Is The Economy Turning America's Children "Goth"?

[marmar]

from TPM Muckraker:



Is The Economy Turning America's Children "Goth"?
By Moe Tkacik - April 10, 2009, 4:58PM


The degree to which Americans have stopped shopping is getting almost as scary as our over-consumption used to be. Yesterday we learned that men worldwide had stopped buying underwear, a disturbing development because former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan had famously fixed upon the metric as one of the most consistent, recession-proof sales figures in retail.

But it turns out demand for men's underwear is more elastic than we thought (even if, heh, the elastic itself isn't so much anymore.) Sales are projected to drop 2.3 this year. And elsewhere in the shopping universe, the February retail sales released yesterday portended a veritable bloodbath of red ink for the nation's mall retailers. The worst pain was reserved for Nieman Marcus and Abercrombie & Fitch, whose affluent customers cut back their habits to the tune of 30 and 34%, respectively. And the four chains that managed to keep sales flat or modestly up from February 2008 were off-price or discount stores. With one exception...

It's Hot Topic! The 681-store purveyor of spiked leather wrist cuffs, True Blue Raw hair dye, painful-looking body jewelry and assorted other signature accessories of misanthropic adolescent subcultures like "Goth." So that's what the nation's teenage boys are buying with the money they save wearing holey underwear? Is the Depression turning good kids into antsocial derelicts in black lipstick who will never get jobs?

Well, yes on that last part. But Hot Topic has also apparently profited handsomely from its association with Twilight, a movie about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire only to attract the attention of a rival vampire who bites her wrist, prompting the boyfriend vampire to kill the rival vampire and save her life so they don't have to miss the prom. Whatever the case, teenage angst needs no stimulus package.


http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/is_the_recession_turning_teenagers_goth.php

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. more like goths have turned our economy

sour

[madrchsod]

2. no the economy is turning america`s youth into "bargain shoppers"

if i had only invested in "play it again sports" company that has launched "plato`s closet". i`ve noticed more teens in the "charity shops" i frequent. hot topic has become a teen age mall "fad store" . it was`t that long ago they actually had a nice selection of stuff.

[Coventina]

3. Hot Topic is a Goth retailer?

I don't think the guy writing this article knows much about the Gothic subculture if he thinks Hot Topic is "Goth".

I'm not saying that there is no Gothic merchandise there, but Hot Topic is exactly what its name implies: it stocks trendy merchandise. A few years ago, it was filled with everything "Napoleon Dynamite."

Was there an article out then saying, "Is the Economy Turning America's Children Droopy-Eyed?"

[blondeatlast]

8. Next HT fashion trend: TeenyChipperBopper; ie Hannah Montana and the Cheetah Girls.

I think I just invented a great word, btw . ;)

[Coventina]

14. That is a great word!

:thumbsup:

Although, I do think Hot Topic tries to be a little harder-edged than the Hannah Montana crowd. But who knows? They may stock it as "irony", even though the purchasers would secretly really like it. (Or maybe not so secretly).

[walkaway]

4. When I was a pre-teen in NYC we shopped for old velvet dresses

and vintage shoes and jewelry at the second hand stores on the upper East Side. Frizzed out our hair and a slash of red lipstick and you have a wild looking group of kids loving life and having fun at concerts and coffee bars.

I just wish I had more photos. Using your imagination to present who you are to the world is a real talent. When you're young you should feel free to express yourself.

May they will get interesting jobs instead of boring "everyone dresses the same" jobs.

[Ian David]

5. What's the point in caring...

[NightWatcher]

6. Seems like the economy is turning more around here into hippies

I've seen countless kids (college aged) with long dirty hair and or driving beat up old cars, covered with bumperstickers for everything from The Dead to WP to Gandhi. Bicycles are also making a resurgence. I think that the shitty economy is more apt to have kids shopping at Goodwill and the Salvation Army not out of style, but out of necessity.

Re: Hot Topic, if you are rebelling at a store in the Mall, you're doing it wrong

[Stevenmarc]

7. I guess Moe hasn't figured out that not every kid want's to shop at Hollister

But as far as Hot Topic's success is concerned it has more to do with their customer base that has always been more of a cash shopper as opposed to a lot of other stores where kids have or had more access to credit cards.

[asthmaticeog]

9. This is so massively stupid all I can really say is this and (n/t).

[salguine]

10. Better Goth than emo. Now, THAT would be a nightmare.

[juno jones]

11. This is nothing.

Think of Sex Pistols/Clash and Dead Kennedys/Black Flag etcetcetc. The recessions of England and America and the anger of youth reflected back in the complacent faces of the middle and upper classes.

Angry music for hard times. I doubt the new movement will necssarily be 'goth' at all except to those who can't tell the difference between alternative sub-cultures - like the writer of this piece.

My prediction: We ain't seen nothing yet.

[KittyWampus]

12. The most recent aesthetic movement is Steampunk, not Goth. And it's not going away any time soon.

I am part of a few online subcultures that relate to retail.

Steampunk has been around but is still vital.

IMO, it will branch out into all kinds of wild and wonderful stuff.

Mainly cause the Steampunk aesthetic has attracted so much creative talent.

It's also a large enough genre that it holds, by its very nature, a lot of fun variety.

[keep_it_real]

13. Large scale TV's (40 inch) are recession-proof

[FirstLight]

15. Ya, it used to be Punk or Mod

Goth just took it to the next level, and not anything like those damn "Vampire kids"

whatever...I am still a hippe after all these years, grew up in the Berkeley hills, shoping at Arrdvarks Odd Ark for vintage clothes... now that's recession proof!