Band T-Shirt As Fashion Item

[Furtho]

Bands who for some reason are able to sell t-shirts in large numbers to people from beyond their actual fanbase.

Very unscientific, but I suspect the following may do this to a greater or lesser extent:

Joy Division
Motorhead
The Ramones
Nirvana
Iron Maiden
Guns 'n' Roses

Any more (or anyone who should be discounted from the above list) and any theories as to why this is happening?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

There are a lot of Bowie t-shirts around, maybe more so since he died but it was a thing while he was still alive. The Aladdin Sane cover in particular.

The Rolling Stones tongue logo is popular.

There are a lot of Stone Roses t-shirts, maybe not in the league of those mentioned above. Kiss would fit into this second division too.

As to why, there was always a trade in this stuff (in HMV, in touristy places like Hollywood and Camden) and the Nirvana t-shirts in particular have been popular for a long time, but band t-shirts really seemed to take off here when Primark and the like starting doing them (cheaply of course) so suspect there was a licensing deal done which turned out to be surprisingly lucrative and it took off from there.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Metallica and AC/DC. My completely baseless theory is that "famous" people who have never heard a single record by any of these bands are seen wearing them in an effort to appear cool, and others jump on the bandwagon.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

(edit - this is expanding on my post rather than replying to Toby's - but yes AC/DC definitely at the top table here) I suppose that covers the supply side but as to why people buy them, it's a cheap fashion item with which to look a bit edgy and in the know about music, whether or not the wearer has ever heard the band in question. Entry level rock chic without having to get anything tattooed or pierced.

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Inspiral Carpets 'Cool as Fuck' t-shirts

[WOM]

I'd extend this to people wearing CBGB t-shirts, who have no earthly idea what those letters stand for. Much less the OMFUG beneath them.

[ursus arctos]

Some of us bought them there, sport

[WOM]

And there's one of you for every 99 that didn't, I'd estimate.

[ursus arctos]

Nowhere near that many by now, I reckon

[San Bernardhinault]

Even fewer original CBGB t-shirts will still fit the people who bought them.

[Snake Plissken]

James and PWEI were very popular t-shirt bands in the early 90s.

[ursus arctos]

Even fewer original CBGB t-shirts will still fit the people who bought them.

You had to say it out loud, didn't you?

It is a good strategy for getting them to last 40 years, though.

[Levin]

Dead Kennedys?

Although they are less common than they used to be.

[Patrick Thistle]

Oasis. Just the black bar logo on the shirts.

Supermarkets also sell a few random bands. AC/DC, Rolling Stones etc. They're cheap things for kids to buy their dads for birthdays and stuff.

[Hot Pepsi]

I have never bought a shirt at a gig. Too expensive. Long lines. But I have an Operation Ivy shirt, Rancid shirt, and Midnight Oil shirt. I like those bands and I like the designs. Good conversation starter.

[Patrick Thistle]

I've only bought band t-shirts at gigs. I also have Midnight Oil ones.

[Bored Of Education]

I have noticed some Black Sabbath 1977 faux-tour ones doing the rounds recently as well as some faux-tour Led Zeppelin ones. There also seem to be some "ironic" death metal bands' ones like Exodus etc.

I have found myself buying t-shirts that are the less 'classic' designs so that I don't end up looking like a fashion wearer e.g. a "Overkill" album shirt instead of the classic Motorhead logo. In saying that, both my classic Motorhead and Black Sabbath shirts are fairly obviously from the early 80s being obviously faded through washing and with the t-shirts cut off. The latter detail plus the fact they are fairly tiny also show why they haven't fallen apart from through over-wearing.

[Patrick Thistle]

In TK Maxx today I spotted:
AC/DC Those About to Rock 1981-2 (faux) tour
Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
2 different David Bowie designs

I only looked in the medium section of the t-shirts. So there may be others lurking.

[ale]

Got a Stranglers shirt on No More Heroes tour 1977. Exuberance of youth & all that along with proceeds of paper round.

Never bothered again & turned nose up at very thought of commercial merchandise.

Until 2014 & son got me one of Aladdin Sane covers mentioned above. Since then have received steady supply of shirts every milestone & cant get enough of them. All the classics-Joy Division Ramones Clash Pistols first albums & also Spiral Scratch Fear Of Music Ziggy Low & generic Cure Bunnymen PiL.

[Sam]

My girlfriend's aunt has a Ramones t-shirt she bought because it was cheap and she liked the design. She hasn't got a clue who the Ramones are, which makes it more amusing to me because she's exactly the right age to have been into them first time round, if they'd been big down here (I haven't asked because I don't care, but I doubt they'd have had the chance given that the 1976–83 dictatorship banned English-language pop music).

[ursus arctos]

But a bit later . . .

The band visited Argentina seven times between 1987 and 1996, playing a total of 27 shows in the country. Shortly before their first trip to Argentina, Joey Ramone admitted to the press that he had no idea what to expect from the band’s fans south of the Mexico border. Fast forward a few years, and it would be impossible for the band to leave their hotel without being swarmed by a mob of fans. There is footage on YouTube – shot by Marky Ramone, the band’s second drummer and resident historian – that is legitimately frightening to watch, as the band’s van is seized by the Argentine fans and nearly rocked over.

[Sam]

Oh yeah, post-1983 and the return to democracy meant that Anglophone bands came back and were very enthusiastically embraced by Argentines, to the point where '80s rock and pop is still heard all the time in bars and clubs here today (and has been ever since I first visited in 2003). This is why I think that even given the history, it's still okay for me to find it amusing that my girlfriend's aunt doesn't know who the Ramoes were. I've read it hypothesised that the love for it is because people link it psychologically to that era. The idea that someone might be seen as a bit sad for liking, say, Queen or George Michael is totally alien here (and as those two artists perhaps illustrate, there's certainly no problem with 1980s British artists in spite of what might on face value appear to be a pretty big reason for Argentines to not like 1980s British things).

When I went to see Stevie Wonder, the four or five songs from the mid-1980s got a huge reception, but I was the only person in my line of sight who reacted when the drummer started pounding out the opening bars of 'Superstition'.

[Lang Spoon]

Fuckin hell. 80s Stevie wonder is as awful as 80s McCartney. (bar McCartney II and Happy Birthday)

[George]

You've never heard the full version of Do I Do then?

[Hot Pepsi]

There was a baby with a Ramones shirt on at Trader Joes the other day. The guy at the til was complementing the mom on her kid's taste. That's a very Trader Joe's moment.