How important is appearance?

[Snufkin]

When it comes to the music industry, how important is an artist/band's physical appearance?

This could be taken any way. There're the obvious attractive females such as Katy Perry; there is the likes of Adele who does not fit the skinny, sexy mold; then there are the likes of Slipknot who had a lot of their hype based on the fact they wore masks.

With Gaga busy wearing meat dresses and other mental things for attention, does her success in part stem from this aesthetic-based presentation? Elsewhere we have someone like Adele who isn't marketed to be a sex symbol, yet is the most successful artist of 2011...so how important is appearance really?

[Le bonheur*]

I personally like music for the lyrics and how it sounds. Not how the artists look.

However, I am guilty of looking at Lady Gaga's outfits and saying "Ew, that's ridiculous". Or watching a singer on TV and recognizing how much weight they've put on (or off) or seeing a band with weird things, such as masks like you said, and saying how "weird" it is outloud to whoever I may be with at the time. So I guess in a way, looks are always a part of the picture but I still listen to the music regardless.

P.S. I love Adele and admire her for not worrying about her looks just to please society. We definitely need more celebrities like that in this world.

[Nicole!]

I usually listen to bands before I see what they look like. I don't care if they are all ugly or dress up in ridiculous outfits. If their songs are good and they have good lyrics, I will continue to listen to them.

[Cosmo]

It depends. I find most my bands via Related Artists on last.fm, so most of the time I think "Hey that band looks pretty cool, wonder what they sound like?". So in that way it does matter to me because often that's how I'll give the band a listen in the first place. But if someone shows me a song by a band without an image, their appearance doesn't matter.

[Cabron]

To me, it's really not that important. But I can see how it is a bit of a bigger thing with some bands. For instance, I love RHCP but if you say that to someone they go "Aren't they the band who went up on stage with socks on their penises?" Okay, well, yes, but that's just one facet of who they are as a band. And as mentioned above, with Adele, I think a lot of her appeal has to do with the fact that she isn't another Katy Perry clone.

[Dez]

Appearance isn't important for me. Not everyone needs to look the same, and different appearances can make a band/singer look unique from the rest.

[The Morrigan]

Well, just look at Susan Boyle. She broke America in a very short space of time so as long as you have the talent I don't think it matters hugely.

On the case of Lady GaGa though most of her fame is just due to the way she dresses. She does undoubtedly have bucket loads of singing talent but I don't think she would be as famous is she didn't have the appearance to match.