The themes of Velvet Goldmine immidiately lend themselves to a large audience: Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll. It offers an objective view of all the above allowing the audience to feel as if they were experiencing these things vicariously since most would not ever engage in these activities on their own. Curiosity is fed and fantasies realized. It makes no moral judgement of any action; so that there is no aura of opression in the film.

The filming style itself attracts the aesthetic center of the brain with it's abundance of glitter, glamour, and costume. The imagination is stimulated by unusual scenes executed in a way not seen in normal films.

It also offers phsychological explanations for the fates of Arthur Stuart, whom ran away from home in his teens due to an opressive father; Brian Slade whom witnessed an authority figure in a highly undignified position; Curt Wild whom was molested by his older brother, then suffered shock therapy; and Jack Fairy, whom...well, they really just blame this one on Oscar Wilde.