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

141–150 of 232 posts

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

#141

Post by hydrogen7800 »

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 that GM is a bank that also sells people the collateral for loans (i.e. cars).

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

#142

Post by rglover »

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…

Agriculture has just joined my rotation thanks to this story. The process works.

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

#143

Post by throw4847285 »

I highly recommend Simon Reynold's history of post-punk, Rip It Up and Start Again. An oversimplified version of his argument is that punk as a movement barely existed. It was an extremely brief cultural moment, represented by a small number of bands, the most influential of which (The Sex Pistols) was basically manufactured.

There wasn't enough to that initial punk sound other than energy and posturing. What punk really did was act as a catalyst for an explosion of musical creativity that followed.

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

#144

Post by Insanity »

nazgulsenpai wrote: post #139
Insanity wrote: post #108

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 20…

I wish I had, and the only shirt I ever got at a show was from Necrophagist. A girl I was seeing at the time left my house wearing it and I never saw it again :( I went to see Amon Amarth headline in ~2013 and Sabaton was one of the openers. I had never heard of them before but they actually were on par with Amarth's performance and I've been a fan ever since!

That’s unfortunate! But you can start your collection going forward haha :)

Yeah Sabaton is great, I’ve been a fan since Primo Victoria, their debut album. They’re also doing an NA tour this year (after rescheduling some dates). I’ve mostly seen them tour in EU so this is a good chance for those outside EU to see them live!

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

#145

Post by analog8374 »

gchamonlive wrote: post #119

Weird that the perception of value is how much money a product makes. Sure they sold more t-shirts than records, but without the records the t-shirts would have been worthless.

Impact on other people is probably the best measure of value. Pirating is a value-enhancer.

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

#146

Post by analog8374 »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #106
jrjeksjd8d wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

consider it from the perspective of those who have no art. it's like a threat of decapitation for people who never had a head. headlessness is the norm and carries no fear

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

#147

Post by nazgulsenpai »

Insanity wrote: post #144
nazgulsenpai wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I had, and the only shirt I ever got at a show was from Necrophagist. A girl I was seeing at the time left my house wearing it and I never saw it again :( I went to see Amon Amarth headline in ~2013 and Sabaton was one of the openers. I had never heard of them before but they actually were on par with Amarth's performance and I've been a fan ever since!

That’s unfortunate! But you can start your collection going forward haha :) Yeah Sabaton is great, I’ve been a fan since Primo Victoria, their debut album. They’re also doing an NA tour this year (after rescheduling some dates). I’ve mostly seen them tour in EU so this is a good chance for those outside EU to see them live!

Thanks for the headsup, I will definitely try to make it out to see them again!

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

#148

Post by pchristensen »

rglover wrote: post #142
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…

Agriculture has just joined my rotation thanks to this story. The process works.

Now go buy a t-shirt!

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

#149

Post by Forgeties79 »

matthewkayin wrote: post #131
ageitgey wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I don't know if the Starbucks example is quite the same as the band example. If anything, their focus on iced desserts shows that they know exactly what their audience wants and is paying for. When I think about the band shirts, I think about this time an indie game dev youtuber did a full breakdown of their different revenue streams. They were a "full time indie gamedev", but the overwhelming majority of their incom…

to add to this, the iced dessert drinks are still caffeinated, so they still fill the purported role of a Starbucks.

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

#150

Post by rationalist »

pixl97 wrote: post #114
VBprogrammer wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Car manufacturers being financial/loan organizations is another.

RV companies are more-so that than car companies.

RVs are put together by methheads and there are less protections (such as no lemon law for RVs) for the consumers. Many RVs spend there whole one year warranty period in the shop with no actual fixes being done and then the warranty runs out. The people that do hear about RV problems, buy new thinking that will be less problems, when in fact the newer RVs are the lower quality ones that have issues. There are YouTube channels dedicated to this phenomenon (https://youtube.com/@LizAmazing), and why one famous consumer lawyer (Steve Lehto) says "You Must be INSANE to buy an RV These Days": https://youtube.com/watch?v=xElhTNS_xn8

A great video where one major manufacturer does not even properly VIN their RVs leading to a $600,000 fine given to one RV owner: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zGOANydJURQ

Post reply on HN