Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

english.elpais.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 232 posts

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#101

Post by VBprogrammer »

ageitgey wrote: post #90
abap_rocky wrote: post #87

I was reading an interview with the band "Agriculture" recently and they had a really interesting take on this. From this interview https://www.treblezine.com/agriculture-interview-quiet-viole... : "DM: We exist as a band because we sell t-shirts. Our job is that we sell t-shirts and the way we promote those t-shirts is by playing music. If we were talking strictly economically, that’s just a fact. LL: Weirdly, it’s…

It's very smart of them to recognize that. The world is full of these weird business cases where people aren't aware of the actual product, like how Starbucks US morphed from a coffee shop into an iced dessert drinks company that also incidentally sells hot coffee. Edit: Other fun examples - In the mid-2000s, Porsche was an incredibly successful hedge fund that also sold cars who tried to acquire VW using a short squ…

Or Blockbuster being a massive real-estate company. Or McDonald's for that matter.

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#102

Post by FeepingCreature »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #98
riffraff wrote: post #27

Well, Brian Eno said of Velvet Underground's first album that it didn't sell many copies but everyone who bought it started a band.

Yeah, thinking the same with regard to the Ramones. They are name-dropped so often by bands that came since—pretty sure it is not because of a t-shirt.

"your favorite band's favorite band"

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#103

Post by taybin »

mikkupikku wrote: post #69
rubzah wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a commercial act, the 'punk' costumes carefully chosen for the right signalling, by a couple of middle class kids. What's with this idea that your taste in music must spring from the purest and rawest authenticity, preferably (in no particular order) poor, rebellious, substance abusing, ethnic, and so on. Leading to all these musical acts styling themselves like that. The Ramones were sellouts and posers, just l…

Remember when Jack Black ditched his long-time friend, threw him under the bus, for being mildly edgy against the establishment?

I don’t. What are you referring to?

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#104

Post by JKCalhoun »

deeg wrote: post #7

If the Ramones put their name on all sorts of merchandise does that make them sellouts? I joke, of course, and I'm a big Ramones fan. I've had numerous iterations of that shirt over the years. I often use them as an example when discussing "what is good art?" They are one of the most influential bands of all time and yet they were terrible musicians.

"They are one of the most influential bands of all time and yet they were terrible musicians."

And that is exactly why they were so influential.

"Hey fellas, let's start a band!"

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#106

Post by JKCalhoun »

jrjeksjd8d wrote: post #94
deeg wrote: post #7

If the Ramones put their name on all sorts of merchandise does that make them sellouts? I joke, of course, and I'm a big Ramones fan. I've had numerous iterations of that shirt over the years. I often use them as an example when discussing "what is good art?" They are one of the most influential bands of all time and yet they were terrible musicians.

The concept of "selling out" requires you to have some core values which you and your audience share. If you're a hard rock band and you make a cringe disco album because that's what the record label told you to do, that could be seen as selling out. If you're an anarchist crust punk and you get signed to a big label that could be selling out. If you're an underground DJ and you do the soundtrack for a big movie that…

In short, selling out is when your art takes a back seat to making money (when it had previously been the other way around).

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#108

Post by Insanity »

I’m a big fan of rock and metal music and often go to concerts. I’ll always buy a t-shirt of the main band I go to see, even if I don’t particularly vibe with the design, because I know it’s an additional way to support a band I like.

In my opinion that alone is worth it, but it is a fun piece of memorabilia. Although I don’t wear most of them in my day to day, especially the older ones.

I’ve got shirts from about 2008 onwards, which is the year I first went to see Sabaton and Disturbed.

Re: The truth that haunts the Ramones: 'They sold more T-shirts than records'

#110

Post by ModernMech »

I think that’s probably just a universal truth in many industries. How many people have donated to the Linux foundation versus how many people have bought some sort of Tux merch?

And why should that fact be haunting? The point of being in a band isn’t to sell records, but to make music. The only reason the t-shirts sold is because the music was good and they were iconic. Where is the ghost?

Post reply on HN