There was a great article recently on Loudwire about how
metal has become a “fashion statement” http://loudwire.com/opinion-stop-making-metal-a-fashion-statement/
It was basically everything I wanted to say when I started
writing a similar piece a few months ago.
I'm still waiting for the “K” family to disappear like too many of their
kind in the past (anyone remember Paris Hilton – no – the skank not that
hotel...??) .
Back in my day band t-shirts, motorcycle jackets, long hair
on guys, black hi-top Chuck Taylor's or that one style of mid-top Reebok's –
denim vests and jackets with patches, band logos drawn on everything from backpacks to sneakers – was a way of
fellow metal fans to identify each other.
You could go into any social situation not knowing a soul, but if you
saw someone you recognized as being a fellow listener to the same type of music
there was an instant connection. One of
my favorite memories when I was a teenager hanging out with my dad in the city
(what those of us in the outer boroughs call Manhattan)
is my dad and I were walking through subway cars while going over the Manhattan bridge , and
passing through one car all of sudden these guys were like “MAIDEN! MAIDEN
RULES!! MAIDEN!!!” And they started trying to sing in Dickinson's falsetto. My dad was confused,
but I was wearing (and I don't know how I remember this) the Iron Maiden
“Decennium” shirt from the box set. The
bros and I flashed the horns at each other, and when we got to the next train
car I explained to my dad what had just happened. 
The first band shirt I ever bought was the Ozzy Osbourne/
Randy Rhoads “tribute” t shirt – I think I paid $5 at a going out of business
sale at the Plum Tree in Kings
Plaza. I remember wearing that shirt to see my
grandmother and she said “Who is that on your shirt? Is that your boyfriend?”
and I said “Oh grandma -that's a famous English Musician....” you could say she
planted a seed in my then 15 year old brain.
When I was older and started dating musicians she would always disparage
me saying “Who are you going with? Is it the guy in the group ? They smoke the
dope? You want to be with the dope in the group?” So the running gag with my
then boyfriend was he was the dope in the group. I loved my grandmother.
A friend of mine told me a great story about when he lived
in low-income housing in the Lower East Side,
and saw a Puerto Rican kid wearing of all things a Marillion t-shirt. Delighted to find a fellow fan of such an
obscure band – and in the “hood” of all places, my friend started gushing about
how much he loved Marillion, asked what this kids favorite songs were. The kid stared at him blankly and it took him
a few seconds to realize he was talking about the shirt. And he was like “oh, I
found this somewhere and thought the picture was cool”. If that kid ended up interested enough to at
least buy one album then my friends efforts were not in vain.
Another friend told me a few years ago when she was wearing
a Maryland Death fest t-shirt I bought back for her, she was waiting for a bus
and someone got in her face ranting about how she was going to hell unless she
repented for her sins. Her response was
classic metal-head, “I may be going to hell but we have the best music”.
There are uplifting stories though. A few weeks ago a friend
was wearing her Metallica Tank she had just bought at their recent concert, and
a stranger approached her and started talking about the recent tour, and they
ended up exchanging contact info and he sent her pro-quality video he shot in New Jersey!
About 10 years ago I had a great job doing data entry in a
liberal arts college in Western Massachusetts. The two things that made the job great were
we were allowed to listen to music with headphones all day and there was no
dress code except “don't wear anything you would wear on the beach”. At the time I was living with someone who's
band played a lot of the bigger European metal festivals, and I would proudly
wear the festival shirts he brought home.
One of my fashion forward co-workers had asked me if I ever heard of Ed
Hardy's line of clothing – that if I liked shirts with skulls and guitars I
would like Ed Hardy's shirts. I had to
explain to him the difference.
A few months ago I wore my Saxon “crusader” shirt when I
went out to see my friends band. A few
people complimented me on it and it started conversations about what was the
best Saxon album (Denim and Leather fyi).
One slightly drunk friend came up to me and said “Oh I love your shirt,
it's got a horse, do you like horses?”
Sure a lot of band logos have become “corporate” - you can't
walk into a Wal-Mart or Target without seeing AC/DC, Metallica, Led Zeppelin,
Jimi Hendrix and even sometimes Black
Sabbath shirts. But that doesn't bother
me because I have half a dozen AC/DC shirts and they were very easy to find
(the girly fit ones too – not the boxy men shirts). It does rile me up when I see kids wearing
Ramones shirts without a clue. I
remember loaning my brother a Maiden shirt years ago and our friends ripped him
a new one because he couldn't name one song.
That's how brutal it used to be.
Now I've seen old Russian grandmas wearing Sid Vicious shirts they
bought in Value Depot (I'm not kidding and I wish I had taken a picture).
I think the rock music listening populace should take it
upon ourselves to approach anyone who has co-opted our logos and actually grill
them. OK you're wearing a Clash shirt?
Name one song that wasn't on Combat Rock? What do you mean what's “Combat Rock??
Give me that shirt!”
-Rys
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