By Lis Szepsy January 5 2009
David Bowie
How could anyone seperate the 60's from the Beatles, or the 80's from Cyndi Lauper? How many women around the globe saw Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan, and bleached their hair white blonde for the first time? How many men saw the Darkness and laughed out loud at their hair only to quietly let their own grow a little bit longer.? The synergy between hair and music has been omnipresent since popular culture started being documented and the media became an everyday part of people's lives.
Debbie Harry, lead singer of Blondie.
When the two words hair and music are thrown together, a few legendary images spring to mind. If you dig into these people and their lives, their hair was not only a small part of their image, but a definitive marker of the era. While blondes like Marilyn defined the hair of the 50's for women, Elvis had to be the greatest style leader. Then the Beatles came along, the 'Mop Top' was born and the 60's had a pin-up look. Inspired by Hamburg fashion photographer Jurgen Vollmer, the former 'underground'-only hair cut symbolised not only a break from the control of the 50's, but a whole new focus on individuality. For the first time ever, being blonde or quiffed and lacquered wasn't everything, Being quirky and odd was the new norm.
Kylie Minogue
The 70's, 80's and 90's were filled with a myriad of hair legends - think Blondie, Bowie, Keith Richards, Sid Viscious and Siouxsie Sioux - on and on they go, musicians that became greater ambassadors of the people than their presidents. The music that you listened to became the hair that you chose became the way that you lived your life.
In the noughties, with globalisation becoming the great leveller and information shooting about in nanoseconds, music continued to influence people and their life choices. If you looked at enduring pop divas Madonna and Kylie, their look de jour encapsulated the mood of the minute. Their hair changed along with their song and that was driven wholly and solely by the spirit of the times.
Ian McCulloch, from Echo and the Bunnymen
I asked stylist Barney Gleeson of WA salon Lee Preston if he thought the connection between music and hair was still so strong, and he said 'a dozen women must have come to me asking for Kylie's new cut. These were clients who had worn their hair long for years and it took a post cancer pop-diva to encourage them to cut their hair short'.
Behind the star, their message and their style, there was nearly always a creator. The hairdresser was sometimes the artistic director, at other times the conduit.
Daniel Johns, Silverchair.
Photo by Ian Jennings. Hair and make-up by Karen Hopwood.
Karen Hopwood of Head Over Heels and DLM Management styles for the new generation of music stars. She's worked with local and overseas music legends such as Pussycat Dolls, Kate Miller-Heidke, Living End, Sam Sparrow and Cyndi Lauper. She says she loves the music work for its creativity.
'Doing hair for music is like working on "haute couture". It's not commercially driven like magazine work, and it's a wonderful synergy between the artist and me. It's an opportunity to work on a global level - the standard in Australia is just as high as anywhere else'.
Powderfinger and Silverchair.
Photo by Ian Jennings. Hair and make-up by Karen Hopwood.
As far as the influence of the artist on the common man is concerned, Hopwood says it's impossible to ignore. 'Teenage girls bring in pictures of the Veronicas when having their hair done for a formal and want a look that emulates that style'.
The Church's uncontrived 'Rock Mop' was perhaps the natural progression from Hippy through Glam Rock to Punk and New Wave, to what became a music and hair classic. Peter Koppes of the legendary Aussie band talks about the group's image in musical terms.
'While we were marketed as a pop and high fashion band, we were always serious musicians and songwriters, and we wanted our hair and look to send this message.' Similarly, his daughters, Neige and O, currently in Rock Punk Pop band 'Bright Red', have modelled their image on modern rock icons like Courtney Love and Magic Dirt's Adalita Srsen. Interestingly, or inadvertently, they've chosen the modern female equivalent of their father, the long shaggy cut that equals serious artist, not pop princess.
So whether it's Ian McCullough's sculptured crop, or Bruce Springsteen's Midwest farm boy look, music sends a message loud and clear through hair. The next time you sit in your chosen salon and listen to the rhythm, your stylist and your cut are probably not only being influenced by the sound but driven by it. Your choice of salon equals your choice of music, equals your choice of image. Think about it, or rather don't...