How did the Red Hot Chili Peppers go from the concert stage to the T-shirt you're wearing? - Marketplace (2024)

This is just one of the stories from our “I’ve Always Wondered” series, where we tackle all of your questions about the world of business, no matter how big or small. Ever wondered if recycling isworth it? Or how store brandsstack up againstname brands? Check out more from the serieshere.

Listener Cody Donahue asks:

As an elder millennial, I’m of the MTV generation who grew up with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana and I’ve always wondered how suddenly, a few years ago, Target started to sell children’s shirts with their logos on them. Did the record companies license this out? Did the band get a say? Do toddlers love Nirvana?

Donahue and his family, who are residents of Rochester, New York, visited the Strong National Museum of Play, where he noticed something unusual: a bunch of little kids sporting Nirvana and Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirts.

“I’m like, ‘What? What is going on here? Why is my generation’s music suddenly on these 4-year-olds and 3-year-olds?” Donahue said, laughing.

One day he headed to Target, where he spotted these band tees. Donahue is a cool dad and he wanted his daughter to look cool, so naturally he had to buy a Nirvana shirt for his daughter, who was 3 at the time.

How did these rockers’ logos end up on those shirts in the first place? Bands of a “certain level” — that is, not bands who print their own T-shirts — hire a company to handle their merchandise, said Eric Greenspan, an attorney who represents acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Dead & Co.

In a touring deal, the merchandiser will create a line to be approved by the band. “They’ll bring a merchandiser on the road to sell that merchandise. The venue will take a percentage off the top, the costs will get recouped, then the merchandising company will get their split and the band will get their split,” Greenspan said.

When it comes to retail distribution, you appoint the merchandising company to license approved images to third parties, like Target, Walmart or Hot Topic, Greenspan said.

The merchandiser will approach the chains, note who they represent, and say: “Here’s our merchandising line, all the things we have. Which would you like to buy from us?” Greenspan explained.

“The merchandiser says OK and doesn’t go to the band to approve going into Target,” he said.

But before that happens, if the musicians don’t want the merchandiser to make deals with a specific store, they can say, “We’re not interested in selling to the Targets and Walmarts of the world. So if you’re gonna do that, we want approval,” Greenspan said.

Band tees are an entry point to a community; they help start conversations with other fans of the band, said Scott Durbin, an assistant professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s School of Music and Performing Arts. But T-shirts have also become fashion items, and some people may don them without ever hearing a band’s songs, he added.

That can include toddlers, along with teens who want to signal who they are to the world. In an article for Slate, journalist Sarah Stankorb wrote that Nirvana shirts have become trendy among younger generations who, to her shock, consider them “preppy.”

But growing up, kids often listen to the music their parents listen to. Cody Donahue said he and his daughter, who’s now 5, have been watching a lot of ‘90s music videos.

“I’d say Smashing Pumpkins are her favorite. So I’m sure I’m gonna have to buy her a Smashing Pumpkins shirt,” Donahue said.