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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Hot Topic shopper?

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Regrettable Juvenilia

12:33 / 07.02.02

A question for the Americans: What does the phrase "Hot Topic shopper" mean when used as an insult/stereotype?

And don't just say "someone who shops at Hot Topic", please...

12:40 / 07.02.02

Well I don't know if this will help but here's the website for Hot Topic...

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:46 / 07.02.02

Mmm, well that kinda helps, but I had the vague idea of what Hot Topic clothes might look like anyhow. What I'm wondering is what's supposed to be wrong with shopping there - is it seen as an alterna-Gap? Or is the term only used by stupid jocks?

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

12:50 / 07.02.02

It means someone who is a mall goth. Usually to denigrade someone who isn't a "real" goth, whatever that is.

Back in MY day we had to go to CONCERTS to get t-shirts, and if we wanted goth clothes we had to make them ourselves. Our of sticks and dirt.

12:50 / 07.02.02

Hot Topic is an "alternative store" that exists in many malls across America. It's the kind of place one can buy manic panic hair dye, KORN t-shirts, and sketchers, as well as incense, body jewelry, and gothic makeup. All in a nice, safe place where mom can drop you off in the minivan.

12:52 / 07.02.02

I've never seen one of these stores in NYC, I think it's more of a suburban mall-type thing. I only know about the store because an old hardcore friend of mine who now lives in Upstate NY has mentioned it in a derisive way – overpriced and dilletante. But like I said, I've never seen one for myself.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

12:57 / 07.02.02

And here was me thinking this was going to be some reference to the 'today's hot topics' section. I was thinking maybe I was one.

My U.S. ex had a t-shirt which said 'Nuke a Godless Communist Gay Baby Seal for Christ'.

Do they sell those?

13:05 / 07.02.02

I've heard about them.

So you know they're not cool.

14:01 / 07.02.02

they also carry a lot of the retro stuff - care bear, strawberry shortcake, shit like that. back in MY day if you wanted "retro" you had to scour church thrift shops and weather conversing with old ladies at yard sales to get the good stuff

Elijah, Freelance Rabbi

16:33 / 07.02.02

ok, heres the skinny on hot topic from someone who spent 2 years working next door to one and creating littel sexual fantasies about the girls that worked there

Hot Topic (inc) is a chain of stores ruining the youth of our nation
through the use of goth/raver culture and well placed attractive sales people they hope to ruin the idea of originality in america
see, this is place where you can buy over priced wear once and throw away clothing
This is also the place that causes multiple girls to wear the same outfit at goth clubs
THE HORROR
but really, all it is is what it claims to be, "hot topic"
when goth exploded in my town, the stores had extra spiderwebby dresses and long black coats, as it faded they now sell transformers shirts and huge baggy pants
"hot topic shopper" refers to someone who can not hide the fact they shop there as the person judging them

16:33 / 07.02.02

It's all pretty flimsy stuff, especially anything gothy or fetish-esque. Easily picked out even in dark clubs and bound to disintegrate after only a few wearings.

Murray Hamhandler

16:39 / 07.02.02

But I bought a Clash shirt there, so they're okay in my book. And they're even more okay since I bought their entire inventory of cool clothing and I never have to go back in there again.
Arthur Sudnam

16:46 / 07.02.02

"goth/raver culture"??? oo-ee!

Is this what happens when one mixes absinthe with ecstasy?

Just wait till the old-skool ghouls down my local cemetery hear about this!

16:53 / 07.02.02

They have one of these at the local mall. Loud music on the stereo, t-shirts (from Marilyn Manson to Op Ivy to Weezer), manic panic, goth stuff, retro crap, bowling shirts with dragons printed on them, overpriced punk CDs, pleather pants, wallets with chains, rock star belts with shiny plastic studs, ect.

Its basically a store that attempts to bring the underground to the mainstream. When it first opened only the little goths and punks would go there. Woo Hoo! A mall store that has all the shit we're into! Walking past you would never see an adult inside. Now that its been there a while it swarms with Mall Moms and their offspring, jocks, you name it. So yeah, alternaGap.

17:02 / 07.02.02

And I'd like to add that I hate the place. Not because they sell cheap shit or because they lump all subcultures together in one store or because of the people that shop there but because they're a corporation. Does the world need GothGear at the mall? Do goths want to be socially accepted by soccer moms? They make it easy for middle schoolers to be "funky" and "origional," just like all the other kids. Hopefully the kids who are into this shit for more than the socially acceptable fashion statement will shop at indie stores.

17:14 / 07.02.02

I have a friend who works at öne and they DO make you dress "alternative." Its built in alternateen, available at your local mall.

(forgive bizarre lettering and lack of apostrophe, cant find it yet on czech keyboard(

17:20 / 07.02.02

yay cherry!

I have to admit, I have a few cami tops I bought there. like the one with the big silver horseshoe and the red glitter star. the one that says "I do bad things". and ooooh, my favorite, the super-duper-floozy-lowcut teeny one with the sacred heart, flames and stars. almost as good as custom made, baby

Less searchable M0rd4nt

19:46 / 07.02.02

Not that I have any particular beef with people buying generic goon-rags, but it does seem to miss the point a little.

Plus I'm sick of pillocks in black combs (ooh- I'm scared!) and henna tatts coming up to me in clubs and saying, "oh, nice try," in a sarcastic tone of voice. Whu? Me Top Goffick! Me maker of effort! Theirs is the try that is nice. Theirs!

20:16 / 07.02.02

Goth/ravers actually do exist.
Gravers.
Yes, you heard me. Gravers.

20:23 / 07.02.02

The store has its uses; I got my little sister a Nightmare Before Christmas desk fountain there -- at an extremely reduced rate cuz I knew the manager, otherwise I would not have been able to afford it. She'd kill me if I bought clothes from there (she makes her own, and they look quite nice on her, which is just another example of my little sister being far hipper than I could ever possibly hope to be). I also bought a Minor Threat record from there (three dollars overpriced) because there was this cute punk rock girl that worked there and also had her find me a Judas Priest "Turbo Lover" pin. Other than that I dislike their merchandise and most of the people that work there. The people that shop there bother me cuz when I go to punk shows they have a punker than thou attitude towards me despite the fact that my shirt will proclaim me to be "Punk As Fuck." It's like they can't read or something.

Molly Shortcake

23:09 / 07.02.02

I got an awesome pair of camoflage UFO's at Hot Topic (and a matching Cobra shirt as well, makes me look just like a B.A.T!) They have some cool superhero shirts too.

I hate fifteen year olds wearing Atari and Transformers shirts, god damn posers. A friend of mine chewed out her 12 year old sister for wearing a Strawberry Shortcake shirt.

It's pretty easy to spot a Hot Topic shopper. They are very uncreative.

Matthew Fluxington

23:54 / 07.02.02

I see where a lot of you are coming from, but I think you should cut these kids some slack. A lot of them are just insecure messed up kids who mean well. As crass as it is, I think that it's a nice thing that places like Hot Topic exist for these kids. Of course, it does miss the point, but in my opinion, I think the folks who intentionally make their own 'goth/punk etc' clothes are trying just as hard as the kids who just buy the stuff ready-made in the mall. They're coming from more or less the same place, but the kids who shop at Hot Topic are at least in some way acknowledging that they are going through a silly little phase. Why SHOULD they have to buy completely into a lifestyle they are just test-driving?

It's entry level recruitment to the counterculture - lots of kids DON'T outgrow these things, and they advance and become very committed, and grow up to be like us cool cosmopolitan Barbefolk.

00:20 / 08.02.02

Agreed, Flux. It's just clothing. Nothing more. Nothing less. There's GOTTA be something better to bitch about than what pop culture venue some poor teenybopper is trying to find themselves in.

Molly Shortcake

00:28 / 08.02.02

I seem to remember vast support rallied against GAP zombies....replace GAP with Hot Topic and I don't see how this thread is any different....

02:33 / 08.02.02

It's the hypocritical judgment of a person's shopping habits that I find utterly asinine, Rugal. The problem with shallow durogatory remarks like 'Hot Topic shopper' or 'god damn posers' is that it reeks of some poor rebel without a clue passing class distinctive sentences on kids, KIDS for chrissakes, who are trying to find their identity. So what if your 'cool' or your precious 'underground' culture is being co-opted. Waaaah. Cry me a river. It happens.

02:37 / 08.02.02

Fly, where'd you run across the usage?

Molly Shortcake

03:08 / 08.02.02

Whoa, Nelly, Dekapot. I ain't that high on the reigns. I've been known to shop at both Hot Topic and the GAP.

Stop reading so much into my posts. I'm talking about the embodyment of a stereotype, (the topic of this thread) which DOES exsist, like it or not.

I don't give a shit about 'subculture' either.

*Ahem

Come, sit on my lap, young uns, lemme tell you a little story about me and my Atari...waaaay back in 1983...

When I somehow mustered up the strength to pull out the cartridge from the console, I could actually pop in a different game! My hands would contort into shapes unknown to man and I bledd, bledd from the spikes on the Atari 2600 controller. I stared at the TV for days trying to figure out what the hell the graphics were suspossed to be for Raiders of the Lost Ark. All for the love of gaming.

[ 08-02-2002: Message edited by: Lord Rugal Ultimate ]

05:23 / 08.02.02

Kids...who are trying to find their identity.

I think we can all agree that its just clothes and that kids should be cut some slack. When I was 15, I didn't try to find my identity through the clothes I wore and, somehow, I doubt kids that shop at Hot Topic are much different. They're just trying to fit in.

The problem I have with Hot Topic is the co-opting of the subcultures they sell. I know that it happens but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Music is something thats fairly important to a lot of people and stores like Hot Topic (and all mall music stores in general) cheapen it. CDs are close to the $20 mark in most mall shops and Hot Topic is no exception. Same with their shirts. The only kids getting turned on to new shit at Hot Topic are the rich ones. And where does the money go to? To some old guy in a business suit. Meanwhile, across town, the former skater who opened his own store to cater to the punks watches as his business grinds down because all the kids are A) spending their money at Hot Topic or B) leaving punk behind because the jocks that took their lunch money were wearing Op Ivy T shirts. Thats how it goes: Scene X blows up, jocks come to the shows and act like assholes, indie kids leave the scene, jocks find next big thing and leave to destroy another subculture. And stores like HT aid that process.

[ 08-02-2002: Message edited by: Bio K9 ]

06:10 / 08.02.02

MC:
"Plus I'm sick of pillocks in black combs (ooh- I'm scared!) and henna tatts coming up to me in clubs and saying, "oh, nice try," in a sarcastic tone of voice."

F***ing Nora, do people actually do that? Jeeesus. Too many friggin' teen soaps, that's what it is. Seriously, it's Byker Grove stuff, isn't it? The next time someone does that you should give them a dose of Eastenders. Grant Mitchell, on the nose.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:43 / 08.02.02

Right then, I've decided that I love Hot Topic, for that most noble of reasons: it pisses off all the right people.

[YNH]: it's a long story, involving porn.

07:05 / 08.02.02

I wonder if this is evidence that 'subversion from the inside' wouldn't work? Because, even if you managed to make it to the top with your principles and motivations intact, the minute you started trying to do the right thing, none of the people you were really working for would actually trust you. "Pah, look at hir in the fancy suit, thinking they can nick our ideas and do all the stuff we've been working at for years in sweaty unpleasant conditions etc"

"But I'm one of you!" And so on.

Actually, that's bollocks isn't it, cos they're entirely different scenarios, aren't they - you probably wouldn't need the trust of 'the people' anyway. Ignore me, I'm thinking out loud (IMITOL)

The Return Of Rothkoid

07:43 / 08.02.02

quote:Originally posted by MissLenore:
Goth/ravers actually do exist. Gravers.Not after Mordant and JtB double-team on their asses, they don't.

Lord Rugal Ultimate: if you ain't plumbed the depths of madness that is Space Cavern, you haven't done Atari.

(Edited because I realised that I really should've mentioned the fucking GAME in the post. Sigh.)

[ 08-02-2002: Message edited by: The Return Of Rothkoid ]

07:43 / 08.02.02

My friend who works there has some great stories about working there. Like a Dad who came with his 15-year-old daughter and her friend trying to pick them out "sexy outfits" (eeew!), and his constant amazement at the vast array of Weezer merchandise available at Hot Topic.

I've never actually BEEN in one. I've only heard the stories. Everytime I beg Ryan to take me we end up at the dollar store instead. He says it's really fun to sell the kids, too. "Oh? Do you like that Blink 182 poster? Well over here there's a nice Blink 182 Keychain, and mousepad, and..."

10:47 / 08.02.02

last night I was in a little shop that Ive been visiting for over a decade now. its glossy and pretty and has all the things I like. the guy who owns it is the same that has always owned it (as long as Ive been going, anyway), and Im sure he makes a pretty good living there - its in a touristy college part of the city, high volume traffic. its well within a few miles as all truly cool places in baltimore (in my opinion, and Im mighty damn cool, heh), so its definitely placed well.

the stuff is usually fairly expensive. you cannot find the light fetish clothing and the bad ass jewelry he serves up at the skateboard shop down the street (which, coincidentally, my friend owns and is very very successful, but doesnt carry any girls stuff. which Im working on, truuuust me).

my point is that if I like black cami tops with red glittery shit on it and I dont have the skills to make it myself, I have to buy it somewhere. agreed? so who gives a fuck where it comes from

I understand the point "cant really br original if your shit is at every major mall across america". but hell, the truth is its all been done to death - nothing you come up with is truly unique.

whether you are trying to be "different" or if you just like the shit, the only real way of selling your ass out is to shun something because others believe you should shun it

(but that said, I still liked actually looking for things, savoring the victory of finding something no one else had)

11:22 / 08.02.02

quote:Originally posted by arthur_sudnam:
And they're even more okay since I bought their entire inventory of cool clothing and I never have to go back in there again.

Actually, I heard --there was a story on them on NPR, that's how I heard-- their business strategy is to turn over their merchandise, like, every three days. So teens can pretty much hang out there continuously and always have something new to buy.

Back to the mall, Arthur Sudnam.

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