What should you wear on stage? The answer varies from artist to artist.
It’s rather easy for the Beatles to respond as they would advise you to dress in the chicest suit you can find and have fun looking professional on stage.
Roxy Music, however, would respectfully, or maybe not, disagree with the Fab Four. They prefer taking the stage with smeared makeup on their face and wearing feminine attires. After all, they never held back when it comes to trying new things out.
Iggy Pop, however, would surely laugh at the two as he often chooses to handle things in a simpler way. Pop simply doesn’t wear any top piece on stage, going semi-nude during shows and showing off to anyone that fancy clothes aren’t a must-have.
If we’re talking about nudity, though, Red Hot Chili Peppers easily beat Iggy. Pop often wears black jeans on stage, but RHCP once decided they didn’t need pants or… any underwear. The band simply performed nude on stage in their early days. They later had the courtesy to cover their genitals with socks, though.
So, everyone has their own opinion when it comes to stagewear. RHCP created a sensation with their nudity on stage, but it wasn’t much of a trouble in the end. Putting on a show semi-nude was never a big problem for any rocker since it’s what rock should be: free and out of boundaries.
Women Don’t Have The Same Freedom
The word ‘any rocker’ may not be the best fit since this did create problems for some: women. They often come across classic sexist remarks or are underestimated by the industry or, at times, even by their peers.
You may think things improved from the 70s to our ‘modern’ days. Måneskin might disagree. Their bassist Victoria De Angelis may give you countless instances when she was censored solely because of her choice to be semi-nude on stage.
Iggy Pop or Sid Vicious took the stage the same way in the 70s, and they received no criticism. We love saying that we’ve learned from our mistakes and improved to treat every member of society equally, but De Angelis gets shut down and censored in the modern age of rock.
Her bandmates also prefer to go semi-nude on stage at times, but I doubt you’ve heard any criticism regarding their nudity. However, people become quite a bit furious when it comes to Victoria. The bassist was even censored on the VMAs simply for choosing not to wear a top piece.
Victoria talked about this censorship previously with NME. She said she couldn’t believe the hypocrisy people had over nudity:
“It’s sad, but it’s good that people then talk about it and think about it. It’s very stupid that there has to be so much censorship and control over people’s bodies.”
It’s not really about going nude in the end. It’s about rock and roll encouraging artists to sing about whatever they want and push boundaries.
