In the 70's, the musical landscape had changed and a lot of the psychedelic gear went out the window. But in lieu of hippy duds, musicians either went with straight-up street clothes (nothing fancy at all, but then again... it was all about the music, right?) or moved in a more creative direction. Makeup, masks, and costumes became part of the show when the artists took to the concert stage.
I've got a splitting headache....
David Bowie, right from the start of his career, engineered his image with imagination and business savvy. He created a different persona for every album he recorded during the 70's, depicting himself as a new character on each album cover, video, and concert tour. Ziggy Stardust was his most famous and enduring role, though there were others, like Aladdin Sane, the Pierrot sad clown (Ashes to Ashes video), The Goblin King (for the movie Labyrinth, actually), the Thin White Duke, Screaming Lord Byron, and Baal (again for film). Just to name a few. I wasn't even aware of Bowie until the late 70's, since I was a bit young at the time. But the magic of the music newsmagazine The New Music on TV brought to me images of Bowie's menagerie of personalities.
Bowie's visual sense was sophisticated in comparison with The New York Dolls, a glam band of guys who simply dressed colourfully and wore women's makeup. A bit shocking at the time, I guess, but by today's standards, that's tame. But hey, the Dolls did help influence the next generation of rockers. We'll get to that in a minute.
70's Genesis concerts were highly experiential, the stage adorned with massive and dazzling set-pieces. Peter Gabriel took to wearing bizarre makeup and costumes to suit the themes of the music. He dressed at times as a flower, a fox, a bat, and assorted far-out fantasy creatures. Again, I missed all that as a kid, and even today, I have only seen a few photos and concert videos to get an idea of Gabriel's early fashion sense. Sorry, never been a Genesis fan.
Now that rock music had developed an even greater flair for the visual, more and more artists were getting into the act. On the heels of the New York Dolls came Kiss and Alice Cooper, both bands lugging their makeup kits to gigs, too. And it wasn't just about face paint, either. These guys had wild costumes and big stage acts. Kiss leaned toward carnival displays of breathing fire, spitting blood, and smoking guitars. Alice, on the other hand, embraced the Grand Guignol style of entertainment: a series of vignettes showing mock hangings and decapitations and the like, all for the edification of the discerning concert-goer. Yeah.
Look ma, no cavities....
This theatrical approach to rock music presentation spilled over into the 80's. The Misfits came around in the late 70's, but they refined their stage look in the next decade, applying ghoulish makeup to fit in with their horror movie themes.
Taking a step backwards, and then forwards again, Twisted Sister adopted the New York Dolls girl-dress-up. Singer Dee Snider got the ball rolling with his big mane of curls and feminine makeup, then on to dresses, but later scaled "back' to the leather, studs, and spandex. And the makeup.
That whole glam metal scene of the 80's saw a glut of decent and worse-sounding bands doing everything short of wearing women's skirts for concerts and photo/video shoots. Hairspray, rouge and lipstick probably took up more space than instruments in their tour buses. But there were some reasonably good bands that came out of that scene, like Ratt and Motley Crue. Poison, Cinderella, and WASP less so, though I don't mind a few of their songs. Every rose....
Say cheese....
On another note, Gwar gave the horror-show genre a shot in the arm. Wearing big, crazy costumes, Gwar looked more like something out of Japanese monster movies than dudes in drag. The band borrowed from Kiss and Alice Cooper with their blend of mythological characters and gory stage re-enactments. I'm talking copious amounts of bodily fluids spraying the audience. Yup, this is entertainment. Not my cup o' tea.
The emergence of black metal music saw dramatic use of makeup, mostly for horrific effect. King Diamond, from Denmark, was a pioneer of this stuff, bringing his demonic visage first to Mercyful Fate, and then to his eponymous solo band. The props and accoutrements were all in keeping with the King's Satanic vision. Hail!
The black metal genre kept things pretty straightforward, imitating but simplifying King Diamond's look, finally arriving at the standard corpse paint. Black lips and eyes, with no end of variations on that. Just Google "corpse paint" and you'll see only the tip of the iceberg.
In '95, Slipknot decided to join the garish spectacle of Kiss and Gwar, since the world evidently still hadn't gotten enough of that schtick. Even Kiss was looking old under all that makeup and leather. At least Slipknot were original enough with their ghouls and psychos outfits. Good for them.
Speaking of ghouls and psychos, we also got Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie in the metal mix. Manson became a Bowie-esque androgynous character, though much creepier. I wasn't much of a fan. Zombie, on the other hand, went full-bore with his hardcore hillbilly corpse paint. I have to admit that he instilled a sense of unsettling menace in that swamp ghoul makeup and garb, especially while playing his brand of aggressive metal.
You're all just jealous because I get to wear the hat!
Which brings me to the relatively new band Ghost, from Sweden. Formed in the late 2000's, Ghost were adept at taking the best of every existing and pre-existing theatrical rock group and blending it into something unique and all their own. A little of this from Kiss, a little of that from Mercyful Fate, and so on. Right from the beginning, it was decided the singer would appear onstage as a sort of Bishop of Beelzebub (my words, not theirs), assuming the name Papa Emeritus, while the other musicians would be known only as the Nameless Ghouls. The skull-face-painted Papa appears in pope hat and robes, while his Ghouls are dressed identically in black cloaks or suits and sinister full-head devil masks. Satanic imagery aside, Ghost possesses great musical ability, skilled in songwriting and on their instruments... so I can say I am a fan.
And as for the makeup, a little dab'll do you....
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