Full version to hopefully be published in the next Brickface Press:

Over the past few days a paparazzi picture featuring Fergie wearing a Black Flag t-shirt has been circulating around the Internet, triggering both humourous and down right distasteful remarks. From the original post found on Twitter, the caption is:

‘Im very sorry folks…its with a heavy heart that I announce the end. Thanks for all who cared.’

Next up are comments like ‘T-shirts have always been a fashion accessory. That’s all they are. Except for yours, of course’, ‘To some people, t-shirts are little more than a fashion accessory. Sad, really’, slightly apocalyptic remarks like ‘the end of days is upon us’, and worst of all ‘Oh, come, ON! Henry Rollins should smack the crap out of you….’. So what we see is the hardcore community up in arms about what seems to be a sacred t-shirt and band, and then hardcore’s right to exercise violence, as I’m sure you can see not just from that comment but also if you search Henry Rollins on Youtube. 

The first thing to address is the pop star using revered logos, and how their assumed lack of knowledge of the hardcore scene means they are using our language to commercialise and pervert our scene. I cannot be anything but succinct about this matter: if you sell a t-shirt you commodify it, if you put a logo into public domain without any protection, don’t be upset if it comes back to you in a form you don’t want. Ultimately, if you want your scene to be sacred, protect it properly.

Currently it’s in draft format, and quite a big read, but the subsequent themes include commodity, capitalist business models in DIY, hypocrisy in hardcore and lack of cultural empathy.