Hot Topic

From Free net encyclopedia

Hot Topic (Template:NASDAQ) is an American chain store aimed at teenagers and young adults. It has over 600 chain stores across the United States, the majority of which are located in shopping malls. The first Hot Topic store was opened in 1988 by Orv Madden. The chain specializes in pop-culture (but mainly music)-related fashion and merchandise, including clothing, books, comics, jewelry, CDs, records, posters and other paraphernalia. It caters to a number of youth-oriented subcultures and countercultures, such as metal, punk, scene, emo, goth, club, Otaku and lounge, as well as carries pinstripe suits and a number of general and 1980s retro pop culture products. It has also backed major counterculture concert festivals like Ozzfest, and recently Sounds Of The Underground. Products from Tripp NYC and Lip Service can be found.

In the past, major bands such as Korn and Good Charlotte have allowed Hot Topic to release their concert wear to the general public before they themselves appear on television or at concerts wearing them. Hot Topic has also been a heavy promoter of Jhonen Vasquez and his various projects, including Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

Hot Topic owns and operates a chain of similarly-themed plus-size women's clothing stores, Torrid, which began operations in 2001. The company produces its own line of clothing, Morbid Threads, whose products may be found in both chains' stores. Hot Topic was named number 53 on Fortune 100's Top Companies to Work For list in 2006.

Hot Topic's major rivals in its niche include Spencer Gifts and Manic Panic.

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Criticism

In their marketing, Hot Topic uses rebellious imagery in an effort to appeal to teenagers' "rebellious" tendencies. Recently, Hot Topic has been increasingly perceived as a "poseur" store, and some counterculture (goth, punk, emo, etc.) consumers refrain from shopping there. Members of a counterculture tend to resent the appropriation of the trappings of their subculture as commodities for mainstream consumption.In this vein, recording artist MC Lars has released a song "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock." The irony lies in the fact that although MC Lars did write a song denouncing Hot Topic, he himself has allowed the company to sell both his t-shirt and his CD. The Matches, who provide the music background to "Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock", even toured with a Hot Topic sponsored tour in the past. Hot Topic itself has chosen not to make any statements regarding the song, nor do they intend to.

Some in the cosplay community have also labeled Hot Topic as "poseur" by providing fabricated parts for cosplay. A check through the online catalog of Hot Topic notes that several outfits are near-close replicas of certain characters from anime, including Vash the Stampede's coat from Trigun and Naruto headbands.

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