The New Emergence of Band Logos as Brands

Photo via Paolo Pozzi on Flickr

For many music lovers, the band t-shirt is a coveted item as it allows for someone to display their love for a music artist in a stylish and expressive way. If you happen to see someone wearing a vintage “Grateful Dead” t-shirt and you ask them about it, chances are they will give you a whole run down about the band and offer some sort of niche fact or story about them.

For many other people, band t-shirts are just another item on a rack at any clothing store. You could run into someone wearing a “Rolling Stones” t-shirt with the iconic tongue logo on it and they might not have a clue who Mick Jagger is. 

The debate about whether or not someone should wear a t-shirt with a music artist’s logo on it if they do not know or listen to the artist has been a recurring topic for a long time. In the era of the internet and social media, this debate has only continued to amplify and become more heated.

Certain music fans express harsh opposition to the thought of a 14-year-old girl wearing a “Beatles” t-shirt because she thinks it’s cool. Others do not care much or feel that people have the right to wear merchandise from an artist or band, even if they are unfamiliar with them.

While the debate about the validity of someone being able to wear a band t-shirt or not has been ongoing, a new phenomenon has emerged regarding band merchandise. This new trend has been the uptick in certain band logos becoming more of a brand as opposed to an image that is symbolic of a band or music artist.

Some of the biggest victims of this include “Nirvana,” “Sublime,” “Led Zeppelin” and, as mentioned earlier, “The Rolling Stones.” While all of these artists have very popular and recognizable logos, it seems almost as if the imagery associated with these artists have lost their uniqueness and have become a print slapped on a t-shirt or a crew neck sweater. 

From my observations and social media as well, there is one particular oversized crew neck sweatshirt with the Nirvana smiley logo on it that has recently been a very popular clothing item. The sweater is the product of Urban Outfitters, a store that doesn’t have any sort of heavy ties to any music scene. Stores like Urban Outfitters and also Free People that distribute this kind of band merchandise in a way that portrays a band’s logo as a brand definitely adds to this new phenomenon.

There is nothing wrong with this new popularization of certain band logos, and as I said earlier, I do not find it offensive when someone wears the merchandise of a band or artist they are not familiar with. However, I do think this emergence of band logos almost shifting into that of a brand is an interesting new development in the realm of band merchandise as it does create a loss of genuineness between an artist and their music when an image loses its true symbolism.

As it goes, both music taste and fashion are subjective. It is hard to tell if there will ever be a happy medium achieved by music fans and those who want to dress how they please in the longtime debate over the wearing of a band’s merchandise. The recent trend of band logos as brands should be observed, and as all trends do, perhaps this one will wane over time and the Nirvana smiley face logo will not fade into obscurity on a rack in the clearance section of Urban Outfitters.