What has happened to Hot Topic?

Question

I remember back when Hot Topic was an actual PUNK store. They sold things like Ramones, Misfits, Black Flag, and Sex Pistols merchandise. Now a-days it's all Hello Kitty and Justin Bieber and Twilight. The hell is with that? Also since when does shopping at Hot Topic make you GOTHIC?! This girl at school called this other girl "gothic" just because she was wearing red skinny jeans, vans and an invader zim shirt. As a person who actually knows what gothic is, besides being a Hot Topic poster child, that pissed me off that people are so ignorant these days. Suddenly if you wear black lace gloves and have a side-bang you're "gothic". Did the store basically sell out to keep the business going? What is going on???

Answer 1

12 year olds discovered the store and trashed the place. Just like they did Disney Channel and Nick.

Answer 2

Well if you go to their website, on "the about section" you can read about your question, It changed to make way for the mainstream stuff, here's the info:

It all started in 1988. A ton of teen retail accessory stores littered the malls, but there weren't any cool, music-inspired accessory destinations for both guys and girls. Enter Hot Topic.



As 1990 rolled around, adding apparel seemed like a no-brainer. What better way than to bring in the ultimate music fan essential—band T-shirts. Customers flipped when they walked into Hot Topic stores and saw Bauhaus, The Cure, TSOL, and Depeche Mode rock tees at their fingertips. Within a year, we had about 50 different band titles, along with rock-inspired clothing lines like Lip Service and Serious. Today, Hot Topic has a growing line of apparel and accessories that includes music tees, band merch, shorts, swimwear, capris, pants, shoes, body jewelry, jeans and more.



As we expanded, we also discovered that customers were equally drawn to the underground cartoon, cult movie, and comic book scenes. It was a unique culture fans could call their own, so we brought the world of South Park, Care Bears, Superman, SpongeBob and tons of other pop icons right to them!

Answer 3

Pretty much it sold out, I never liked the store but now it seems like a haven for people who are "different" (though no different than the other people with the same thought process; wearing badly applied eyeliner and studded belts and bracelets) to go and call me a "conformist" for shopping at Delia's, old navy, nordstroms rack, and urban outfitters. But- thought to ponder- while all my friends shop at similar stores that I do, we all have distinctly different styles- and i have yet to see a distinct differences hot topic junkies have to each other.



EDIT: Also, I have to laugh when said hot topic junkies buy fred t-shirts- becasue whats more rebelious and hard core as as that? Yeah that would be anything...

Answer 4

Ikr? I think its stupid that they are selling justin bieber and stuff like that. I used to love hot topic when all they sold was the cool punk band stuff and "goth" stuff. I think people just started getting obsessed with pop and rap stuff, so they started selling that to make more money. And yeah, apparently if you sho at hot topic now, you're officially known as the goth kid. When me and my friend talk about shopping at hot topic all the time, people call us scene, goth, and emo. Like, wtf? People think we smoke too just because of the place we like to shop at the most and the bands we listen to. My friend is scene, but she's not like a druggy scene. She's completely clean, no drugs, no smoking, no drinking. I still shop at hot topic still, but I go in the back where all the cool, original stuff is. The CEO or whatever of hot topic should just open a seperate store for that other "newer" stuff, so we can have the original, cool, punk hot topic.

Answer 5

i know what i mean i have say im huge fan of twilight so guess lot of that people think lot of punk gothic people love twilight but don't know who teen would like hello kitty did back when i was 6 but not so much anymore as im more in well lets just say it gothic style and punk ! but other wise that i still shop at hot topic fact it is one my favorite Stores because my style is punk gothic but other wise i love that store Hot topic Also i love the Justin Bieber think every girl loves is big fan ! hot topic is Awesome too me !

Answer 6

I get what you are saying but, how many people who would buy Justin Beiber merchandise actually have a clue who the Misfits are? They are just trying to make money.

Answer 7

It was taken over by the evil marketing people

Answer 8

I totally agree with you. Hot Topic has become way too mainstream.

Answer 9

They don't listen to Bauhaus.