"When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other." -Eric Hoffer

Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory.

Social Learning theory is a theory by Albert Bandura.
The Social Learning theory is not only one out of many explanations for criminal behaviour but an explanation for many of our behaviours.

Bandura's Bobo doll study 1961Out of the hundreds of studies that Bandura was responsible for, one stood out more than the others.
Bandura set up a psychological experiment to see how influential violence is in young children.
Bandura made a film of a student in a room with a bobo doll, she punched, kicked, sat on, beat up and aggressively shouted at the doll.
Bandura then showed this film to a group of young children.
the children were then put into a play room individually, inside the room was a bobo doll like the one beaten up in the film. the child was free to do as they please.
Predictably the children started hitting the doll, sitting on it and shouting aggressively.
another film was then shown of a student with the bobo doll again but hugging the doll and being nice to it.
against the same procedure was put forward and the children imitated the behaviour.

Bandura's results were that the boys were more psychically aggressive than the girls and girls were more verbally aggressive. The children also seemed to imitate their same sex student more.

Bandura concluded that behaviour shown by adults are likely to be copied. at a young age our super ego isn't always or at all formed making our id take over, feeling the need to imitate is part of our insticts as humans as this is how we learn. Making our morals irrelevant to our behaviour and feel the need to copy what we have just witnessed.

As we grow up our super ego starts to have more of a role in our moral instincts but we still will imitate a wiser 'role model' as we naturally follow others that might impress/ influence us.
This may be done sub consciously or consciously.
you find that sometimes if you spend a lengthy amount of time with someone, that you may find yourself picking up on mannerisms, habits and speech.

Music bands and artists have a huge influence on our lives even if we don't want it to or realise that it's happened.
We tend to relate more to artist that we find a connection with.
Either someone we want to be like, or think we are like or someone who's behaviour and morals we take part in.
Pop stars have a huge influence on young girls, pop music is usually intentionally aimed at young girls in particular. This is because the female artists make themselves into an icon for this age group they glamorise themselves to make themselves a role model. Male pop artist make themselves a sex icon to young girls and a role model to young boys.

Indie music has a completely different audience, male artist are often seen as sex icons but in a completely different way to pop artists. In my opinion they are less "try-hard" they tend to be themselves and manage to be sexy, they tend to adopt a cool, casual persona. They tend to be the "bad boys" of the music world.
However, some of the indie bands that are around today often have formed from the former "geeks" of school days into a cool indie band with millions of followers, fans and admirers.