The Rockstar Girlfriend: An Aesthetic or the Ultimate Accessory?
GIRLS!
GIRLS!
GIRLS!
Motley Crue said it best. In a world where rock stars were some form of gods beyond touch, where gospel is rock n’ roll and chapel is the Sunset Strip, discipled groupies devoted their faith to the front rows every Saturday night. In the golden age of rock n’ roll, there wasn't a backstage without supermodels and superfans. When metal ruled the world, it was an age of excess. Excess of pretty much anything you could think of and most definitely not an excess of responsibility. An excess of beautiful women meant an excess of eclectic fashion, and rock history could not be written without groupies. A sexual revolution was taking place, and it was on tour. Rock was gaining unprecedented popularity, and nobody embodied this better than groupies. Represented by debauchery and bad decisions, this was a time of rebellion and expression. This time of art, music, fashion and liberation can never be replicated. Every phase in pop culture has its special place in fashion history, but the groupie era of fashion was a moment of individualism, maximalism, and boldness. The women involved believed that rockstars deserved only the most beautiful women.
With the “rockstar girlfriend” aesthetic recently having a renaissance, reveling in the women who coined the term is only a rite of passage. It's a lousy name for a good trend. She's a girl who seeks to emulate and walk alongside the musician lifestyle. A girl who doesn't pursue fame, but instead pursues the famous. The dark, gritty, and mysterious girl rumored to have a drug problem is disguised by copious amounts of eyeliner, leather and perhaps a bit of truth in the gossip. The idea of being an accessory to a man is incredibly demeaning, but there would be no love songs without muses.
The rockstars were one thing, but the women were what made them such untouchable celebrity figures. In hindsight, it makes some wonder who the real stars were. What some believe was a purely sexual and careless endeavor, was an act of idolization and it was more than sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll; it was an exclusive group of high society and idolized individuals. There was inspiration and exploration within these roadies.The birth of the “cool girl” was born in a studio dressing room. Instead of Crue’s “long hair and burgundy lips”, it was definitely not that simple. The glitz and glamor of the rocker-hanger on lifestyle.
The setting in which scouting took place was a dim, smoke filled, and by no surprise, incredibly loud sea of beautiful women and cigarette smoke; it took something to stand out of the backstage shadows. These instances of standing out is where true fashion began to bloom.
Go To Issue IV of The Campus Edit for a trip down Penny-Lane, we mean Memory-Lane!
Written by
Kylie Caldwell