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I'm curious if anyone can find an example of the picture being described.
NY Times article about ''Blow-Away Guy''Victor,
I remember seeing those ads in audio & electronics periodicals back in the day. If I find a picture, I will share it.
- Oren
Hello Everyone,
The "Blow-away" guy was an icon for the late seventies, and a good part of the eighties, as cassettes were the primary product sold by Maxell.
You may find better quality images by going to a public library where they hold old magazines like "Rolling Stone", or even Time, and just leaf through mags from 1979 or later and you may fall upon the ad. The first ads had a large-sized picture of the guy, who'se mid-length hair is seen blowing in the "wind" caused by his sound system.
Eventually, this icon was plastered on tapes, in a stylized way, much like the Quaker Oats icon on cereal boxes.
In the late seventies, it is surprising that it was hard to find a long-haired model for the shoot. The truth is that long hair was out of style by 1978 as Disco was popular, and New Age and Punk styles adopted mohawks and spikes, and your average joe had mid-ear hair, barely touching the colar.
Have a nice day,
Georges
The truth is that long hair was out of style by 1978 as Disco was popular, and New Age and Punk styles adopted mohawks and spikes, and your average joe had mid-ear hair, barely touching the colar.
The term "New Age" should be "New Wave", as New Age music was also trendy in the eighties but for a much different crowd. New Age music can sound a bit like today's slow-paced"lounge" electronic music. While New Wave, was a genre by "The B-52's", "Gary Newman", "The Cars". Unlike Rock, there was little long hair amongst the musicians. Gary Numann had a very short haircut. The sound was good, and was seen by some as something between rock and Disco, with a return to a more danceable beat, without the "glitz" of disco. A lot of musicians sported late fifties and early sixties-inspired clothing and hairstyles. Elvis Costello had a fifties "nerd" style with his black-rimmed glasses, for example.
New Age was listened by a crowd of thirty-somethings and older, who were in "New Age" movements, believeing in UFO's, mixed with Crystals, Shiatsu, and a plethoria of alternative medicine, and value systems. They were the commercial extension of the hippy movement which started the fascination with the "occult", and "New Age" thinking. New Agers either spent money on, or made money from Channeling messages, Tarot Readings, Rolfing, etc. A lot of guilt trips were laied by these kinds of people. Personally I have been told that I was "attached" to my long hair, and should learn to detach by getting my head shaved under a pyramid so I can be in tune with the "divine".
Have a nice day,
Georges in Montreal.
Hello,
For those who have never seen the iconic picture, here it is.
Georges
