Costume

The costume used in a music video is an important part of how the band represents themselves, their fans and creates a bond with their fans by being associated with the same style and having the same ideologies as one another, putting them in the same social 'tribe'. The way that people are dressed in a music video, especially the band members, reflects on how the target audience dresses too, or inspires their style as they want to be like their favourite band. Costume is also sometimes used in music videos to show an opinion on another social group, giving them a negative representation, for example the video below.


The Drums - Best Friend

With the target audience of We Can't Dance seen as 'Indie Kids' I have decided to use an normal ideology for how they dress. The main character will be shown as indie, making the audience reflect with him for being like them. I shall use the following pieces of clothing for the main character:


The shoes that would be wore by the main character are Plimsolls, like the ones that are shown in the picture to the right. . In the early months of 2008, the Plimsoll shoe within the UK became a major fashion statement, with many celebrities such as Pete Doherty and other stars influencing their comeback. They are generally worn with tight fitting jeans or jeans with turned up bottoms. Recently however, they have become part of hipster fashion.

Skinny Jeans are the most conventional view that people think of when they are asked or think what indie kids would wear after they were brought back into by indie revival bands in the early 2000's, most notably by The Strokes. By the end of the decade the fashion began to replace the baggy jeans of the 1990s and early 2000s. Among women, skinny jeans are most often worn tucked into boots or scrunched up over the wearer's footwear. Skinny jeans are becoming mainstream to men, as well. This style is often associated with the emo and scene styles, though hip-hop and rap artists, such as Lil' Wayne, are seen to be adopting this style as well. There have been many famous artists who have wore skinny jeans, for example Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson with skinny jeans being fashionable before in 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. 'Tapered' jeans became most notable with country music stars and helped with the birth of rock and roll in the 1950s. jeans and rock 'n' roll were inextricably linked to create the "bad boy" image that remains today. In the early 1960s they were worn by numerous rock bands, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

In the last few years more and more people have started to wear shirts as a casual fashion, and not just for formal occasions. The shirts that are wore have a vintage look about them, like the shirt to the right, this is the type of clothing that the target audience wear. I have decided for the main character of the video to wear a shirt like this, with a cardigan over top. Mainly because this is the conventional view people have of the audience, while it fits into the narrative of the story with the main character having to take off his shirt.