Go ahead and admit it . there have been times when you have gone shopping and bought something specifically because you saw some rock star wearing the same thing.

Well, you aren’t the first and definitely aren’t the last. Rock and fashion have been attached at the hip for a long time.

“Rock music is a form of entertainment and has always been like theater,” says Stacey Appel, web master of the Dedicated Follower of Fashion Web zine. “Costumes are one important element of theater and until the early ’90s, they were important in music and the pendulum is starting to swing back today.”

Jo Paoletti, associate professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, has been researching the relationship between fashion and music for more than two years. She believes the intertwining of the two was natural, occurring as our society has progressed.

“As performers were able to reach a larger audience – improved transportation, photography, motion pictures, radio, television – their visual influence spread along with their music,” she says.

Look no further than mainstream television for concrete examples of the merger of fashion and media.

MTV has been the home of both “House of Style” and “Fashionably Loud,” a show that features runway models strutting their stuff during a live musical performance. VH1 even has its own fashion awards show.

Many musicians are taking their role in fashion a step further by actually introducing their own clothing lines. This is especially evident in the hip-hop world where both Russel Simmons, founder of Def Jam, and P. Diddy have been quite successful with their individual clothing lines.

Jermaine Parkey, manager and owner of Hip Hop Heaven, located on 2302 University Ave. in Des Moines, specializes in hip-hop fashion and believes it is only a natural evolution for those involved in the hip-hop music world to get into fashion as well.

“They go hand in hand,” Parkey says. “You can’t really have one without the other.”

Many rappers today make it a point to mention what kind of clothes they wear as a sign of status. Certain clothes can have the same effect on one’s image as the kind of car he drives. So if a rapper is going to be name-dropping a clothing line, Parkey says it might as well be his own.

“They realize that they can capitalize off their voice,” Parkey says. “A lot of artists are talking about different clothing, different cars, different whatever. So if they talk about their own lines enough they can get it to sell.”

Paoletti goes as far as to call the pervasive influence of hip-hop style in clothing the most obvious example of the mingling of the music and fashion worlds.

“Just as motion pictures are made to sell action figures, there is music that is made to sell beverages and fashion,” Paoletti says.

Hip-hop is certainly a movement that transcends music.

“I would guess that many people who wear hip-hop styles aren’t ever aware of the connection,” he adds.

Rockers are now getting into his fashion business as well. Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 have their own line of clothing called Famous Stars and Straps, and drummer Travis Barker puts out a line called Atticus.

It used to be that those who chose the punk and gothic style prided themselves in being “underground.” Nowadays, they can go to the nearest mall to find that same style.

“I find the notion of being able to buy your anarchy T-shirts at the mall hysterically funny,” Paoletti says. “At least the hippies had the decency and integrity to buy their threads at surplus stores and the Salvation Army.”

Hot Topic is one of those stores in the mall Paoletti speaks of. Jared Olson, manager of Hot Topic at Merle Hay Mall in Des Moines, says the store revolves 100 percent around rock fashion.

“It’s in our slogan you know,” Olson says. “So we try to support it as much as we can without trying to touch base with anything that deals with religion or drugs or anything like that.”

There is an old saying that says something to the effect that deep inside almost everyone wants to be a rock star.

Obviously not everyone can be a rock star, but for some people, dressing and acting like one is the next best thing.

And it has been this way for longer than you might think. Paoletti says that as far back as the Renaissance there are reports of fans of particular performers imitating them.

Things definitely haven’t changed today say Olson and Parkey. They both see customers coming in constantly to plop down money for the latest fashions worn by musicians.

“You got the rock star and all the kids idolize it and so they are going to mimic what he wears and how he acts,” Olson explains.

He says that he sees the most in the case of clothing brands like Adidas who sponsor bands. When bands like Korn are seen wearing styles from companies like Adidas or Pony, Olson says you can notice immediate sales increases of those items.

Parkey talks about a specific incident just a few days ago in which a customer had just bought an outfit from his store, only to return home and see Ghostface Killah wearing a different outfit on television. The customer immediately drove back and returned his outfit for the one Ghostface was modeling.

“Stuff like that happens all the time,” Parkey says. “TV is a very visual thing and some people are very led by that.”

While borrowing some style tips from your favorite rock star can be fun, Appel advises finding your own style can be much more rewarding.

“If someone dresses like their idol, I want to just tell them to be themselves instead,” she says. “It’s OK to take ideas, but to dress head-to-toe like them must shows, the imitator needs to find their own style.

“It’s almost as bad as wearing a band’s T-shirt to their show. Don’t be that guy.”