The Pandemic of Merch & the Collateral Damage of Consumerism
An analysis of how the music industry exploits impulsive fan behavior to drive mass merchandise consumption.
Have you ever thought about the environmental impact of your favorite artist’s merchandise?
I'm excited to share our first student-written article for the summer, written by Leah Do. In her piece, Leah explores how the music industry capitalizes on impulsive fan behavior, leading to mass consumption of merchandise. She examines the history of music merch, the psychological reasons behind fan purchases, and the environmental consequences.
Leah also offers practical tips on how fans can support their favorite artists sustainably. From thrifting and DIY projects to supporting eco-conscious artists, she encourages us to make mindful choices.
Happy reading,
Amarissa
As you step into a concert venue for your favorite artist’s show, your attention is drawn to three places: the stage, the seats, and the merchandise booth.
As an avid concertgoer and music lover myself, I often face the internal battle of whether to buy merch. After all, I want a commemorative tee shirt to show off that I was there, but is it worth the additive cost of an extra concert ticket? Despite my inner turmoil, I watch as the lines at the merch booth rapidly multiply, with fans flocking to grab their own piece of memorabilia immediately after security grants them entrance into the venue.
Don’t get me wrong: I’ve bought my fair share of tour tees, ranging from the Indie trio, COIN, to the R&B soloist, Keshi. As much as I wish they would last forever as a physical memorandum, my Sabrina Carpenter tee has faded to no end after five washes, warping her face on the front of my shirt to a creepy ghost of what she once was. I’ve even bought K-pop lightsticks for my favorite groups (which ranged upwards of $80 each) to “add” to my concert experience, providing something to cheer the performance on with.
After attending many concerts and dropping a questionable amount of money on merch, this insatiable impulse has led me to question: how are fans like myself driven to make these purchases? How does the music industry capitalize on them? And in turn, how does this merchandise overconsumption contribute to detrimental effects on our surrounding environments?
From Band Tees to CDs: The Evolution of Music Merchandise
Graphic tees began printing in the 1950s and 60s, so it’s no surprise that marketable band tees followed shortly after. The first documented piece of merchandise was actually a fan-made Elvis Presley tee. The Beatles were the first music icons to fully capitalize on the idea of distributing wearable merch, producing tees to celebrate their fans for their 1964 North American tour. Interestingly enough, the very idea of band tees was so new and foreign, that The Beatles’ management struggled to find a company to license and sell the tees for profit.
It wasn’t until the 1970s when Australian rock band AC/DC became the first band to create a distinctive shirt tied to their band image, generating more revenue from merchandise than from concert tickets. The recognizable archaic typography of their logo paired with the red and black edgy rock brand motifs pushed the “band tee” from a fan’s idea to a cultural phenomenon.
Aiding their success was the rising wave of various genres of rock music and individualism; this combination created music fans that were more passionate about finding musical interests outside of the mainstream disco genre of the 1960s and fueling their motivation to flaunt their unique rock band tees. The shirts became a statement of allegiance, a means to align with the alternative wavefront and center. From then on, Winterland Productions was established in 1974 and was the first merchandising company to work with artists to produce and sell tour merchandise, jumpstarting band tees as an institution of fandom worldwide. Artists like Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, and The Grateful Dead followed suit in selling band tees and the rest is history.
Apart from fans wearing band tees to support their favorite artists and highlight the exclusivity of being able to attend their concerts, band tees also made their way into fashion through the 1970s punk culture. Stemming from social and political unrest and instability, punk culture aimed to resist the elitists and advocate for marginalized groups. Punk fashion was characterized by a “Do-It-Yourself ethic” in which fans and citizens alike created their own clothing that was self-identifying, deviant, and gothic: leading the style was performer Richard Hell, who often wore “self-ripped” band tees adorning dark colors paired with his anarchic lyrics.
In 1974, designers Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren opened a boutique in London called “SEX,” highlighting the punk aesthetic of rock band New York Dolls (and later Sex Pistols) along with providing a safe space for punks to express themselves. The store opening was a pivotal moment during the punk era and established the influential connection between fashion and music that we still see today. This era, rooted in individual freedoms and non-conformism, marked the beginning of people taking the initiative to express themselves with the clothing on their bodies in a way that was directly against the norm.
However, it’s no secret that the phenomenon of the band tee (and other memorabilia) isn’t just limited to artists’ tours. For their Hangin’ Tough world tour in 1990, New Kids on the Block released a plethora of music merchandise like dolls, sneakers, and even breakfast cereals, proving that band merch had profitable retail potential beyond a backyard screen printed DIY. The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, a 4 day rock music festival that occurred in 1969, partnered with Target to sell branded merchandise in the form of towels, tees, tote bags, calendars, and more.
From there, products also found themselves on the shelves of stores like GAP, JCPenney, Hot Topic, and Urban Outfitters, further reaping the success of music merch sold by retailers. This provided a precedent for artists to contract with retailers to further profit and add to the accessibility of merch for fans worldwide.
The Psychology Behind Fan Behaviors
So, what drives fans to buy merch from artists in the first place? Is it to feel a deeper connection with the artist? Maybe a better question we should start with is: what pushes people to become fans?
A major theory from Murray State University Psychology professor Daniel Wann suggests that fans’ attachment to their favorite artists fills a psychological need, whether it be for community, or to have a distinct identity from those around them. The biggest thing that stood out to him was the extent of a fan’s psychological connection with the entity they’re following: the stronger the connection, the better their psychological health, and the more likely they’re willing to financially support their favorite artist.
On the flip side, being a fan could be harmful as well: with a strong connection to an artist, fans are more willing to allow a celebrity to influence their buying decisions, whether it supports their ethical values or not. Despite the lack of transparency as to how merch is produced and the environmental damages that occur because of its production and their overconsumption, Dr. Wann suggests fans are more willing to protect the artist’s image to fit into their narrative. This allows them to turn a blind eye towards the damages created by the music industry (along with their consumerism) and further rationalize their purchases of merchandise.
If buying merch that’s advertised/promoted exceeds a fan’s budget, I’ve noticed many fans turn towards buying things that artists have been spotted wearing or owning as their form of “unofficial merch” to feel a closer connection to the artist. For instance, when K-pop idol Bang Chan from Stray Kids showcased a Vanilla Yankee Candle during a live room tour on Instagram, fans sold it out immediately after the live ended.
This isn’t the first instance music fans have done this, nor will it be the last, further demonstrating the extensive dedication of fans for their pursuit of merchandise in order to connect with their favorite artists.
Merch has become more abstract than ever, serving to scratch the itch of a connection that we're looking for with an artist who we feel really understands us. Sometimes it doesn't matter what the merch is, but what, or who, it symbolizes.
Being a fan adds a social experience to their personal lives, bringing a sense of community/belonging with strangers over a shared interest. The social identity theory further explains this feeling: through categorization, comparison, and identification, fans are motivated to curate their behaviors within a group or fandom setting and establish their individuality within a safe, established community. Therefore, through buying music merch, fans are also creating a brand, personality, or extension of themselves, carrying their emotional connection to a physical presence and highlighting a “social collateral” that connects them with an outer group.
While writing this in my Rina Sawayama Hold the Girl tour tee, I received a compliment at the library, sparking a brief but meaningful connection over our shared love for Rina. Merch evokes nostalgia and positive associations with favorite artists, acting as a time capsule. Wearing it extends these warm feelings, highlighting the importance of symbols in communicating our interests through our personal style.
But just as band tees were intended for the alternative, their diffusion into the mainstream was inevitable.
In the early 1990s and 2000s, people cared about if you knew the band on the shirt you were wearing, and made it their mission to ask you to “name at least 3 obscure songs from their discography.” Now, with the ubiquitous nature of merch, wearers may not associate their band tees with the music as much as true fans do. Often, the social influence to wear something cool outweighs the need to align with its meaning.
Trends like the hot pink "Nirvana" tee or the revamped "Thrasher" flaming logo tee have surged and faded on social media over the past decade, driven by the desire to fit into the latest, most popular "group." In turn, merch has become akin to walking advertisements for the bands themselves, or a way to further capitalize on notoriety, reigning in more consumers based solely on a merchandise’s aesthetics and visuals.
Rather than music merch connecting a fan to an artist, we see it connect those with similar fashion styles. The branding and marketing of music merch has manipulated it so much that the memorabilia has lost its original meaning, and morphed into something entirely new.
More Money is the Real Music to the Music Industry’s Ears
While merch can be found everywhere, it’s important to note the extensive efforts of an artist’s PR and marketing team. In the digital age, curating an artist’s community is much easier since engagement is now at our fingertips. Artists not only have personal social media pages but also management pages (think Team Sabrina, Taylor Nation, ashemusichq, etc.). These pages allow their team to streamline products, tours, and music announcements in a more accessible way, especially since many fans aren’t signed up for newsletters.
Even if these advertisements fail to sell out their products, they still cultivate fan culture and heighten consumerism tendencies within fandoms by providing enticing images of an “idealized reality.” When fans see artists donning their own merch, it boosts their confidence in making a purchase. The threshold of choice diminishes significantly when their bias towards the artist is substantial.
I've been privy to this myself. Watching one of my favorite K-pop groups, Stray Kids, wear their tour merch during their encore made me want to buy an item to remember the concert.
And what is a fan if also not a consumer?
When consumers are faced with product options, they consider two main factors: the product’s price and its brand name. In some sense, an artist is a brand trying to create fan loyalty. When the price of a product is too high from a consumer’s perspective, they must weigh the value of the brand (artist) or look towards alternatives. In this case, there is no alternative (barring dupes), so the consumer relies more on their psychological connection with the artist to justify their purchases.
However, this means that because the artist has already cultivated a unique brand for themselves, their team has a higher margin to increase the prices of their merch. Tour tees sell at a standard $40, while crewnecks and sweatpants sell for $75. Instead of higher prices signifying quality, they signify merch exclusivity, fueling the motivation of fans to consume and purchase merchandise before it's too late.
An artist’s management team drives merchandise sales by creating engaging online fandom communities and offering exclusive, limited-time opportunities. These include pop-up shops, time-limited merch releases, and anniversary items. Collaborations like Vans x Foo Fighters are also limited editions. By emphasizing the exclusivity of owning certain merch, the industry exploits fans’ psychological connections to artists, increasing their perceived “need” to purchase and feel more connected to their fandoms.
While it’s easy to see the industry as money-hungry, we must remember that the music industry is based on consumerism. Some smaller artists depend on other sources of revenue outside of their music streams and ticket sales, like merch, to continue booking venues and affording the travel and maintenance of instruments/technology that comes along with it. The COVID pandemic left many artists searching for income and their “saving grace” was merchandise, as it could easily be promoted and accessed online even when our world shut down.
FAN-vironmental Harms
Concert culture is already environmentally harmful. For an artist’s tour, stage sets and aesthetics are curated to match their sound/new album, encouraging concertgoers to follow suit with their themed ensembles. For Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour, fans scrambled to dress in her signature purple or pay homage to her edgy pop-rock aesthetic. Sabrina Carpenter fans, on the other hand, incorporated deep reds, pink cowboy hats, and heart patterns for her emails i can’t send tour.
Unfortunately, many concert-goers opt for single-use outfits and accessories, like boas, wristbands, and sunglasses, often thrown over railings and tucked under venue seats to be disposed of. These items, typically made of non-biodegradable plastics, contribute significantly to landfill waste. Additionally, the waste from food and beverages, which attendees must purchase due to restrictions on bringing their own, further exacerbates the problem. Music festivals like Glastonbury, Coachella, GovBall, and Austin City Limits are not exempt from these issues.
Merchandise production, specifically for tour tees, often undermines environmental ethics due to the need for quick product turnarounds. This is on top of the distasteful use of non-biodegradable fibers, chemicals, and plastics that are used, resulting in the continuous waste of water and fossil fuels and harming our physical health.
Take Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour: within the 60 shows she performed at in 2023 alone, her merch sales equated to $200 million. Using an average of $60 per piece of merchandise sold, that would equate to 3.3 million units sold: yet tour dates were announced only 3-8 months in advance, leading merch companies to have a higher focus on a quick product turnaround.
This results in murky factory transparency and a lack of focus on quality. More harmful is what happens when fans discard their band tees. Even if donated, most tour merch ends up in landfills or is dumped in the Global South. In recent years, countries like Pakistan, Kenya, and India have received over 100 million kg of imported "used" clothing, often covering up misprints or overproduction. This influx wreaks havoc on these countries' quality of life. Overconsumption of fashion has caused substantial environmental damage, and music merchandise and concert culture only add fuel to the fire.
While buying that tour tee or creating a badass concert outfit is tempting, it's important to acknowledge the environmental damage we put our earth through as fans. Consider sewing your favorite band’s logo onto a tee you already own, thrifting items for your concert fit, buying secondhand merch, or painting a mug with themes and lyrics from your favorite song. Reflecting on our purchases and shifting our mindset to enjoy our favorite artist’s music without needing physical memorabilia can make a difference. The happiness from your favorite song shouldn’t come at the cost of your bank account or the environment.
When considering the sustainability of merch, as fans we can amplify those who are taking initiatives to create a more environmentally ethical experience within the music industry (and calling out those who aren’t).
Singer/songwriter Billie Eilish prioritizes being eco-conscious throughout her career. Her mom, Maggie Baird, founded Support + Feed, a company combating climate change and food insecurity worldwide. During Eilish's Happier Than Ever tour, her team partnered with Support + Feed to provide the touring crew with ethical, plant-based meals.
This partnership saved 8.8 million gallons of water over the 50-date tour. In addition to addressing the environmental concerns of performances, Eilish ensured that her merchandise, such as her Happier Than Ever vinyl records and her Air Force 1 collaboration, is made with recycled or vegan materials. She acknowledges that these efforts aren’t perfect, especially with multiple color versions of her Happier Than Ever vinyl records, but emphasizes the importance of making an effort, particularly with her large following.
The Music Merch Effect
The plethora of music merch I own, ranging from tote bags to shirts to sweatshirts, gives me a physical sense of my passions and reminds me of the satisfying feeling of stepping into a heated embrace after being outside in the treacherous cold all day long: a feeling of belongingness and happiness. There’s no denying that music merchandise hugely impacts an artist’s career and a fan’s journey through it: within an ever-changing industry, music merch allows fans to connect with the artist and a greater community.
However, while music merchandise allows fans to connect with artists and a broader community, it is crucial to recognize its harmful nature and make efforts to change our consumer habits. Reflecting on our purchases as fans and enjoying music without the need for physical memorabilia can help mitigate environmental damage. By calling out the music industry and advocating for sustainable practices, we can enjoy our favorite artists' music responsibly.
Further reading and viewing:
https://www.bu.edu/eci/files/2019/10/Consumption_and_Consumer_Society.pdf
https://fashionandtextiles.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40691-018-0159-8
Contributing edits by our Summer ‘24 Student Writing Program editor , with final oversight by Amarissa.
Today’s writer…
Leah is a participant in Fashion Talk's Summer 2024 Student Writing Program. Aligned with our mission to uplift young voices in the fashion industry, we’re excited to share her fresh and insightful perspective with our community.
Get to know her here.
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Really interesting !
Wow, what a read!