When you’re at a concert, you’re not only there to hear an artist, but also see them. What they wear can leave an impression on you and can tell you a lot about their craft.

A lot of smaller artists dress up in everyday clothing because that’s what they can afford. They’re still relatively normal people at the end of the day so their clothing reflects that. Even artists in a tier above this will wear “normal” clothing. These people will wear t-shirts (maybe a button-down), jeans, sneakers or boots, and maybe a few accessories. While people may think this loses individuality, standing out with their fashion is probably not that big of a priority as a musician. Their music comes before their fashion. This philosophy was made notable by Pantera, who ditched their crazy-coloured glam spandex in favour of wearing t-shirts, jeans, and shorts.

Once an artist starts taking their appearance a lot more seriously, they will start investing in some more elaborate clothing.

The first example your parents think of is KISS. They are the best-known for using black and white makeup and eccentric black, white and silver costumes. Because of the character aspect of the band, whenever a member gets replaced, the replacement will usually still dress up the same, such as Ace Frehley and Tommy Thayer being The Spaceman and Peter Criss and Eric Singer being The Catman.  This style of makeup was also done by King Diamond. Rather than the electric costumes, he would dress up in more godly clothing, with his costumes being more detailed in Mercyful Fate than in King Diamond. His style of makeup would eventually evolve to corpse paint, usually used by black metal bands. As the name suggests, this style of makeup would make the members look dead. Because of the satanic connotations black metal gets, corpse paint often gets seen as the same. The distinct look of corpse paint is heavily associated with metal as a whole despite the majority of metal bands not using it (even within black metal). Since all black and white makeup gets seen as evil, the music is seen to reflect that, even though a band like KISS is nothing like that. They make classic hard rock songs compared to the heavier styles of music King Diamond and black metal bands are known to make.

(wonker / Flickr)

There is also the big nu-metal movement also gave a lot of fashion choices. Korn’s fashion popularized wearing Adidas tracksuits on stage along with sporting dreadlocks. Limp Bizkit’s fashion is all over the place. Fred Durst was known for wearing baggy pants and a backwards cap, though his fashion has changed over the years and is now sporting a “dad” look, consisting of grey hair and clothes your dad would wear. Wes Borland is also known for sporting wild looks using body paint. You also have bands such as Mudvayne and Slipknot who wear jumpsuits, wild makeup that can look cartoonish, and masks. They give themselves character names while sporting these looks such as number designations or nicknames.

(Carlos Varela / Flickr)

You also have bands that dress up like fantasy characters. Bands like Gloryhammer and Twilight Force will dress up in LARP (live-action roleplay) outfits to go alongside the storylines they develop in their music. Because of the geek connotations their outfits get, this will often reflect on the way people hear their music. Other kinds of roleplay wear include Ice Nine Kills, who will dress up as horror movie characters or something similar to go along with the themes of their music.

There are also bands such as Ghost and Sleep Token who dress up to conceal their identities. Slipknot was also the same for a while before finally just letting people know their identities. The ones that conceal their identities like to do this to make their music feel a lot more mysterious than it should be. Whenever you listen to someone, you have a face to associate with that. With secret identities, it’s a lot harder to know what they are truly like as people.

Either the entire band is wearing a special outfit, or only the lead singer will be wearing something unique. You generally see this in symphonic metal bands, as the lead vocalists (usually female) will wear fancy dresses or any kind of outfit that makes them stand out, and the rest of the band will wear thins in one colour, usually black. How formal they go can vary from being completely informal to being somewhat formal, but never any fancier than the lead singer.

(Zoltan Lippai / Flickr)

You still need to be comfortable in your outfit at the end of the day. If you’re uncomfortable, your performance will suffer. Imagine trying to sing while you’re almost suffocating, or being immobile while playing your instrument. That’s not fun, isn’t it? Even footwear is important, especially if you’re someone who likes moving around on stage. That doesn’t mean you have to wear sneakers. As long as what you’re wearing doesn’t hurt your feet, you should be fine. Something like Doc Martens should not be worn in the break-in process when playing on stage. They should already be past it or the very least, have a special in-sole inside to make them a lot more comfortable. There’s also the heat to think about. Wearing all black in the sun is not a good time and if you’re wearing that while performing, good luck. Despite how terrible that sounds, artists will do it anyways

There’s also the case of wearing another artist’s merch on stage. Despite how tacky this might look to some people, it’s still a common practice among musicians, mostly to pay tribute to artists they admire. Sometimes you’ll get some wacky combinations, such as a pop artist wearing a Slayer shirt or a metal artist wearing a Descendants shirt.

Artists usually wear clothes on stage. Whether that would just be a t-shirt and jeans or a fun costume is up to them. What they wear does or doesn’t reflect on their music. Regardless, they’re there for a concert, not a fashion show.