They Will Rock You

Los Angeles is always lauded for its contributions to rock 'n roll -- from Black Flag to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But it's given short shrift (over London and New York, at least) when it comes to rocker style.

But through the decades, the churning local music scene's kicked out its fair share of style mavericks. Which prompted us to crown the best-dressed L.A. rockers of all time -- you know, the ones who really light our fire.

Beck

Emerging like a boyish court jester from the mopey 90's music scene, Beck embraced costumes and artifice from the start -- wearing silly suits and polyester pants with impunity. He's since moved with the fashion tides, embodying several Silver Lake-born styles-of-the-moment -- from boho to Navajo to Nick Drake-ian.

Jim Morrison, The Doors

Few rock royals have had as definable a style as the Lizard King, who turned leather pants, Indian silver belts and the occasional Louis XIV ruffled shirt into key symbols of Sunset Strip hedonism in 1960s L.A. Morrison was the slithering, sun-streaked antidote to the buttoned-up British Invasion.

Tom Waits

The gravel-voiced Waits is the king of rumpled cool. His disheveled suits, crumpled pork-pie hats and wrinkled button-fronts always seem a conscious subverting of the norm  -- and consistently nod to the gin-soaked styles of jazz musicians from the 40s and 50s. It's a look he at least partially cultivated in the 1970s, when he was shacked up in Echo Park.

Guns 'n Roses

In the heyday of the 80s Sunset Strip scene (around 1986), Guns 'n Roses pulled from punk, glam and Jim Morrison to create a menacing hood-rat look that made Motley Crue look like a bunch of preening beauty queens. Leather, bandanas, spurs, ripped-and-stained t-shirts and New York Dolls-style coifs defined the band's style. Rose, who initially stood above his peers style-wise, spawned thousands of look-alikes. But alas, like Icarus flying too close the the sun, he started to buy into his own hype and entered the 90's -- like so many Strip rockers -- stylistically confused and lost in a Teen Spirit nightmare.

The Like

Born into the L.A. music industry (their famous-producer dads put the band together), The Like showed up on the scene in 2001 dressed like 1960s Topanga Canyon refugees -- with a Rosemary's Baby bent. White lacy dresses, knee high socks and flats were girlish but right in synch with what was going on in high fashion at the time. Urban Outfitters is still peddling the look.

Joan Jett

Though she's not famous for her L.A. ties, former Runways guitarist Joan Jett formed her Blackhearts band by placing an ad in the L.A. Weekly (X's John Doe filled in on bass during the auditions.) Jett's impact on style -- both in and out of music -- can hardly be overstated. Her hard-edged look was all about leatha, leatha and more leatha. Unapologetically androgynous, she didn't care about looking sexy, and therefore always did.

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Did we get it right? Let us know who your best-dressed L.A. rocker is by emailing editors@stylesectionla.com.