'They’re Selling Slayer Shirts in Primark!’; Contesting authenticity through metal and punk t-shirts

This paper discusses the recent iteration of metal and punk band t-shirts as mainstream fashion garments in both high-end and high street marketplaces.

What began with niche atelier fashion labels such as Vetements and KTZ became a widespread trend that prompted large-scale licensing and production of band merchandise by brands such as Primark, H&M and Walmart. In some instances, t-shirts were produced for bands that did not actually exist, but which conferred a subcultural ‘look’ on the wearer.

More recently, high-profile collaborations have appeared between cult streetwear brand Supreme and metal bands Slayer and Black Sabbath.

If initial reactions to these phenomena might seem traditionally polarised (metalheads and punks deride the commodification; followers of fashion see no problem) it can be argued that these examples warrant a more nuanced consideration. Despite the inherent difficulties in establishing contemporary definitions of authenticity, the term continues to be invoked and contested in subcultural discourses as well as more widely as part of youth and consumer cultures.

Band t-shirts with their iconic imagery might be considered through the legacy of Baudrillard’s ‘simulacral’ image – that which has no original or referent. The nihilistic implications of this reading might be assuaged somewhat through application of Steyerl’s description of the ‘poor image’ that abounds in contemporary digital culture .

If the ‘authentic’ t-shirt is dead, perhaps the appropriated version is its afterlife.

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