind of subtle modification is within the
tradition of men’s dressing and, indeed, contemporary menswear design, where ‘the line
between acceptance and rejection of the norm was and remains thin (Miller, 2011, p. 78-
79).” They embodied the 1960s men’s look while still creating a sense of rebellion
against the norm simultaneously. The Beatles made the suit an essential item for other
rock or pop musicians after them.

David Bowie created an alter ego Ziggy Stardust who wore unique and elaborate
costume designs created by Kansai Yamamoto. The pieces that he wore were apart of
Yamamoto’s ready-to-wear collections. Ziggy was known to wear bright and feminine
clothing sometimes; his outfits often including high-waist pants, platform shoes, and
brightly colored shirts and tank tops, occasionally bought from women’s stores. He was

apart of the glam rock movement, which was a period of time in the 1970s when male
 9

musicians more flamboyant clothes and makeup. He would often attempt to break gender
boundaries and society’s perceptions of sexuality. He wanted to utilize himself as an
artwork. He didn’t want to just be known for his music but also for the way he looked, he
enjoyed to set himself up as a commercial image. By doing this he became authentic
amongst his fans, it wasn’t before long that Ziggy became Bowie and it was hard to
differentiate the two egos. Bowie found joy in dressing up or role-playing as a musician
on stage. He served as a model in the fashion industry and society as supporting
individuality despite the norms of sexuality and gender roles.
Women in the music industry are often seen sexualized and objectified. This has
to do with their image and what they wear. Women were often used as a visual image
with less focus on their actual music. The clothing that they wear highlight their features
and exaggerate a women’s feminine features, a women’s image in the media has always
been dehumanizing. Janice Miller states, “Here, the form of the fashionable silhouette —
what is revealed and concealed, what is highlighted and reduced — follows the function
of that body as a seductive source, managed, controlled and shaped towards the particular
interests of men (Miller, 2011, p. 58).” A women’s role in music is perceived as different
from a man’s role as a musician. Their music isn’t as valued in society as men, and not
seen as true musicians. Usually females are just associated with singing in front of bands
although the stereotypes of women in the music industry have been changed. A woman

musician that did not follow the norms of female beauty in the music industry is Janis
Joplin. She became successful without playing the stereotypical image of a female in the
music industry, and went against the ideals. “Some writers suggest that Joplin’s route to
success in the male-oriented music industry was paved by her tendency to become ‘one
of the boys’ (see Whiteley 2000): to be promiscuous, tough and hard drinking (Miller,
2011, p. 55).” She perceived as being rebellious towards the ideals of women’s beauty as
a way to make a point. The media would criticize her for not being feminine but it still

didn’t stop her success and she paved the way for other female musicians to break out of
 10

the sexualized and objectified image that were recently portrayed. She didn’t wear high-
end fashion clothing, instead she wore thrifted clothes. “In the case of Joplin, then, we
see the kind of inner struggle of being a woman, toiling for expression and acceptance, in
a context where woman must ‘survey everything she is and everything she does because
how she appears to men is of crucial importance for what is normally thought of as the
success of her life’ (Berger 1972: 46) (Miller, 2011, p. 56).” Although some famous
female musicians make music that identifies with women around the world, in which, it
uplifts them and makes them feel beautiful. Females will often look to musicians as role
models and some musicians will use their beauty as a way of being powerful rather than
objectifying themselves. There is a difference between embracing your beauty as a
musician and becoming a sexualize object within media.
As musicians do play a major role influencing fashion sometimes, musicians
actually become a part of the industry by becoming models, or even creating their own
brands or clothing lines. Jay-Z for example, created a brand called Rocawear in 1999,
which offers men’s, women’s and even children’s fashion. Some musicians clothing lines
become successful while others fail to create profit. Also musicians will often include the
clothing that they wear or like in their songs or lyrics, giving exposure to the designer
names and brands. The two industries work with each other sometimes subconsciously. A
designer using a celebrity and particularly a musician to model their clothes in

photoshoots and even music videos will help the industry create trends.
Music and fashion both influence each other. Musicians can dictate fashion trends
at time because of their influential power in society/media. Designers and brands use this
to their advantage to expose their brand as much as possible to certain target markets.
Throughout time you can see that music can cause a style to become popular because of
the image that music genres create to compliment their style of music. The two industries
work together to shape cultures. They are means of expression and reflect on society. The

markets are useful with each other and benefit from trends created. There is no point in
 11

time when music has not influenced fashion and vice versa. Both will continue to
influence culture around the world.

Bibliography

Bauder, D. (2014, April). Nirvana, Kiss, Gabriel joining rock hall. Retrieved February 22,
2017, from
http://search.proquest.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/docview/1515689200?rfr_id=info%3Ax
ri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

Lewis, V. D. (n.d.). Music and Fashion. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www-
bloomsburyfashioncentral-com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/products/berg-fashion-
library/encyclopedia/the-berg-companion-to-fashion/music-and-fashion
 12

McClendon, A. D. (2014, August). Fashion and Jazz. Retrieved March 17, 2017, from
https://www-bloomsburyfashioncentral-com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/products/berg-
fashion-library/encyclopedia/berg-encyclopedia-of-world-dress-and-fashion-global-
perspectives/fashion-and-jazz

Miller, J. (2011). Fashion and Music. Retrieved from

Osgerby, W. (2014). Subcultures, Popular Music and Social Change . Retrieved February
23, 2017.

Price, S. B. (n.d.). Grunge. Retrieved March 16, 2017, from https://www-

Suddath, C. (2014, April 18). Tommy Hilfger Q&A: The Rise and Fall and Rise of a Man
and His Brand. Retrieved February 22, 2017, from
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-04-18/tommy-hilfger-q-and-a-the-rise-
and-fall-and-rise-of-a-man-and-his-brand#p1

Images

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/hippie-history-

bus.jpg

http://entertainment1920.weebly.com/uploads/1/4/3/1/14312086/7125783_orig.jpg

http://mediacdn.grabone.co.nz/asset/X0uE109D7a/box=615x0