PROSPECTUS: The purpose of this field study is to investigate, identify, compare, review the literature, analyze, and represent the relationships between image/branding, hip-hop music, fashion, and the previously untapped and now growing demographics in the fashion market due to the merging of hip-hop and high fashion culture, while experiencing the city of Los Angeles.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Considering the many years that high fashion ignored hip-hop, what factors contributed to the recent merging of the two cultures? Has the image built around the hip-hop music being consumed played a role? Has the emergence of new outlets for promoting artists (i.e. the inter web) contributed to the significance that image plays in the consumers process? How has the image of music and fashion managed to stay universally accessible to those who want to be interested in it?

RESEARCH METHODS: Qualitative Research; Review of Literature, Interviews, Sociological Experiments

RESEARCH OUTCOMES: Musical Compositions (once I return), Sketches, Conclusive Ideas about the role of image in music, and musics influence on branding trends.