I've avoided it for long enough. I've tried my best to review every thrift store in Stockton, give you some anecdotes about my life as a second hand shopper and take pictures of interesting things I find. But, the elephant in the room must be addressed. The elephant wearing an enormous fur coat and sunglasses.
I am talking, of course, about Macklemore's song "Thrift Shop" which includes insightful lyrics such as:
"pop some tags"
"I'ma take your grandpa's style, no for real, ask your grandpa, can I have his hand me downs?"
"I wear your grandad's clothes, I look incredible."
It comes as a surprise that this song glorifying thrift shopping is not working to subliminally get people to go to their nearest Goodwill. In fact, Goodwill reported that they have not noticed an increase in sales in spite of the fact the song sold 4 million digital copies.
The answer is simple: the people who liked the song were already avid thrift shoppers. Hearing a rap song doesn't automatically make you want to go to Goodwill on the oft chance you'll find 99 cent Gucci shirts. (Do they make shirts? They do, right? I thought they were a purse brand.)
But Macklemore has given us thrifters more terminology to use for our hashtags when we post pictures on Instagram. I scroll through tumblr and almost every post includes a lyric from his song. So maybe Macklemore hasn't made everyone turn from the ways of retail shopping to thrifting, but he's at least showing it in a good light.
I only made it 30 seconds into the music video before turning it off, but the 200 million views on Youtube show that I'm in the minority. Am I a fan of thrift shopping? Yes. But am I fan of rap music? No. But he has brought the idea of thrift shopping into mainstream media, and for that, I applaud him.
Source: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/03/08/people-listening-to-thrift-shop-not-going-to-actual-thrift-shops/
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