STEAM
Has fashion become more important than music?
These days, artists are selling their image rather than their music. Has style become more important than content?
It’s not news that fashion and music have always walked hand in hand.
To an artist, image is everything. What performers decide to wear at their shows, TV performances and music videos is part of their brand; aids the message they’re trying to convey with their music and more than ever, dictates what their fans will be going crazy for and wearing in months to come.
Lately, however, has their fashion started to overshadow the music?
Music video stylist Filipa Malhou says: ‘I think more and more artists are least focused on music and betting on their clothing lines and style instead. When I style music videos now, it’s hard for anyone to really care about the message of the song. It’s more about product placement and wearing something because someone else did it and it looked cool’.
In Sacha Jenkins’s new documentary Fresh Dressed, Kanye West says: "Being fresh is more important than having money,".
Is ‘being fresh’ and looking cool more important for artists these days than the actual music they put out?
Is it crazy to go as far as saying music is becoming only another means to promote fashion?
Not only are musicians dictating what their fans think is the latest trend these days, they’re also creating their own brands and being very successful at it.
West, for example, recently lost 10 million dollars on sales of his Life of Pablo album due to a huge number of illegal downloads.
His Life of Pablo clothing line pop-ups on the other hand, have earned him over 1 million dollars just in two days.
It was reported that West was getting his designs printed on Gildan shirts that, if bought in bulk, cost around 3 dollars each. Life of Pablo t-shirts are retailed for 55 to 75 dollars, which means a lot of money in West’s pocket with minimum work involved for him.
His brand also sells hoodies, hats, beanies and jackets, for even higher prices than his t-shirts.
Are then, artists’ fashion brands more profitable than their music?
Lauren Bevins, fashion PR says: ‘You know that before, an artist’s style was created by their marketing team in conjunction with their label and management. It was an important part but not the most crucial. If you had a shit song you wouldn’t get anywhere. Today, everyone has more or less the same song on the charts but what really differentiates artists is their style’.
It seems that the 21st century is the time to experiment with and recycle fashion and music.
Only time will tell if the two will keep walking hand and hand or start running ahead of each other.
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