You have probably already encountered the following phrase on the internet or in real life: “Don´t wear the shirt if you don´t listen to the band.”

  This phrase is very common inside the heavy metal community because you can see various people wearing Slayer shirts, Metallica shirts, Iron Maiden shirts, without any knowledge about them. They are not metalheads and do not support the genre, but they wear the shirts because they are “trendy” or have a “cool print”. The most popular that I have seen are Nirvana and Ramones shirts (although they are not heavy metal bands, people wear their shirts not because they support them, but because they are trendy and you can find their shirts in your local stores) in the stores. I have seen Slayer shirts for sale in “H&M” stores in my home city, which is one of the most popular stores here, and my first reaction was: “What the f*ck?!”.
I found that highly loathsome. I do agree that band merch should not be worn just because it is trendy. It makes the metalheads furious because wearing the metal merch is a sign of love and dedication towards the band and the genre. It is also a sign of support. You can imagine a scenario in which two guys walk towards each other. Both are wearing Iron Maiden shirts. One of them is a true fan of Iron Maiden and then proceeds to say: “Hey man, it is so cool to see another Maiden fan!! My favorite album is “Somewhere in Time”!! What is your favorite Maiden album?”.
The second guy then says: “ Oh, I just bought the shirt because I liked the print. Later!”

The fan was probably left furious and confused. I think that, for example, it would be infuriating, for an e.g. Manchester United fan, to see someone wearing the jersey of their club just because they like it and do not even support the club.
Anyway, as much as I agree there should be some “rules” about wearing shirts that promote a band, genre or a football club, I thought about the sentence “Don´t wear the shirt if you don’t listen to the band” and I will present the arguments that this sentence can not be universal in every case.

  ARGUMENT #1: BUYING AND WEARING A SHIRT AT THE CONCERT
Let us say there is a person called Max. Max is going to a heavy metal concert in his hometown and there will be five bands playing. He has not heard or listened to any of them before. He arrives at the concert, buys himself a beer and goes to the front row. The first band, called Inertia, starts playing first and they play for the first 45 minutes. Max was extremely impressed by how the band played. He was so impressed, he decided to immediately buy their t-shirt and wear it for the rest of the concert and on his way home. The thing here is, he does not listen to them, maybe in the future he will, but, the key here is that he wore and bought that shirt to support the band he discovered because they played brilliantly. Hence, you do not need to wear the shirt only if you listen to them, it could be a sign of genuine support for the band.

    ARGUMENT #2: FESTIVAL SHIRTS PROBLEM
Can we apply this main sentence to festival shirts? Think about it, it is stated in the sentence that you should not wear the shirt with a band on if you do not listen, but what will we do then with the festival shirts on which multiple bands are represented? The main sentence then fails to maintain itself if we talk only about having band names on the shirt. A counter-argument could follow:
It is not the same wearing a festival shirt and a band shirt. A festival shirt is a form of support for the festival and memorabilia that you have attended the festival in question. Could a counter-counter argument follow after? One could have attended a festival because of some bands that played and not all of them. One could have just bought the festival shirt and not go at all, but is material support also a sign of genuine support? I think not. I believe that bands would, on one hand, be devastated to see that no one came to support them by attending to them but just by buying the festival shirts.

  ARGUMENT #3: SURVIVAL ARGUMENT

Let us say there is a person called John who suddenly woke up in the middle of a meadow. John is also almost naked, he only has his underpants on. John proceeds to look for someone to help him and he is freezing to death. John suddenly hears music and proceeds to walk towards it. He discovers that an open metal festival is nearby and rushes towards the nearest person there is. He asks if could give him some clothes. The person gives him all the necessary clothes. The shirt he gave him is a Death shirt. John thanks him and decides to hang a bit at the festival. He encounters another person. The second person says: “Ahh, you´re a Death fan!! That‘s sweet (sweet as in awesome)!! What is your favorite song?”
John then answers back: Hey!! Some nice man gave me this shirt because I was freezing to death. He saved me!!”
The second person says: Damn, that is so cool! Thank goodness for that man!!

As you can see from this case, one can not really state the main sentence in all cases. In extreme cases such as this, it really does not matter if it is a shirt or a band shirt. It would not be appropriate to say that someone should not wear a band shirt in extreme cases just because he does not listen to the particular band.

  ARGUMENT #4: A GIFT FROM YOUR MOTHER

I consider this to be a weaker argument but I will present it nonetheless.
Let us say your birthday is coming up very soon. Your mother loves you very much and she wants you to buy a gift. She knows that you are a metalhead and that you love that genre with all your heart. She also wants to surprise you with the gift. She knows that metalheads love band shirts. She then proceeds to buy a Dark Funeral shirt although she does not know if you listen to the band or not. She gives you the gift impatiently and hopes that you will like it and wear it. You do not listen to Dark Funeral and you have the belief that one should not wear the shirt if you are not listening to the band, but on the other hand, you want to thank your mother that she made an effort to buy you a heavy metal shirt because obviously you like metal and the best way to thank her is to wear that shirt. The only thing she did not know is what bands do you listen to. Are you staying true to your belief or will you wear the gift? One could give it a try and start listening to Dark Funeral, then that would not be a problem, but what if that is not the case? I think that a gift is slightly different than wearing a shirt because it is trendy. Especially if it is a gift from your own mother. Perhaps only the most orthodox ones will be true to their belief.

                                                                                               The Mage