Let it be said, I have thought of framing my INXS concert t-shirt.
But then, just like a torrential downpour being shoved out of the way by the glistening sunlight and a brand-new day, I too back down on my latest artistic idea.
I remember the days of concert-mayhem as put on by Def Leppard, Poison, U2, INXS, Depeche Mode, David Bowie that was accompanied by overpriced t-shirts with a cool logo on the back, listing each and every current and future stop on the concert-tour bandwagon.
Boise, ID Providence, RI Provo, UT Dallas, TX Phoenix, AZ Los Angeles, CA Oakland, CA Seattle, WA
I remember gazing at the list of locales, thinking to myself that how cool that I could be a part of history. That on my back, the lists and the logos made me a soldier in their musical army. I was part of their clan. I was part of the movement. I had been to the concert. (And it was on a school night.)
I don’t much see people wearing concert t-shirts anymore. Sure, they sell them. Sure, people buy them. But when I go to homeroom on Monday morning (I periodically still go, just for the fun of it), I don’t see my fellow sixth graders wearing the latest $30 monstrosities from Dave Matthews and N’Sync and Ashlee Simpson and Outkast. There just doesn’t seem to be the same love for concert t-shirts that there once was. And I just have to ask the question (in typical Carrie Bradford Bradshaw style) —
What is the future of concert t-shirts?
Newsweek just did an article on how kids these days are desiring more technologically advanced toys and material objects to possess. From iPODs to cell phones to sports cars. Kids are looking for the expensive advanced toys to have and not t-shirts. So, then, what can musical artists on tour sell at the concert kiosks to start bringing in the money, again? If the future of concert t-shirts is in question, what is the answer?
What about Dave Matthews Contact Lenses? Or Ashlee Simpson Contraceptive Sponges? Or N’Sync Flash USB Drives? Musical artists need to start selling things that kids want from CDs with MP3s and Logoed-Cell Phone cards to implantable chips that, upon being scanned at local airports and secure places like domestic border checks will not only tell the authorities that your 12 year old child is who he says he is, but that he’s also a member of the Outkast Fan Club!
Oh yes, the future of concert T-shirts is all but gone. But to think of the amazing potential items that will take the place of old, ratty 100% cotton T’s…
Well, it just makes me giddy.
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