Consoomers / Consoomer Culture - Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!

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Brenda Holiday said:
Where does the metal community fall in consumerism? A battle jacket is basically a jacket covered in logos. I have one myself but I can't help but think about that sometimes. A lot of metal merch is downright silly. You've got generic lazy shit where it's just the logo slapped onto something like a beer koozie, there are action figures, instruments, and even condoms and dildos.
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There are definitely consoomers in there. It's always attracted people with collector tendencies, people were collecting records and t shirts back in the 80's and 90's but but back then things took more effort to acquire and the only people you could show off to was your immediate social circle. Consoomerism absolutely exploded in the social media age where everything is so easy to find and display. There are Instagram accounts dedicated to posting nothing but pictures of limited edition coloured vinyl and there are labels that insist on printing everything in multiple colours as a condition of release because they make a lot of money from collectors buying every version. There was an anecdote on a forum that doesn't exist anymore about some guy getting up in a band member's face after a concert because they didn't press enough copies of their album in the first run and he didn't manage to buy one. There are people who'll buy merch but not music, they just use Spotify all the time while wearing items that signal membership of a subculture they don't even partake in.

All that said, people like that are often mocked and derided by those deeper into the music scene. There are a number of metal forums that have threads dedicated to laughing at stupid merchsndise. People who buy records just to look at are referred to as stamp collectors and I've never heard a flattering thing said about them.
 
Brenda Holiday said:
Where does the metal community fall in consumerism? A battle jacket is basically a jacket covered in logos. I have one myself but I can't help but think about that sometimes. A lot of metal merch is downright silly. You've got generic lazy shit where it's just the logo slapped onto something like a beer koozie, there are action figures, instruments, and even condoms and dildos.
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One thing to keep in mind is metal bands tend not to make much money off of CD sales. The Metallicas of the world are the exception that proves the rule (note that this also depends on how broadly you interpret the genre "metal". Many bands which function like little more than pop music with extra riffs style themselves as heavy metal because it sounds cool. Count these and the number of successful metal bands goes up significantly). The bulk of their revenue comes from concerts and selling merch. Most of these acts, particularly the ones that remain "underground" even after being active for decades, are not in it for the money. This tends to result in highly loyal audiences with serious respect for the band members, which is why metal has a tradition of supporting your band by buying their merch to the greatest extent that is within your means.

Is that consoomerism? I can see why one might classify it as such and there's certainly a differentiation to be made. Decking yourself out in merch for a lesser known band like, say, Sulphur Aeon, is understandable because in all likelihood they genuinely need and appreciate the support. Spending thousands of dollars for Iron Maiden beach towels and throw rugs when Steve Harris is a mansion-dwelling multimillionaire, that's a different story.
 
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There a whole sub genre of breadtubers that do nothing but bitch about Japanese media out preforming American media. This is borderline politically correct racism at this point by Disney adults.
 
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Brenda Holiday said:
Where does the metal community fall in consumerism? A battle jacket is basically a jacket covered in logos. I have one myself but I can't help but think about that sometimes. A lot of metal merch is downright silly. You've got generic lazy shit where it's just the logo slapped onto something like a beer koozie, there are action figures, instruments, and even condoms and dildos.
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Metalheads are the most cheap and/or broke fandom on earth and it actually would help if there was a bit more consuming so metal musicians can move out of their mom's basement. Even very well known bands that everyone knows make very little money and its mostly comes from touring since most fans will bootleg their merchandise anyways.
 
DrearyDoomguy said:
Decking yourself out in merch for a lesser known band like, say, Sulphur Aeon, is understandable
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No it's not, don't kid yourself, you are still consuming unnecessary garbage no matter how rich the profiteer is. Just PayPal them money if you pity them do much.

Metal merch looks like shit anyway.
 
Battlefield2142EU said:
Direct link: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hq5SnAWv86I
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I really hate this argument ("it's always been woke") because it's bullshit. Stuff like Star Trek and a lot of nerd culture has always been a sort of left-leaning often UN-supporting idealistic thing where it supports some enlightened future where people get along.

That shit isn't "woke" though. Wokeshit is actively evil and hostile towards anyone who even deviates slightly from whatever diktat just came down from the hive last Thursday. There is nothing "liberal" about it whatsoever. It's a cult, an evil cult, and it hates everything that isn't itself (and it also hates itself for that matter).

There is no reasoning with wokeshit. It's basically the Borg. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Wokeshit is the very evil that the very liberal Star Trek warned us about.
 
Brenda Holiday said:
Where does the metal community fall in consumerism? A battle jacket is basically a jacket covered in logos. I have one myself but I can't help but think about that sometimes. A lot of metal merch is downright silly. You've got generic lazy shit where it's just the logo slapped onto something like a beer koozie, there are action figures, instruments, and even condoms and dildos.
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Depends what it is. A t-shirt is a t-shirt, an armband is an armband, if you wear it regularly than what's the problem?

I think shit like the condoms and action figures were always meant to be novelty items anyway so would count (though I'm going to assume by metal you don't mean hard rock like KISS since KISS consoomers are up their with Elvis and Harley Davidson in terms of boomer consoomers). The instruments I can't really say since I'm not a musician. There actually have been some fairly famous musicians who extensively played those "signature guitars" which are often thousands of dollars more expensive than the model they're based on. But my main thought regarding them is they probably aren't worth the money. Lord knows that famous musicians are great at getting certain instruments sold. Like I know when was 14-15 I knew the exact model I wanted since I knew who played it even though I was no good (and fortunately never pestered my parents into buying it/spent my own money on it).
Wu-Terf Clan said:
No it's not, don't kid yourself, you are still consuming unnecessary garbage no matter how rich the profiteer is. Just PayPal them money if you pity them do much.

Metal merch looks like shit anyway.
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I disagree, it looks pretty cool to me and you just wear it casually or to a show. Doesn't seem much different than buying a t-shirt or beer koozie of your favorite sports team.

I might be biased since I bought a very expensive Iron Maiden silver coin once because I enjoy collecting silver in addition to enjoy Iron Maiden's music. But it didn't break my bank and at the end of the day it's an overpriced novelty silver coin of the same sort Josh sold and this coin doesn't have a literal motherfucker on it (oh wait I bought one during both silver sales and wish Null would make more Kiwi silver).
 
Wu-Terf Clan said:
No it's not, don't kid yourself, you are still consuming unnecessary garbage no matter how rich the profiteer is. Just PayPal them money if you pity them do much.

Metal merch looks like shit anyway.
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Why do that when you can also get something for it? If a band wanted you to just send them free money they'd open a patreon. Besides, Shirts/hoodies/jackets are useful beyond just advertising your favorite band and pins/patches/logos typically aren't all that expensive. You aren't going to find many metal bands that sell pages upon pages of expensive merchandise outside of the rare ones that have achieved substantial mainstream success.
If you think buying any merch is inherently a bad idea then that's your prerogative but financially assisting your favorite band makes perfect sense. They're able to continue making music you like and you get some neat stuff to boot.

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Besides, some of these albums have pretty good looking album art, easily poster-worthy, especially when the poster itself is about 2 bucks. Decorating your house and/or apartment may not be necessary per se, but throwing a few decorations up can make your home feel a bit cozier.
 
DrearyDoomguy said:
Why do that when you can also get something for it?
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Literally peak consoom product behavior. You already got something out of it, listening to their music. Why buy their merch when it's mostly polyester trash made by children in china, sold with a 500% markup so you can just support the band?
DrearyDoomguy said:
some of these albums have pretty good looking album art, easily poster-worthy,
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It's literally a piece of plastic with horrible wrinkles that will never die in a landfill. Why not get an artist to recreate the posters for you on canvas so it would be something actually worthy to sit on a wall in your eremite cave?
Save the Loli said:
I might be biased since I bought a very expensive Iron Maiden silver coin once because I enjoy collecting silver
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DrearyDoomguy said:
If you think buying any merch is inherently a bad idea
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I think buying shit that you would never buy if it didn't have your favorite band attached to is bad and I don't understand what you guys are doing in the consoomer thread being like "Nuh Uh, mY fAVoRITE metAl bANd Is dIfFeRENT". Peak soy neckbeard behavior.

Don't let some retard on kiwifarms destroy your fun though, if you like collecting this shit who cares, be confident in who you are and what you do, but at least be aware of the hypocrisy and don't fall in the trap that you are different, because this is how (((they))) get you.
 
Wu-Terf Clan said:
Literally peak consoom product behavior. You already got something out of it, listening to their music. Why buy their merch when it's mostly polyester trash made by children in china, sold with a 500% markup so you can just support the band?
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Because it looks cooler than normal polyester trash made by children in China.
Wu-Terf Clan said:
It's literally a piece of plastic with horrible wrinkles that will never die in a landfill. Why not get an artist to recreate the posters for you on canvas so it would be something actually worthy to sit on a wall in your eremite cave?
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>he doesn't put record sleeves on the walls of his house
Wu-Terf Clan said:
I think buying shit that you would never buy if it didn't have your favorite website attached to is bad and I don't understand what you guys are doing in the consoomer thread being like "Nuh Uh, mY fAVoRITE metAl bANd Is dIfFeRENT". Peak soy neckbeard behavior.

Don't let some retard on kiwifarms destroy your fun though, if you like collecting this shit who cares, be confident in who you are and what you do, but at least be aware of the hypocrisy and don't fall in the trap that you are different, because this is how (((they))) get you.
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So does that mean everyone who bought Null's Chris-chan coin is guilty of soy neckbeard behavior? What about when someone buys a shirt with a sports team they like? Is buying a MAGA hat soy neckbeard consoomer behavior?
 
Save the Loli said:
So does that mean everyone who bought Null's Chris-chan coin is guilty of soy neckbeard behavior? What about when someone buys a shirt with a sports team they like? Is buying a MAGA hat soy neckbeard consoomer behavior?
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Bro the title of the thread literally says:

"Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!"​

I'm sorry you feel very attacked right now but hopefully this ignites some introspection in your life. Don't post about your metalhead or valueless silver coin collections in the plastic hoarder thread if you don't want people to make fun of it. I think people should do whatever they want to do in life, I'm just here to laugh.
 
Save the Loli said:
o does that mean everyone who bought Null's Chris-chan coin is guilty of soy neckbeard behavior? What about when someone buys a shirt with a sports team they like? Is buying a MAGA hat soy neckbeard consoomer behavior?
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If you have ever bought anything you are a gollem are a consoomer soy gollem.

(This is one of those momments i'd be funny to bring Warhammer again just so the next few pages can be autistic screeching about that.)
 
Wu-Terf Clan said:
Bro the title of the thread literally says:

"Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!"​

I'm sorry you feel very attacked right now but hopefully this ignites some introspection in your life. Don't post about your metalhead or valueless silver coin collections in the plastic hoarder thread if you don't want people to make fun of it. I think people should do whatever they want to do in life, I'm just here to laugh.
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Nice dodge, next time please answer the question. Is anyone who buys anything with a brand on it a soy neckbeard consoomer? I wanna know your definition
 
Wu-Terf Clan said:
Bro the title of the thread literally says:

"Because if it has a recogniseable brand on it, I’d buy it!"​

I'm sorry you feel very attacked right now but hopefully this ignites some introspection in your life. Don't post about your metalhead or valueless silver coin collections in the plastic hoarder thread if you don't want people to make fun of it. I think people should do whatever they want to do in life, I'm just here to laugh.
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The qualifier in that tagline is "recognizable". I always took the word to reference more universally recognizable iconography in relation to where the person lives or a specific subculture with which the person is trying to engage.

Metal is NOT fashionable where I live and most people misinterpret my band shirts, some not even recognizing them as band shirts in the first place. It's kind of annoying, and I wouldn't really compare it to something like wearing a Batman shirt or buying a Funko pop figurine. I don't buy the band merch to simulate a sensation of popularity or engage with the metal subculture (e.g. some of the greasiest and most obnoxious "music fans" in the world), I do it to give the band money so they can keep making music since most of the money for albums goes straight to their Jewish record labels. I also (sadly) sometimes have to wear clothes when I go out in public. (And some of those band shirts have lasted close to 20 years without fading or fraying too, which is more than I can say for recently made clothes that fall apart after 2 washes.)

If my favorite bands had a way for me to give them money directly, I'd be happy to do that, but the reason they don't is because absolutely, batshit insane fans would try to use that as leverage in order to get the band to cater to them personally. So buying band shirts and silly merch is my only option as of right now.
 
Save the Loli said:
Nice dodge, next time please answer the question. Is anyone who buys anything with a brand on it a soy neckbeard consoomer? I wanna know your definition
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I already answered it but I guess you don't have the reading comprehension to understand nuance or the attention span to read the last sentence in a paragraph. Yes, and that's ok, it's up to us to use money in whatever way it makes us happy, we can't all live like the unabomber and reject society.

Why do you care about some retard's opinion anyway? Why do you want my approval so much? Do you want to prove me wrong and have me say "yes, in your specific instance of useless branded hoarding, you are not a soy neckbeard consoomer". What is it that you collect that you are so personally attacked?

To answer your question, imagine you died and your children are looking through all your cupboards and drawers. There will be items your kids will keep, some will be donated to goodwill, some of it will go straight to trash. Don't force your kids to carry 40kg of trash down the stairs when you die when they already have to carry your casket.
 
Wu-Terf Clan said:
I already answered it but I guess you don't have the reading comprehension to understand nuance or the attention span to read the last sentence in a paragraph. Yes, and that's ok, it's up to us to use money in whatever way it makes us happy, we can't all live like the unabomber and reject society.

Why do you care about some retard's opinion anyway? Why do you want my approval so much? Do you want to prove me wrong and have me say "yes, in your specific instance of useless branded hoarding, you are not a soy neckbeard consoomer". What is it that you collect that you are so personally attacked?

To answer your question, imagine you died and your children are looking through all your cupboards and drawers. There will be items your kids will keep, some will be donated to goodwill, some of it will go straight to trash. Don't force your kids to carry 40kg of trash down the stairs when you die when they already have to carry your casket.
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I'll never let my kids carry the burden of owning t-shirts. They'll be naked hunter-gatheres and only allowed to use neolithic tools.
 
I love it when people seemingly don't know that plain clothes exist that don't display any branding at all, like polo shirts, button-ups, even basic tees, in a broad variety of colors and styles (both solid and patterned). You can be covered, comfortable, protected from the elements, and still look good all without flashing brand names to do it.

You can show up at pretty much any concert in plain ol' clothes and nobody's really going to give a shit since they'll be too busy having fun at the concert.
 
What if I wear one of my shirts with a complex plant root system on it and a metalhead comes to me and goes "Oh, so you like the Frozen Goat Fetus? Name five songs" am I now a consoomer or not... question of life and death
 
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