Photo's of Males and Females for A2 Summer Project

Above are photo's showing different friendship groups, which indicate that perhaps the way they dress are influenced by the type of genre's and bands they listen to. Especially the group which are usually classed as "goths" and "emo's." Typically, the type of music that these groups would be interested in our rock and metal music, for example artists such as Marylin Manson.

However, whats interesting and more relevant is how they become interested in this type of music to begin with, and furthermore how it influences there dress sense. Speaking from personal experience from when I used to know friends who dressed in the same way as "emos," and "goths," is that they became interested in this genre of music first by being influenced by there friends as they too became gradually effected by thus type of music and began changing their appearance. As a result, my friends too began changing their fashion and started listening to more rock music. Therefore, you can conclude from this that friends are influenced by socialization; not that they actually love the music, and this could go for both males as well as females.

Furthermore, certain pop stars can influence types of fashion sense in young males, but more particularly females. For example, stars such as Britney Spears who dress in a provocative way can influence young teens into believing they should dress in a certain "slutty" way. To begin with, when you are around the ages of 12 years and 13, if you hear a pop star belting out lyrics to a song which is considering popular among your friendship group, you are almost brain washed into having to like them. Then if this idolization grows, it can develop into you aspiring to dress in a similar way. Another example would be stars such as "Marylin Manson," who dress in obviously a Gothic fashion sense, and as a result, their fan base would aspire to dress like him and too dress in the same way; especially if their friends are aspiring like them too.

Also, when you are younger, it's true that you are pressured by your peers into acting and dressing in a certain way, because if you don't then young teens have a fear of being socially rejected. This is perhaps the reasoning why teens tend to rebel around this age group of around 12-15 years, then once you develop into higher education such as College or Sixth form, you develop into your own person more. But during this age, they may feel pressured into dressing the same way as their friends, otherwise they fear that they will never fit in that group and be an outkast.

Furthermore, to a certain extent these people are actually forming there own identity from copying the style of there idols. For example, at the beginning they are following the crowd of there friends and idols, yet at the same time they do look different from a lot of younger adolescents at there age; thus making them look more individual. Therefore, the judgement could be made that they are actively constructing their own identity and values, instead of being passive audiences. For example, if they were passive audiences, they would simply just listen to the music, not actually become active by dressing like them and taking on the same values. As a result, they are forming there own identity, which is better than just a teenage girl who listens to a song without taking any messages in