Cashing in on death?

[Luco El Loco]

I was looking at some t-shirts yesterday (I was actually looking for some HIM tops for my nephew but anyway) and I came across one with a nice picture of Dimebag Darrell on it, and his life dates displayed at the bottom. I'm not big on wearing t-shirts with bands on anyway, but I thought whilst it might be tempting to wear something with a nice portrait of someone whose music I like on it, I'm not sure I'd want to dwell on the fact he's dead. I'd rather think of him as when he was doing stuff he got given respect and praise for, and not thinking about the day he got shot. If on the other hand the intention was to raise awareness for what happened, then I'd rather wear an anti-firearms shirt, rather than cloak a man's image in one terrible event.

On another note, there are plenty of shirts for dead musicians, but you don't tend to see their lifetime dates displayed on them, so why dwell on Dimebag's? Am I missing something?

What do you think about this? Is this cashing in on death, or done for a different purpose?

[distortion]

i look at it as the dates are there to signify his life was cut short and to make people remember so it doesn't happen again.

i'd personally feel ok about wearing a shirt like that, if it helps people remember because he was a true legend and what happened has no place in the world.

[static anonymity]

Hmm, that's a toughie. I can appreciate both the views put forth here, but I think I'd have to say I wouldn't wear a t-shirt like that simply from a visual perspective. ie I tend to buy * wear tees that are visually appealing to me, rather than simply the tee being a band one, or something. And that means that a band t-shirt has to really have something about it to make me want to buy it, rather than just tour dates or a person's face slapped on it with a ridiculously high price (did I mention I'm cheap and don't tend to buy things unless they're bargains?). Thus, if the tee has just a person's face and dates on the front/bacl thenI'm not likely to buy it. That coupled with the fact that with most of the stuff I like, the whole band line-up are still about today, kinda narrows the likelihood of me buying a tee that Kim's described. Ehhm, I'm shattered, so gawd knows if this is making sense, so I'll shush now.

[Graham]

Personally, i buy a lot of t-shirts on the basis that i like the bands, but also i have to like the imagery on the front/back etc. I don't have a problem with one's that have the image of the person and their life dates, but it annoys me when it's worn by the teeny bopping "metallers" ie: a Kurt Cobain one, where their death isn't used to exploit financial gain, but is just used to gain acceptance, when they don't know anything about the person.

Anyway, i digress.

I think basically, if people are willing to wear it, then that's fine, but from a personal level, i'm more inclined to wear a t-shirt with imagery that i like, and isn't one that is seen everywhere...call it failing at being an individual, but i prefe to wear things that you won't see 300 other people wearing in the high street. I've got a Pink Floyd t-shirt...and instead of having the DSOTM (Dark Side Of The Moon) logo on it - it has an artistic impression of a scene from their movie "The Wall". I find it shows that i'm a fan, and it also helps provoke discussion from people who want to know what it's about, and it's not something that is seen everywhere.

So, erm...yeah...that was rambly, and i'm tired, as it's early, but it should have made sense

[Luco El Loco]

I agree with what Ellen said about overpricing - I don't know how much this particular t-shirt was as I wasn't interested in buying, but certainly I won't buy something at a high price because it has [insert famous person] on the front. It's got to be reasonable. I think I've only got two band shirts to my knowledge... *scratches head* yeah - one I bought because it was pretty as well - a girly black HIM vest with pretty lettering and swirls on and a blue and white Doors shirt... ... which doesn't have any dates on. I usually buy plain t-shirts and vandalise them amateur style.

Anyway, I hadn't realised the dates thing was that common. Just shows how often I go shirt shopping...