On 3rd February 2012 I went to London to see All
Time Low perform at the HMV Hammersmith Apollo as part of their UK tour. They
were supported by We Are The In Crowd and also The Maine. While I was there I noticed lots of different things such as
clothes that the audience we wearing, the sort of merchandise that was being
sold, the demographic of the audience and various other points that I wouldn't have
necessarily picked up on before studying media for A-Level.
All Time Low, The Maine, We Are The In Crowd and their Tour Crews.
Firstly, the main thing that I picked up was the style of
clothing nearly everyone was wearing. Mostly, people were wearing skinny jeans with
a t-shirt and trainers. The t-shirts were in essence the same as they had logos
of other bands or clothing lines on them and were also brightly coloured. Most
of the band t-shirts were All Time Low ones, either from the present tour or
past tours, or they were t-shirts with bands on from the same genre, such as
Blink 182, You Me At Six and Paramore. The most noticeable clothing brand of
t-shirts was Glamour Kills, it is an American company which is connected with
All Time Low and a lot of the clothes that the band actually wears are Glamour
Kills. Jack Barakat, a member of All Time Low, even has his own line within
Glamour Kills called JaGk which he designs himself. It is very popular with the
fans and I spotted a lot of people wearing JaGk. The skinny jeans were either brightly coloured
in colours such as green or red or were very dark denim or black. The contrast
between dark jeans and a colourful top is something that is very typical of the
genre and is the main basis for the ‘look’ of the genre. Another clothing line
that I spotted quite a lot was Down But Not Out, this is a clothing line designed
by a member of a similar band to All Time Low called You Me At Six. Their lead
singer Josh Franceschi set up DBNO in 2009 and is very popular within the style
of the pop/punk/rock genre style. Finally, the shoes people were mainly wearing
were Converse or Vans or similar equivalents. Most people choose to wear
trainers to gigs as you need to wear comfy shoes as you stand for a long while
but this type of shoe is generally worn outside of a gig situation too. This is
the point I noticed was most obvious, especially when standing in the queue to
get in as there were lots of people about.
Band T-Shirts
Example Outfit: Glamour Kills T-Shirt, Skinny Jeans, Converse, Silicone Bracelets.
Glamour Kills Clothing (Modeled by Alex Gaskarth)
JaGk Clothing - Part of Glamour Kills (modeled by Jack Barakat)
Down But Not Out Clothing
Vans and Converse
The merchandise that the bands were selling was very typical
of the genre. There was the t-shirt with the tour dates on the back, t-shirts
like this are very common at gigs, I have bought ones similar at gigs such as
Paramore and another All Time Low show, also there was a variety of other
t-shirts with different band logos on but the tour date t-shirt was by far the
most popular. Another item that has become popular recently is wide silicon
wristbands. Bands such as Kids in Glass Houses have previously sold silicone
wristbands as part of their tour merchandise. Also, part of the subscription
pack that you get when you sign up to the All Time Low fan club, The Hustler
Club, is a silicone wristband which is exclusive to members of the fan club.
Lots of people at the gig were wearing different bracelets like this or old
festival wristbands, along with beaded bracelets.
2012 UK Tour Wristband
The Hustler Club Wristband
The demographic of the audience all depends on the genre of
the band. The pop punk genre mainly appeals to males and females aged 14-20 years
old of a white ethnicity and this was reflected by the types of people I saw
while at the gig. Although there were slightly more females than males as All
Time Low’s fan base has a larger following of girls than guys. Apart from what
clothes people were wearing, this was most apparent right from the moment of
turning up at the venue. It was also what I expected the audience to be like because
of the type person associated with the genre and also because audiences were
similar to this when I have been to other similar band’s gigs.
Fans at an All Time Low Gig
These are some photos that I took during the gig. As we were in the circle we were looking down towards the stage, we got a good overall view and got to really appreciate the lighting which was amazing.
Your comments re this event is very important with regard to Question 1 (codes and conventions of the genre) and Question 3 re target audience .
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