'Retto Ruminations
By: Amy Sciarretto
Last updated June 10th , 2010

I've conducted a few interviews with bands recently, with band members who are around my age and who are a part of the CD generation, not the download generation and we got into discussions, both verbal and via email, in a brush of irony. The irony being an email discussion about how artwork was an extension of an album and of a band and how the visual complemented the auditory in such a way that the two could not be separated without harming the other sensory element.

And today, music fans, especially ones that aren't allowed to legally purchase booze yet, see a brightly colored t-shirt of the hot band of the moment as the visual extension of the music but without the tight connection. 

Tables at venues are loaded with all sorts of merch, gear, t-shirts, replica guitar pics, hoodies, boy shorts, thongs, tanks, wife beaters, sweat pants and tote bags. Whatever the configuration, logo-bearing items have always been crucial to bands, as well as those iconic, emblematic album covers  and mascots, like Eddie from Iron Maiden or Vic Rattlehead from Megadeth or the skull from The Misfits have always been symbols music fans sport with immense pride. You don't need to be a card-carrying member of a fan club. All you need to do is pull a t-shirt over your head and voila! Everyone who looks at you knows what bands you like and in an instant, is given a bit of insight into your personality, your likes, your tastes. All from sporting gear from a band you love. Hundreds of non-verbal messages are sent via attire.

Let's not forget patches sewn on jackets. Buttons fastened to backpacks and wristbands. It's all part and parcel of the culture of music fans, especially of hard rockers. Iconic images were created and they endured through the ages. There is a reason that these images and icons stood the test of time: they looked good and they stood for something.

I'm not so sure that today's designs and couture-inspired band fashions will stand the test of time. No, I am actually am quite sure that they won't stick around for posterity and will be mere footnotes of an era, if that, whereas chapters could be devoted to Ed Hunter or Vic Rattlehead. 

There's nothing definitive and memorable about the art on the t-shirts that bands are creating today. The back story and the look of iconic gear isn't as prevalent as it once was; hence people from my generation and the download generation are snatching up reissues of classic tees by the armful. Reprints of '80s era shirts and gear are readily available at Hot Topic and through eBay. Go ahead. Do a search online. I'll wait. How much vintage or vintage-inspired attire did you unearth? It's massive, isn't it?

While today's merch and gear has expanded to tote bags, boy short, belts, wallets and other accessories as I mentioned a few paragraphs up, I definitely sense that some of the pride  of wearing your favorite band's gear has been shortchanged, or lost, even. I feel like such a fucking fuddy duddy when I write such reminiscent columns, but I am proud of the era in which I discovered music and I have to speak freely and openly about my experience with music, as it evolves and changes and adapts, while quietly remembering a time gone by. 

The first thing I did when I went to a show when I was in my more formative years, before music became my very lucky and blessed career, was make a beeline for the merch table, to stock up on new t-shirts and to check out what wares the bands I loved were peddling. I also decorated my messenger bag and my backpack with buttons and pins of my favorite bands. They were all like badges of honor, of expressing my love and my passion for bands whose music meant so much to me I felt compelled to sport them on my person, for all the world to see. Fuck, what did I have to hide?

I still wear band t-shirts, albeit custom-cut ones that I shred myself with cloth scissors, to feminize them, even those cut for the female body. Oh, how I wish bands had femme cut shirts in my college years. While I used to bust out scissors and do my own customizing and feminizing, I sometimes missed out on cool designs because bands only sold large sizes or other too big sizes that didn't fit me and that were too difficult to customize to fit me. I had to rely on the device of my creativity. 

Today? Kids are lucky, because bands set up the equivalent of mini malls at their merch tables. There are variations of the same designs. They are a variety of cuts and styles. There are accessories. There is almost too much to chose from, so if you have disposable income, you will be in heaven. If you're on a budget or a fixed income, you will be torn over which design to choose from due to sensory overload. Since you are going to wear it on your physical person, it becomes an important choice, and I can relate to that. I used to love getting second looks from people on the street as they read the logo or album name or lyrics scrawled across my chest. (I am sure, though, that many of those looks came because of the twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley, that are perky and not small!) I loved it. I enjoyed picking up the shirt of the day.  

I remember back in 2003, two complete strangers in New York City on two separate occasions saying, "Yeah, Avenged Sevenfold" to me when I would wear my form-fitting, black zip up A7X hoodie which boasted only their now iconic bat skull logo and no words indicating who they were. The image and band were so nascent back then that only those in the know of the band, in the time when they were still underground, picked up on the visual clue. It was like we were members of a secret society, exchanging a secret word or handshake. It's like we both knew, unspokenly so, that we were part of the same scene, crowd and in the know about awesome fucking music.

I admit that now when I see people walk by me on the street, sporting a shirt of a band I love or work with, there is an unspoken, ships-passing-in-the-night kinship feeling that washes over me. 

But I must admit, such thoughts, about choosing carefully what to sport on your person, can veer dangerously close to image and to pulling too far away from the music. It shouldn't be about the how bangin' your friend will think your new [[INSERT BAND NAME HERE]] t-shirt.  It should be because you want to festoon the band you love on your body and perhaps promote that band, so maybe that someone else, a passersby, might spot your shirt, have their curiosity aroused, and perhaps desire to check out the band that you displayed. So you're effectively an advertisement for bands you love, exposing them however directly or indirectly to other people. That's how music can be passed along silently, but not like a flesh eating virus. Music helps people grow, and merch used to be a simple and effective method of advertising and promotion, not of mergers and acquisitions, as it has morphed into.

I'll take the stark Metallica Master of Puppets cover or Ed Hunter on Iron Maiden's Killers over some loud, whacky, gold foil design that many trendy and of-the-moment bands sport. Shit, a bullet belt and a patch on an acid-washed denim jacket and white, high-topped Reeboks are  way hipper and way more emblematic than a modern day metal band hawking pink and pastel blue gear. So what it all rockers wear black t-shirts? You can still make them your own.

Band gear should mean something. It should be the extension of a song, of an album, of a cover. Of a story. Of  a concept. If it isn't, maybe you shouldn't be wearing it. But when you do, wear it well. ~ Amy Sciarretto 


Amy Sciarretto was once profiled in the national trade mag Radio & Records where she was dubbed "The Queen Of Metal." She is the lead daily blogger on AOL's Noisecreep metal blog. She created columns for Revolver and has written cover stories for international rock Bible Kerrang!, and her words have continuously appeared in the pages of Alternative Press, AOL Spinner, Guitar World, Decibel, Hit Parader (which she still co-edits), CMJ New Music Report (where she served as Loud Rock Editor for 8 years), Teen People, Spin.com, VH1.com, CMJ New Music Monthly, FMQB, Chord, Sucker , Outburn, Amp, Hails & Horns, Ruin, , music.com, Metal Maniacs, Aquarian Weekly, Rockpile,  ARTISTdirect, Ultimate Guitar, Rebel Ink, Urban Ink, Skin & Ink and LAX.
 
She was a weekend DJ on Sirius Satellite Radio's metal channel Hard Attackand served as Roadrunner's Director of Hard Rock Radio and Video Promotion, where she was voted "Promotion Executive of the Year" for the format for 5 years in a row, before the award was retired when she left the format. She was promoted to Director of Publicity/Media/Artist Relations in 2007. She also writes about beauty products www.beautynewsnyc.com where she serves as Beauty Editor. She also published the book, Do the Devil's Work For Him: How to Make it in the Music Business (and Stay in it).  
 
Amy listens to Pantera Vulgar Display of Power every morning and has attended approximately 1500 concerts in her lifetime. She loves listening to Howard Stern, seeing stand up comics live, travelling, Green Tea lattes, all Philadelphia sports teams and is mom to English bulldog puppy, Higgins H. Anselmo.

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