Back in June, you may remember, I posted an incredulous little entry (histrionically dubbed “Heresy”) about a certain t-shirt. The offending garment in question was a One Direction t-shirt that was basically a brazen appropriation of Arturo Vega’s iconic Ramones logo. I did my usual war dance, cried foul, shook my fist at an uncaring god, etc. What I didn’t realize at the time is that there’s actually a backstory.
Evidently, one member of One Direction (who, if you’re not aware by this point, are a British boy band currently capable of making a planet’s worth of teenage girls rend their undergarments) has made a habit out of wearing Ramones t-shirts. Yes, evidently Harry Styles is a Ramones fan, or -- at the very least -- thinks the shirt looks cool. Fair enough. I don’t wish death upon him for that or anything. Really, I don’t.
The strange thing, though, is that in the wake of Harry’s sporting of the Ramones logo, the already-revered emblem has gone onto become some sort of totemic touchstone for One Direction nation, prompting feverish teenage girls to post questions online like “Should I wear a Ramones shirt to a One Direction concert?” and the like (The answer: No. No, you shouldn’t.)
What seemed to happen next was that there was a sudden panic for Ramones shirts, although not out of any love for the Ramones, but simply because our Harry is keen on da bruddahs. So, I guess the next logical step was for some entrepreneurial soul to design that One Direction/Ramones logo mutation I first spotted on Tumblr and re-posted here.
Ever since I did that, however, traffic on this weblog has relatively SKYROCKETED. That single post gets more hits a day than virtually anything else I’ve ever put up here (the exception being the post about Chuck Klosterman’s theory about Radiohead’s Kid A that was linked to by Cracked… that still gets a bajillion hits weekly). What’s more is that I get loads of e-mails (usually in Spanish or in broken English), frenziedly asking me “WHERE CAN I GET THAT SHIRT???”
Here’s the thing: I don’t know. Moreover, I don’t care. Maybe do a little Googling? It’s not that difficult. Stop asking me.
Anyway, that’s it. No big frothy-mouthed rant this time. At the very least, maybe the respective coffers of the Ramones’ estate are benefitting somehow, however backhandedly. If a single chinless, chicken-chested and tousle-haired British kid can inspire an army of teenage girls to maybe even buy the odd Ramones album, then perhaps that’s a good thing.
By the way, these are the Ramones.
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