Hot Topic

Scenesters have always run rampant in cities or major areas with at least one venue. But it was not until 1988, when Hot Topic was first placed into every mall in, every suburb in America, that the scenster (or what used to be “punk” ) trend spread like gonorrhea on an episode of Degrassi. The chain of stores, now worth millions of dollars, has stocked every scene brand and trend to grace the planet (and the drawstring shopping bags every mall rat in your town carries around). They’ve had everything from Good Charlotte PJs to Bank Clothing’s new line, to the latest CD from local hardcore bands on their shelves. Something about the styrofoam molded walls that make the shop look like a chintzy sex dungeon has, and will forever attract scenesters from every development, condo, and townhouse in the country. Hot Topic’s top selling product, the band tee, is also the reason for the store’s trend setting demise . Every true scene kid has a gay-dar for Hot Topic brand band tees. There is something about them that  scene kids can immediately pick up on, sensing which douchebag couldn’t even get their band tee at the show.  It’s surprising that even the tacky, over priced Cupcake Cult barrettes, and the awkward Napoleon Dynamite memorabilia from  merits more scene points than a band shirt does. Maybe its the unnatural crispiness the shirts have from being on a shelf and not in a merch bin. Maybe its the mediocre designs that Hot Topic always chooses for the shirts, or maybe its the fact that nobody at the latest Boys Like Girls show had the dice shirt, cause its fuckin’ lame ( hence why it is at Hot Topic ). Whatever it is that turns the scene off to Hot Topic tees, kids can smell it from a mile away, like rotting meat. Hot Topic is the scene kids mall paradise, with their Kill City jeans, old school bondage pants ( oh yeah, those are cool still apparently ) , Skelanimals hoodies (complete with kitty ears on the ho [...]

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