Not all pouffy hair bands are alike.
We here at RTH are interested in an in-depth understanding of music and all the minutiae that goes with it, including the musicians (David Bowie!, Paul Weller!), the culture (Hippies!), the way in which we listen to music (Headphones!), the ranking of the output of a band or artist (Top 10 Lists!)…and The Look (Sideburns!). So when Mr. Mod recently made this comment in regards to Paul Weller and the 1980s UK fashions, it made my blood go cold:
I don’t need anything beyond a couple of ABC, Orange Juice, Haircut 100, New Order, and Human League-type singles from that v-neck sweater/pouffy hair scene.
We at Rock Town Hall can not stand for this egregious misunderstanding of the fashion of an era! Just as we focus and comment on the subtle differences in a musician’s use of a Les Paul vs Fender, it is crucial to discern an artist’s or era’s fashion trends and the possible meaning behind those trends. And it is of utmost importance that when we include descriptors such as “v-neck sweater, pouffy hair scene” we know exactly whom we are talking about.
While the UK music scene of the early ’80s could be a swirling tea of fashion over function, each band worked very hard to craft a particular “Look” that acted as a signifier to other musicians and the music press.
Orange Juice: In love with VU, the Byrds, and Andy Warhol Pop Art, they adopted Ray-Ban glasses, nautical striped tees, fringed suede jackets, raccoon hats, plaid shirts, and jellies.
ABC: To reflect his love for disco and Roxie Music, Martin Frye et al adopted a slick, tailored look, which included gold lame suits.
New Order: Although the band members went on to disclaim the Third Reich references of their name, their early look was very similar to fellow Factory Records band, A Certain Ratio, and included military references such as tailored white shirts and shorts. Bernard Sumner appeared to have watched “The Tin Drum” too many times.
Haircut 100: I’ll give this one to Mod: when I think of Haircut 100, even I imagine those pretty blond boys with their sweaters and nicely-coiffed hair. And Nick Heyward’s smile was just so sparkly.
Human League: Who can forget (even if we try) Phil Oakey’s asymmetrical hair cut and heavy eyeliner? But before the girls came along, Human League’s dark, futuristic music and look were pretty gloom-and-doom and even featured some facial hair.
Perhaps Mod (and others?) are reacting to the way that these bands were promoted and adopted in the United States, and how they spawned such evil fashion offspring as Wham and Kajagoogoo. But to lump them all together would be a crime that we at RTH should not stand for!
Right the fuck on, LMKR.
Gotta agree with this. There’s a tendency to lump Duran Duran and Culture Club together with Depeche Mode and New Order into a “neon-generic synthy ’80s” stew. It’s a phenomenon I know well: “Oh, you love King Crimson, huh? Then you must go nuts over Asia.”
That’s right! We’re up for nit-picking on this site!
I am forgetting a bit, but wasn’t this simply called the New Romantic scene at the time? I loved ABC, even when they tried to take on a harder edge on Beauty Stab with the failed single That Was Then But This is Now.
http://youtu.be/-1kJyLGUKxE
Not really: the New Romantics were a quite specific scene.
http://www.criticalmob.com/music/more/new_romantic
Yes, and add Visage, Adam Ant and Japan to that group.
Can I throw Heaven 17 and OMD onto the ruffled shirt pile?
I didn’t have cable back when MTV was big, so I usually had no idea what these bands looked like. I read Creem way more than Rolling Stone, so I never even saw pictures of most of these bands. So I have to admit to feeling like my old man and saying, “They all look the same to me!”
I can’t tell one kind of sunglasses from another, but the thing I remember not liking about a lot of the bands on Mod’s initial list is their hair. I had lot’s of hair back then, and the bands I liked best had lot’s of hair, too. Not all short in the back and poofed up on top, but halfway down their back long. So my midwestern views on what looked cool didn’t include hard leather shoes and sweaters, it still included jeans and beer stains.
I liked some of the music, though. I thought Human League was okay, and I liked the Thompson Twins and Duran Duran (sometimes – they could both really annoy me, too). But I was more interested in The English Beat or some of the other ska bands, and I really liked metal more than most of all that stuff anyway.
I obviously have very little fashion sense.
Yes. And I admit having a strong love for both (to a point). I was just listening to “Architecture and Morality” recently and realizing how much I liked those early songs.
The only reason I knew what some of these bands looked liked at the time was 1. Cable MTV at a friend’s house, and 2. My English cousins. I spent a lot of time in England during the summer of ’82, and we walked around London and went to the big agricultural expo, The Royal Show. I remember wearing some leather boots and one of my cousins saying they were really “New Romantic” and having no idea what she was talking about. But then she showed me these boys dressed in long sleeved, white poufy shirts (sort of Byronic, if you ask me and what they were doing wearing them amongst the cows and pigs is beyond me). It was that summer that I bought a Visage 12” and the Split Endz album (with laser-etched figures!). It also seemed that the New Romantic and New Pop looks were more picked up by boys than girls. The girls all seemed to wear short skirts and high heels or tight trousers and high heels. This was all very shocking for my Raised in Arizona teenage self.
And Ultravox!
Even the Village People jumped on the eyeliner/pouffy hair phenomenon:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zP1m_EJ8vcs/TUsPEbFOn-I/AAAAAAAAC3U/dUDiUYyGUXI/s1600/village.jpg
Maybe no rock Look transformation was more disappointing to me was when these guys:
http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/U/undertonesf.jpg
Became these guys:
http://www.panikrecords.com/data/picture/Undertones-Sin.jpeg
The horror…the horror…
One of the funniest album titles ever, but I actually liked that album.
Right, that’s when people first caught onto the fact that they were gay:)
Always liked those first couple of OMD records, Organisation and A & M.
The wife and I were discussing this topic over morning breakfast. We were wondering why UK bands seem to be more concerned with fashion compared to bands from North America and Australia. We couldn’t think of an American equivalent to Roxy Music, Bowie, ELP or any of the bands mentioned above. Certainly, many American groups adopted uniforms (Ramones) or looks (grunge flannel). The only person I could remotely attach to fashion was David Byrne, but still that’s a bit of a stretch.
So, is the UK fashion thing a reflection of the proximity of Milan and Paris, or is there something else at work here ?
Like you should be surprised. Notice that the second cover has a keyboard on it. Everyone knows that buying a synth is an irrevocable step towards the Dark Side, right?
I tend to pull Haircut 100, ABC and Style Council out of the New Romantic movement. I thought those groups had more American soul elements to their music than anything else. Their look is the least of my worries.
I submit that there were American bands and artists that were concerned with fashion, but they generally weren’t “rock and roll” as we usually speak of it and they usually weren’t white either. I’m speaking about 1970s American soul, funk, and disco artists. Remember Bowie’s “Thin White Duke” period or Roxy’s borrowing of soul mannerisms? That’s part of the line that led from US soul eventually to the English and European New Wave.
My 2 cents (or pense): Semiotics on a small island. Take a rabid music press, a lot of music groups competing for identity and turf, and a need to quickly differentiate yourself from the others. Plummage is a quick and relatively cheap way.
It seems to be an island thing: England, Japan, Galapagos.
I think that’s maybe the only difference — “fashion” vs. “uniform”. There are lots of examples of uniforms of hair and clothing in American rock bands (hair metal bands the obvious ones). Is it just that their fashion did not derive from the traditional “fashion” world?
Your right trig. The hair bands was more flash than Brooks Brothers. I guess it was the hip hop crowd that concerned themselves the most with the right style. The East coast P-Diddy’s of the world tried to separate themselves from the Death Row drug pusher look of the west coast. But, I’m getting way off topic now, so enough of that.
Bear in mind too that the traditional breeding ground for a certain strain of British band is the art college, and that fashion design is almost always a popular curriculum in art colleges.