Looking cool doesn’t make your music good, but it certainly helps in the long run. Having an aesthetic – not just a sound but a look, a colour palette, a stylistic theme that one is wholly committed to – is tough to pull off, but those bands who do so have a powerful weapon in their arsenal. These artistic profiles can sometimes be so strong that even bands who came before them are sucked into its pull, resulting in a lot of arguments over who wore it first or better. And while some bands have to tone down their look or buy Instagram followers to stay relevant, these acts have made themselves immortal by coining a feel that others identify with.
There's nothing wrong with changing one's look and feel from album to album – in fact, that very progression is what has made bands like Mastodon and Paramore exciting and current to legions of fans. But for those artists who can create a consistent, iconic, and versatile aesthetic, it's an advantage across their entire career.
Here are 10 bands whose aesthetic isn't just a look, but a way of life…