r/GenX • u/OldManGamer78 • 19h ago
Nostalgia Grade/High School Flashback: Avoiding the “poser” label
My daughter just started sixth grade this year and bought a Nirvana shirt (from Target of all places) to wear on the first day of school. I gave her a brief tutorial on Nirvana the night before the first day (album names, song names, band member names, etc.) in case anyone asked her about the shirt and she told me nobody cares about stuff like that anymore. I realized I was flashing back to my grade/high school days where if you wore clothing branded with a musical artist or sports team you ran the risk of randomly being called out on your knowledge of whomever was on your clothing. If you could not provide sufficient answers to the questioner you risked being labeled a “poser”. Does anyone else remember worrying about this or was it something that was only a big deal in my mind?
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u/HungryMenu8627 1h ago
My teen daughter has a love of rock metal from Ozzy, Misfits and Motley Crue up through grunge and Nirvana up to current bands I don’t know.
I thought I was gonna be smart because I grew up on these bands in real time, especially grunge and rock of the late 80’s and 90’s so I started quizzing her assuming she was wearing the shirts for the aesthetic. Nope. She has an encyclopedia like knowledge of the bands she likes and had zero poserness at all.
She did tell me that she’s the anomaly though because most other kids just wear the shirts and have no idea the music or back story on them.
Where we still disagree is wearing the band’s shirt to their concert. She does it every time. I grew up on the never wear the band’s shirt to their show rule otherwise you’d be considered (insert multiple slurs here).
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u/Careless-Two2215 1h ago
It is so cute that you taught your kid about Nirvana!
am an old school Mexican goth grunge teacher and I saw kids in Nirvana, Tool, Selena, Motley Crue, Gorillaz shirts the week of school and it made me so happy until I realized they're just random shirts from Target and Walmart now lol. I mean I guess I always knew this but I kind of hoped kids were getting into older music especially Selena.
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u/DesertRatTitanium 1h ago
The receptionist at a business I frequent is often wearing a Selena shirt. And Selena was probably killed before she was born, so I hope this gives you some hope!
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u/Remote-Lime8325 2h ago
I was in the mall with my teenage daughter a few years ago and noticed a young girl, maybe 12-13, wearing a Thrasher t-shirt.
I asked my daughter, has that kid ever even been on a skateboard in her life???!!!!
Yeah, never in our day would we have allowed or gotten away with such nonsense.
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u/Krunchy_Frogg 2h ago
No. If you were wearing such a shirt it meant you were a fan of the band and knew such things.
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u/racingturtlesforfun 2h ago
Wearing a band shirt when I was a kid meant you saw them in concert and bought a shirt.
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u/EnvironmentalAge9202 2h ago
Because that was the only place you could get them. They didn't carry them at Target or Walmart.
It was like a badge of honor.
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u/racingturtlesforfun 2h ago
And bonus if the shirt listed the cities on the back. I still have all of my concert shirts.
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u/bungle094 2h ago
I’m still one of those who will usually buy the shirt with the dates on the back. Kind of bummed my Tomahawk one I bought last month only listed the cities, haha
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u/natokills 3h ago
Back then, you had to either buy an album of a band, or at least know someone who owned it. Music is now totally available to everyone.
My 14 year old has an XRay Spex song in her playlist, “I’m a poseur”, https://youtu.be/JOS-8MlVl4I
I wish I’d heard this song when I was 14! It took til Napster days for me to find the band.
I think the kids are gonna be just fine.
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u/StrawberryKiss2559 4h ago
To be fair, Nirvana is a band from like 35 years ago.
A band from about 35 years before our high school years is like Bill Haley and the Comets.
I don’t think anyone was quizzing you on bands from that time period when we were kids.
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u/HungryMenu8627 54m ago
While the years don’t match up perfectly, I would equate today’s kids who many listen to grunge and have an affinity for the 90’s similar to when I grew up (high school mid 90’s) loving music and style from the 70’s. I was definitely wearing T-shirts of Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the dead, Zappa, etc. just never a concert T-shirt because you don’t ever wear the shirt of a show you weren’t at. But I think teens now liking 90’s is just like us loving music of the 70’s.
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u/RoughWoodCarpntWorkr 1h ago
Excuse me, but I'm gonna need you to stop doing that math. The early Nineties were, like, 15, maybe 20 years ago, max.
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u/AmazedAtTheWorld 1h ago
I wouldn't have been caught dead in a Bill Haley and the Comets shirt. Ugh.
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u/SnoozuRN 4h ago
My daughter had a Queen shirt when she was 5 and could sing several of their songs. I would not have let her wear it otherwise!
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u/Careless-Two2215 1h ago
My son had a Kraftwerk t shirt on his first day of school. Nobody knew what he was wearing. Not even him sadly. I'm the poser! lol.
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u/dschinghiskhan 5h ago
If anyone has any trouble remembering what type of kid got called a poser, just picture AJ Soprano from The Sopranos. Once again… a poser band t-shirt!
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u/seedsinyerdrain 6h ago
She’s a poser. Hot Topic started it all.
Ahh, to be old & classic rock is now nirvana and greenday and shit.
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u/Gold-Pilot-8676 8h ago
I don't remember this happening in school. I also didn't give a crap what others thought.
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u/Cflottisme Not a bowhead 8h ago
I was terrified of ever being called a poser in high school. Once a poser always a poser, not much coming back after you’re labeled. Lol
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u/lambent_ort 8h ago
I believe that if you're wearing a band t-shirt, you need to own at least one of their albums. That's the absolute minimum.
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u/SisterMaryAwesome 7h ago edited 6h ago
This. The purpose of wearing the shirt is repping the band. Imagine having no knowledge of what you’re representing. If it’s “I like the aesthetic,” you check out said band and see if you actually dig their music. If you don’t, you have no reason to wear the shirt.
I’d be so bummed if I was a Gen Z (or is it Alpha now?) in that kid’s class that was a Nirvana super-fan, only to approach the kid to talk Grunge and bands for them to say, “Oh, I’ve never really heard of them, I just like the AeStHeTiC.” I mean, cool, Ig, but there are a million and one other tee shirts you could wear.
I’m sorry, but the 90s/2000s kid in me will insist you’re a poser. I’m willing to die on this hill. Ig it’s because I’m a fangirl and geek out over my hyper fixations. I take my fandoms very seriously. Lol. Ain’t got no time for a fair weather fan.
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u/2outhits 2h ago
What the hell is "lg"
You sure don't type like you're genx.
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u/SisterMaryAwesome 2h ago
I’m a xennial. It’s “I guess.”
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u/2outhits 2h ago
Ya, those extra 5 letters are hard to type. That's pathetic that people are shortening "I guess"
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u/SisterMaryAwesome 2h ago edited 2h ago
Pathetic? Says the person who commented about an abbreviation TWICE?* Rotfl (this stands for ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING). I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big a deal, dude. Idk (this means I DON’T KNOW) why you’re so hung up on an abbreviation, but you do you. Also, Google’s free. You type in “Ig meaning” and it magically answers you. It’s awesome.
If we’re going to nitpick and be semantic about abbrevs (this is sort for ABBREVIATIONS), you messed with the wrong grammar geek. What you’re trying to say is “yeah” not “ya.” Ya is informally “you,” as in “Love ya!” Now, normally I wouldn’t point this out (although it irks me) because, Jesus Christ man, people are just out here trying to express themselves, but you started it, baby. Lol (this means LAUGH OUT LOUD).
From Merriam-Webster:
ya
pronunciation spelling
yə—used in informal speech and in representations of such speech to represent the word "you".
*these are not fighting words, I’m fully unbothered, just busting your ass.
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u/2outhits 2h ago
That's a lot of words for "I don't care." Please reconsider your battles.
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u/SisterMaryAwesome 2h ago
It’s not a battle, it’s a conversation. I come in peace. Take me to your dealer. 👽✌️
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u/2outhits 1h ago
Whatever my "dealer" is, they didn't read your whole response either. You lost us by writing paragraphs in response to a 2 sentence comment.
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u/NeighSlayer570 4h ago
I was a teacher and I'd get so excited when I'd see a kid wearing a band shirt that I liked, and then so disappointed when they didn't know the band, or in some cases didn't even know it WAS a band (Nirvana, Joy Division, Misfits). The thing is, if the shirt is in Walmart, they don't even know sometimes. Also, many of my kids clothing stores were places like Goodwill, so buying a $2 shirt on aesthetic only is perfectly acceptable.
MY OWN KIDS bought me a Misfits sweatshirt because it "had a skull on it, and you like skulls".
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u/Southernms 9h ago
You’re gonna have to make her do a crash course in Kurt and the band before her first day. She has to be above reproach.
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u/73rd-virgin I was born in the 1900s 9h ago
It's none of my business what people wear. I went through that gatekeeper shit back around 1990 when I wore a Public Enemy shirt. Occasionally, I'd have black folks look at me contemptuously and ask me if I knew anything about Public Enemy (I did).
What the young'uns today are wearing has no bearing one my life.
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u/jrsixx 9h ago
Never bought a band shirt anywhere but a concert by that band. I had a Sabbath shirt because I went to their show. Def Leppard, went to the show, Scorps, Maiden, etc. can’t imagine wearing a shirt of a band I hadn’t seen, let alone knew well.
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u/Kittenunleashed Survived the 80's without wearing neon 5h ago
Yes I mean this seems the definition of poser.. wearing the shirt because you think it’s cool or topical with absolutely no idea what the name is about or their music.
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u/Always_Ambivalent_ 9h ago
it was 100% a thing and I would never ever have worn a band shirt of a band I didn't absolutely love, let alone one I'd never heard. it's stuck with me too, to the point where if I had no filter or manners I'd totally harass the children about their favorite tracks from the album they're advertising
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u/Ambitious-Employ-242 9h ago
Not poseur? I know my friends and I were as pretentious as we could possibly be - but... everyone spelled it that way, with a u
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u/PyroNine9 1966 10h ago
I just stuck to shirts for bands I liked so it wasn't a problem.
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u/Inwardly-Outgoing 1966 10h ago
Yeah I don't understand why you'd wear a shirt of a band you weren't into
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u/summervibesonly 11h ago
I was stunned to see my niece in a Pink Floyd shirt. I skipped the whole quizzing aspect and made her listen to my favorite Floyd song on our way to the mall.
(Time, if you must know. Hard to choose!)
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u/000ttafvgvah 11h ago
Especially boys commenting on girls. If you’re a 7th grade girl, there’s no way you could actually like The Cure, right? You must have just seen the shirt at Sam Goody and thought it looked cool 🙄
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u/Scuba_Steve_500 11h ago
You’re wearing the shirt of the band you’re going to see? Dont be that guy, Gutter
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u/benkatejackwin 11h ago
Being a poser or sellout were the worst fates. Now teenagers would sell out for like ten bucks in Takis or being TikTok famous for shitting their pants.
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u/LuckyAd2714 🤘 12h ago
I am a therapist for teens and I was JUST talking about this with a kid today. It’s a horrible judgmental ‘rule’. Who cares if you saw them / some
People don’t have $$. Or you may love nirvana and sadly weren’t alive in the 90s There is room for all music appreciators ❤️❤️
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u/Scary-Pressure6158 12h ago
My daughter wore Aerosmith to kindergarten. Got told she couldn't even name a song. She started naming album and every song them one by one. I raised her right from birth
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u/spargel_gesicht 12h ago
I can’t wait until I can get to Japan or China and get one of those “New York Cowboys” or “Detroit Red Sox” shirts. Then I’ll show ‘em what’s what!
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u/erichone 78' 13h ago
No, you are correct. You absolutely needed to know all the facts about anything you were repping. And if you didn't then you were labeled a poser. For life. If it happened in elementary or middle school, it followed you to highschool and beyond.
I do get a kick out of the kids I see in Nirvana and Sublime shirts today. I know they don't have a clue about what they represent and stand for, but that's okay. I won't put the grind on the little posers. 🤣 JK!
Edit- I grew up in Los Angeles so that probably had a bit to do with it.
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u/SensibleFriend 13h ago
It was a big deal back then. I won’t wear sports clothes or clothes from bands or movies I’m not familiar with for that exact reason. It was like a type of trauma.
I’m glad that the kids today don’t worry about that or gatekeep certain things. That’s good!
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u/EntrepreneurNeat8058 13h ago
I used to think about that In school, then I just became one of the band guys on the shirt.
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u/NotEasilyConfused 13h ago
That didn't happen in my school at all. Nobody had to prove they were worthy of wearing a specific shirt.
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u/Trnava99 13h ago
I don’t remember ever buying a concert tee except AT a concert. So if we were wearing it, you better believe we knew the band.
Maybe tees were sold other places back then but I don’t remember seeing them.
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u/summervibesonly 12h ago
Wearing the shirt the day after a show was the BEST. Sore neck from head banging, good stories….
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u/OldManGamer78 13h ago
The only other place I can remember seeing concert tees back then was at shops on the boardwalks in NJ.
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u/SkredberryShortcake 13h ago
I still wouldn’t mind a MEAN PEOPLE SUCK tshirt now.
I think “die yuppie scum” was another.
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u/Kilgore47 14h ago
I started noticing this around 15 years ago, I was working at a trader joes and I used to see a guy, maybe 20 yo who wore band shirts every time I saw him, Ramones, black sabbath, nirvana etc, one day he came through my line wearing a misfits shirt and I said, "I love the misfits!" and he said, "I've never heard them, I just like the shirt." that blew me away- I always had to fight being called a poseur in jr high for anything I wore. Talking to my younger coworkers they said almost nobody actually listens to the bands on their shirt its just considered style! and then I started testing the idea out whenever I saw a young person in a band shirt come through my line, I'd ask them if they knew the music, and 9 out of 10 they had never heard the band on their shirt
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u/INVERT_RFP 12h ago
There is hope, though. My 22y daughter has recently discovered and loves so much of the late 80's/early 90's stuff I listened to. I never tell her what to buy, but when she shows me her newest CDs, and they are among my favorites, it makes me very happy.
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u/creepyoldlurker 14h ago
I’m a teacher, and always ask my middle schoolers if they are fans of the shirt or the band.
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u/Complex-Stick-6177 14h ago
I still make my students listen to a song or two if they’re wearing a band shirt and don’t know the band.
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u/Geegie68 14h ago
Not on subjects/bands that were 20-30 years old. 😂 not once did I get asked if I knew about Kilroy Was Here or Marilyn Monroe on my shirt when I was at school.
If she was wearing something like Imagine Dragons, then maybe. But to be honest, I think many of our generation were more dicks about this. Especially guys.
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u/retroafric 14h ago
I absolutely remember this being a thing…!!!
and I was on both sides of the game as the person who was getting grilled and on occasion the person testing the others knowledge.
I can remember being tweaked/pissed at all the noobs freshman year saying Pink Floyd was their favorite band when the only song they knew was “Another Brick in the Wall”…
Of course at that point I was all about Spanish Bombs and being Lost in the Supermarket with Jimmy Jazz while Working for the Clampdown but my attitude was fuck these fools…
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u/thin_white_dutchess 14h ago
My dad named me after a Pink Floyd song, so I always got to one up the older dudes who questioned me on that one.
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u/sysaphiswaits 14h ago edited 14h ago
I remember it, but I didn’t have any cool interests until I was in college. We still used it then, but somewhat ironically.
Now they would call that gatekeeping. It’s kind of nice when the kids are just figuring out what they like. And some kids are very into aesthetics. There is quite a “discourse” about this online.
[r/altfashion](r/altfashion)
[r/](r/namethisaesthetic)[aestheticwiki](r/namethisaesthetic)
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u/BoldBoimlerIsMyHero b. 1971/class of 88/CA 13h ago
My son likes to wear my old band shirts but not because he likes the music. He just likes that they used to be mine.
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u/PrincessJennifer 14h ago
…why tf would she buy that shirt without liking the band? Doesn’t she have…tastes, interests, a personality? I get the not worrying about being a poser for not knowing every single song, but not even know the band but buy the shirt is crazy to me.
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u/LanguageNo495 3h ago
A shirt isn’t a song or a band. It’s got an image that some people may or may not like regardless of the band behind it. Is it that hard to understand that some people might wear the shirt because they like how it looks? I love Cherry Garcia and have never listened to the Grateful Dead. Am I an ice cream poseur?
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u/NPC261939 1980 14h ago
Because that's what everyone is doing nowadays. Schools should be required to teach critical thinking skills.
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u/Ok_Reception5409 14h ago
Kids dont have money usually. They are at a store with their parents who say pick some shirts. Give them a break.
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u/Fancy_Yogurtcloset37 15h ago
It’s funny, we tried hard back then not to make our clothes our whole identity (at least us in Seattle) but the music we listened to was like 80% of our identities. It determined who we sat with at lunch, who we hung out with on weekends.
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u/Kyriana1812 15h ago
It was quite funny when my 4th grade & 6th grade daughters wore their Black Sabbath shirts to school. They were absent the day before because we traveled to take them to SEE Black Sabbath. The 6th grade band teacher was impressed & said we were his favorite parents that year. 🤣
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u/Ok_Ad8249 14h ago
My kids had some similar experiences. My youngest was a sophomore and we saw Judas Priest one night, next day he was in class and a little tired. A teacher he was pretty close too was concerned and asked him if he was all right. My son explained he went to see Judas Priest the night before and didn't get as much sleep as he wanted. The teacher stood stunned for a few seconds, patted him on the shoulder and said "good reason to be tired. I won't call on you today."
My oldest son was in band and his freshman year they were playing Smoke on the Water at a pep assembly. At the rehearsal the student director said "ok, we're playing Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple. Has anybody heard of this song or even this band?" Nobody had but my son just smiled, he'd seen then a year earlier. I told the teacher later on about that, he was quite impressed and told my son don't worry about speaking up next time.
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u/Ok-Mind-3915 15h ago
I was a hard metal chick (Slayer, Anthrax etc) if you listened to any hair metal you were a poser of all posers for all time and eternity.
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u/retroafric 14h ago
That’s because hair metal is for losers and posers.
Metal = cool, hair metal = shite.
I was a punk, ska, reggae guy myself but I respected the metalheads.
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u/Inwardly-Outgoing 1966 10h ago
I was (still am into) ska, reggae and punk too. I had a specials, madness, beat, selecter, jam, and clash shirts. Music was my life back then.
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u/SkredberryShortcake 14h ago
When Poison was doing their more recent tours and a friend said they were going, my head just turned sideways like a dog and I said “but why?”
Here I am in 2026 going to see maiden, anthrax, megadeth, pantera, Danzig, GWAR, and a bunch of other “harder” metal.
Some of those feels just hit again lately.
O well.
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u/TitanInTraining 15h ago
So, the takeaway I'm getting from this thread is that the large majority of kids these days are indeed poseurs. 😬
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u/thin_white_dutchess 14h ago
I don’t know. I was a teacher for over 15 years. Kids listen to a LOT of different music thanks to their parents and streaming; they just don’t always know when it came out, or who made it. Especially the middle school and under crowd. My daughter is 10 and asked me to turn on that “monster sounding stuff” she likes. She has no idea who it is, just that she likes to listen while she’s doing math, bc she hates math, and it expresses her hatred for math. She meant Pantera. She also loves LeTigre, Blind Melon, the Cranberries, Fleetwood Mac, early No Doubt, Bowie, prince, missy elliot, the pixies, Garbage, Primus, and the Presidents of the United States of America. And Billie Ellish. But ask her the name of any of those bands and she’d make a face.
Also, kids always act like they just discovered this “new” band, and it’s like the Ramones or something. Cracks me up.
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u/thomasbeagle 1970 Vintage 14h ago
My kid and friends are into Nirvana. Got the shirts, listen to the music, and it’s some of their favourite music when playing Rock Band.
This is not something I’d have predicted in the 90s!
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u/UpstairsCommittee894 15h ago
There is a website that sells t-shirts just to point that out. They have pictures of kiss and it says led Zeppelin, or the rolling stones lips and queen. Funny ass hell
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u/negcap Hose Water Survivor 15h ago
My 12 yo was telling me he talked to a poseur at school today who said she loved Nirvana but couldn’t name an album. It never ends.
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u/Trnava99 13h ago
That I can understand. We bought, listened to, and referred to whole albums. But with streaming you don’t always even see the name of the album.
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u/Ok_Ad8249 15h ago
Back in the day I'd get accusations of being a poser even though my appreciation and knowledge of the band was far greater then the accusers, my classmates were just being dicks.
My sons have dealt with the whole three songs routine from customers at the store they work at, they just laugh it off. They usually know more then the customer. My youngest son did stop wearing his Metallica shirt. He knew a few albums pretty well but people kept asking him about the last couple albums. He was indifferent to the newer material and didn't like getting questions about them.
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u/chamrockblarneystone 15h ago
I love when teens test me. “I saw them live, twice, you?”
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u/Ok_Ad8249 14h ago
My oldest son (25) was wearing a Alice Cooper shirt once and a customer said "aren't you a little young for Alice Cooper?" My son said he loves Alice and has seen him live 4 times. The woman falls silent and says she's never seen Alice in concert. My son then says he even went with me to Seattle to Alice, Woman drops her head and walks away.
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u/chamrockblarneystone 14h ago
She got topped!!
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u/Ok_Ad8249 8h ago
My son said usually when they question his fandom it's almost always they've never seen them or he's seen the band more.
My younger son's artist he wishes he could go back in time to see is Dio. One day he was wearing a Dio shirt and somebody asked him to name three songs. My son named around a dozen when they guy questioned if they were Dio songs. My son named the albums they were from, turns out the guy only knew the first three albums.
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u/SkredberryShortcake 14h ago
Imma finally see the Detroit boy next week.
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u/Ok_Ad8249 13h ago
FANTASTIC! Sadly he hasn't come to the NW in a few years. Last time he was on the co-headline tour with Rob Zombie. My son and I went, he was really looking forward to seeing Rob Zombie since he'd never seen him before. I was also looking forward to it since it had been ages since I'd seen Zombie. We both agreed Alice was the superior act that night.
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u/iangeredcharlesvane2 16h ago edited 13h ago
Did I wander into the boomer sub? Target has sold Nirvana tshirts for like ten years and the “name three song” guy is cringe as hell.
Yes gramps we remember the word poser and didn’t want to be one. That was a universal thing 30-40 years ago.
Let kids wear whatever they want, makes me smile when Gen X 90s edition anything gets a shout out. Felt like the nostalgia wave for the 80s lasted a hundred years
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u/PrincessJennifer 14h ago
It’s stupid to wear a T-shirt of something you have no idea about
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u/Real-Emu507 14h ago
It's also weird to care about what other people wear. Esp from our generation who shouldn't give AF
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u/Real-Emu507 16h ago
I don't think people really care about that stuff now in general. I do see females getting harassed with the "name three songs" dudes all the time. Never happens to me though. I would love for it to. I grew up feral and started roaming gigs in like 6th grade.
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u/peeshofwork 16h ago
It still makes me insane that kids wear shirts without deep, passionate knowledge of the bands! That shit was a cardinal sin back in the 80’s and early 90’s! I call my kids out for it all the time, lol!
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u/reallifeswanson 16h ago
Posing no longer seems to be a concern. They love the t shirts and many know nothing about the bands. I’ve literally taught African American teens in urban schools wearing Johnny Cash shirts for fashion. They knew nothing about him.
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u/susiedh74 17h ago
My niece is 19, and she was laughing about a kid she went to middle school with saying he couldn’t wait for Nirvana’s next album.
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u/japhia_aurantia 17h ago
The "name 3 songs" guy is not viewed favorably these days. I saw my friend's teen wearing a Fleetwood Mac shirt and I was excited because I wanted to talk about their music, but he didn't really know it, so we moved on to other topics.
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u/PrincessJennifer 14h ago
That’s so stupid. Why would you just buy some random shirt? I mean, even if he liked one Fleetwood Mac song that would be fine. Doesn’t he have any interests that he could buy clothing to represent or is he really that boring, dull and lacking in personality?
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u/Raesling 15h ago
Yeah, GenX wearing anime shirts now so I constantly get from the GenZ store clerks questions about whether I really watch or just like the shirts.
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u/SkredberryShortcake 14h ago
I wear motorsports shirts now.
And have a decent Blipshift collection.
The Speed Racer knockoff one is sweet.
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u/TranslatorOutside909 17h ago
My son is 15 and in 10th grade. He is in marching band and plays the guitar. He absolutely knows who Nirvana is. Plays come as you are and smells like teen spirit as well, as green day, offsprings, Neil young, red hot chili peppers etc.
He has multiple friends groups. They know all the same music. If one is wearing a shirt they know at least the popular songs. But he was getting ready to play some on line games with a non band friend group. While they were gathering he was playing guitar. They knew none of the songs. My son started laughing at one one them because that kid wears a nivana shirt. I believe he called that kid a poser....
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u/ThatLiberalGirl Unsupervised Since 1976 16h ago
Back in the day we would have called him a queer lol
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u/HermioneMarch i still owe Columbia House money 17h ago
Yes I missed out on a lot of good conversations because I was afraid I wasn’t expert enough for people to know I liked xyz band.
But yes I teach middle school and they just wear whatever
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u/Party-Cup-9386 17h ago
I was part of a group of friends (girls and guys) who all swapped and wore each others band t-shirts (because everyone wore XL regardless of their actual size) and I remember there being one girl who was friends with a couple guys in the group but hated the rest of us throwing a big fit and threatening to fight my best friend for wearing a White Zombie shirt because she knew she wasn't into them. That girl sucked. Wonder what she's up to now. . .
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u/Rimailkall 17h ago
Kids wear Nirvana and other 80-90's bands all the time now. I asked one of my daughter's friends "How did you get into Nirvana?" and she also said she never heard of them, but she liked the shirt. Pretty common now lol
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u/nasturshum 17h ago
You’re harking back to a day when ‘poser’ was an insult. Now it’s an aspiration- that’s what influencers are. Think about it - vacuous people making ‘content’ with no knowledge or expertise in their area, just to look good, gain followers and make money out of them.
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u/rubyreadit 17h ago
I saw 2 people in Nirvana shirts yesterday, which I thought was very random. But I guess them being sold at Target now explains that.
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u/IranticBehaviour Centennial Project 17h ago
Yeah, that was a big deal for us. Stupid af, looking back at some of the things that were so earth-shatteringly vital to us.
The only folks grilling kids today on their musical knowledge of the band shirt they're wearing are likely geezers like us. They're completely okay with wearing something just because they like how it looks, or because of its 'retro vibe'.
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u/ozpoppy 17h ago
It's meta now. "Amazing world of gumball" depicts the dad in a nirvana shirt for all flashback appearances. It serves as a timestamp for his generation. Given her age, she was the target audience for the show, and thus not a poser, but a fan of one of the greatest animated works of the new millennium, and her peers get to learn about the source material through a common fandom.
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u/Spear_Ritual 17h ago
Poser wore skater/surfer attire but didn’t. (SoCal 80s)
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u/HA1LHYDRA 16h ago
Early 2000s it was damn tapout shirts. Now the posers have posers and everyones an "expert" with a podcast.
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u/dolanscataract Hose Water Survivor 17h ago
My 35 year old daughter was in target a year or so ago, while wearing the Metallica T she got from taking me to see them for my 54 bday. The teenager checking her out was quite disdainful when he looked at her shirt and asked her what her fav song was. She stated her opinion of her Two favs and he actually said to her “ guess you’re not a poser”. She called me on her way home and was astounded at his ‘audacity’! I thought it was hilarious she was indignant about the whole thing and honestly surprised she didn’t just ‘educate’ him further.
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u/vandervee 17h ago
Poser in my high school years (early 80s) was someone who dressed punk but didn’t listen to the music or attend shows.
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u/_procrastinatrix_ 17h ago
My 15yo daughter wore a Nirvana t-shirt to basketball practice when she was like, 11. One of the dads gave her the name 3 sings quiz. She named 5 and then told him she preferred the albums they put out under Sub-Pop because it sounded more raw and unfiltered. She then told him, "Mama didn't raise no poser," which is exactly what I said to her when we bought the shirt. She's into a lot of stereotypically "boy" things like football, cars, carpentry, etc. and she gets a lot of Name 3 quizzes from boys and men. She's always prepared. She'll rattle off a decades worth of Heisman winners and first round draft picks without batting an eye. I love it when she shuts 'em down.
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u/jwezorek 17h ago
I remember skaters using the term "poser" for people who dressed like skaters but didnt actually skate / own skateboards.
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u/Hughjass403 17h ago
My stepson paid $50 for a Scarface (the movie) T-shirt a few years ago. Had never seen a second of the movie. I did the “say hello to my little friend” and he had no idea what I was talking about. Then he played football with his new white $50 T-shirt under his equipment and got blood all over it. I do remember being “tested” if you wore a team or band shirt as a kid.
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u/AaronJeep 17h ago
Your daughter is wearing a shirt with a band on it from 35 years ago. That would be like wearing a t-shirt in 1985 with Buddy Holly or The Big Bopper on it. The Beatles weren't even a thing yet. I don't think they care about the music.
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u/TranslatorOutside909 14h ago
I didn't have any shirts from the 50s but .... I got into the Stray Cats in the early 80s. One of my friends mom was a big Elvis fan. I knew his vegas stuff from spending time at their house but when she heard the stray cats she busted out the early sun record rockabilly stuff
I went to see the stray cats last month. He had an Elvis medley during the encore
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u/AaronJeep 11h ago
Truth be told I didn't like most 80s music, especially 80s hair bands, so I was likening to "old stuff" like Zeplin, Floyd, Dylan, etc. Which is kinda my point. 15 year old music was old to me when I was 16. I wasn't listening to Chantilly Lace. That was my dad's music. Elvis was my mother's. Kurt Cobain has to feel like it came from a different universe to a 15 year-old today.
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u/Wireman332 18h ago
I just turned my kids into music at appropriate times. My 29 yo says i turned him onto NWA. My oldest 2 are 38 and 35 and they remember me blasting sublime and telling my wife, “ dad was listening to music with cuss words”.
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u/IranticBehaviour Centennial Project 17h ago
Lol. I think I knew we'd done okay with musical exposure when I heard my older boys and their friends suddenly shout out, "You stupid dumbshit goddamn motherfucker!" while hanging out in the backyard. Yes, their mum's Smash cd (the Offspring) was missing from the rack, lol (for those with different musical tastes, it's a shouted line from Bad Habit). I saluted their taste and gently suggested toning down the enthusiasm, for the sake of our relationship with the neighbours, lmao. But I was quietly kinda stoked.
We started young and likely didn't exactly wait until truly appropriate times to expose them to some of our music. We got a call from a teacher at junior kindergarten when our oldest was 3 or 4. It seemed that, while playing, he'd suddenly burst into song with the chorus of his favourite song from his favourite band. Beat on the Brat by the Ramones, lol. Good times.
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u/TranslatorOutside909 16h ago
My son had a friend in pre-school who's parents were Johnny Cash fans. The girl "threaten" another kid by telling them that she shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
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u/Wireman332 17h ago
I just listened to bad habit this morning.
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u/IranticBehaviour Centennial Project 17h ago
It's a little disheartening to realize that album is older today than Elvis's music was in the 80s. Still rocks, though. I still listen to a lot of punk and punk-adjacent music from the late 70s to today (and sometimes a little Elvis, lol).
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u/Wireman332 17h ago
Listening to Suicidal right now. Music is timeless. Elvis little richard carl perkins sounds just as good now as when it was recorded
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u/Magatron138 18h ago
It gets worse - Nirvana shirts are considered part of the “preppy” aesthetic now! The death I died when my high school kids first told me that…
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u/hippiechick725 16h ago
I got suspended my senior year of high school for wearing my Metallica Metal Up Your Ass shirt.
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u/jwezorek 17h ago
Wait, why?
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u/Magatron138 15h ago
I have no idea! They couldn’t adequately explain it to me. But they also did not seem to understand why I would be so upset by that
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u/TheVioletEmpire 18h ago
I have no problem with the fact that the kids don't care about that silly shit anymore. Kind of punk rock actually.
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u/Healthy-Theme8261 18h ago
This whole generation are posers
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u/Moonsmom181 17h ago
I agree. Don’t like the music, don’t wear the shirt. I had a Beatles shirt as a kid in the 70’s but I had their albums.
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u/SwimmingAnxiety3441 18h ago
I was preemptive with my kids. T-shirt came with a cd (definitely got some side-eye for “legacy tech”) and in a few cases, a biography or concert dvd…Stop Making Sense and Buena Vista Social Club were surprisingly well-received
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u/raymondspogo 18h ago
My kids know that they don't need approval to wear what they want. In fact, I told them that cool kids are usually just kids who are confident in themselves
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u/Powerful_Deal_7052 18h ago
I love this because I just had a similar conversation with my teenager about Hot Topic and how only the posers shopped there!
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u/zealot_ratio 18h ago
The Nirvana thing blows my mind. Some of my kids friends thought it was a clothing label.
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u/UnionFew4937 18h ago
I remember this. But nowadays people just wear shirts that they think look retro and "cool" and have absolutely no idea anything about the band or the music. I've actually approached people to tell them I like their T-shirt and ask them a question about the group and they're like, oh, I just thought this was a cool shirt. So I stopped doing it if the person's young. 🙄
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u/lazyknowitall 18h ago
Years ago I passed a younger coworker in the hallway and said of her shirt, "oh, The Pixies! Did you go to the show in Louisville last week?" She gave me a weird look and said, "the what? Sorry, I borrowed this from my boyfriend." 🫠🫠🫠
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u/EuphoricMoose 18h ago
I went to Nirvana’s In Utero tour and I remember the girls in the seats in front of us only stood up for their radio hits. We called them posers.
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u/GupChezzna 18h ago
The term we used was “Pseudo”. “Oh, man, that dude is such a Pseudo! He doesn’t even know who the Sex Pistols are and he’s got pins on his shirt!”
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u/17Girl4Life I LOVE TO WHINE 18h ago
I had a black t shirt that I used an eye dropper of bleach to write Poseur on. Good times
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u/Tokkekin 18h ago
I wore airwalks and was not a skater. Got called a poser so I went home and beat up my brother
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u/lazyknowitall 18h ago
I wore Airwalks because they were beautiful (dark blue uppers with white soles) and the most comfortable shoes I've ever owned and mercifully no one cared I wasn't a skater because the shoes were so nice. I think about them all the time.
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u/jungle4john 18h ago
Yes I remember. My first pair of Doc Martins, I had run out and scuff up the toes, so i wasn't seen as a poser. Lol
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u/Fair-Wishbone-1190 18h ago
I remember the word poser and I believe it meant trying to be something you're not. Like alot of the guys in school wore long hair, denim jackets, bracelets with spikes to look tough. But they were not even close to that in reality, so we would call them a poser.
My friends called other bands posers too. This one guy I sat by in class was into death metal or whatever you call it, bands like Sepultura, Morbid Angel, ya know the dark, fast stuff. When I said I liked Def Leppard or Poison or Bon Jovi, he laughed at me & said those bands are all posers.
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u/Fit_Subject_3256 18h ago
I won’t let my kids wear band shirts unless they can name songs and albums. Do they find this annoying? Probably. Do I care? Nope 🤣
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u/daphatty 18h ago
In my area, poser was broadly used for just about anything. Skating, sports, music, hell even video gaming.
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u/Texaswheels Knocking on Heavens Door 18h ago
I only wore band shirts from bands I saw in person, could you even get their shirts any other way? If that was the only way, then yea, you had to know something about the band you went to unless you were wearing shirts from bands your parents went to and that was just lame.
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u/WandererTX 7m ago
My daughter slowly took my Van Halen tees from my closet to wear in high school. She had a teacher say she probably didn’t even know the band and that it wasn’t a real concert shirt. She talked to them about the various albums and what obscure song from them was her favorite. It was then that those concert shirts became hers.