New Study Determines The Most Popular Band Shirt of All Time

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Since time immemorial, band T-shirts have been the ultimate way for music fans to declare their devotion to the world. Buying an album is noble (especially in the age of streaming), and rocking a patch of sticker is all fine and good, but a shirt turns a listener into a walking billboard for their favorite act, as well as allowing them to sport some kickass art involving a dead body. Now, a new study has been done which determines which music fans buy the most shirts — and what’s the greatest band shirt of all time.

The study comes from RushOrderTees, who did a survey of 1,017 music fans to figure out some key statistics about band shirt ownership and purchase pattern. Unsurprisingly, punk and metal were the top two genres when it came to shirt purchasing, with punks spending approximately $597 on a collection of about 15 shirts and metalheads spending about $495 on a 17-shirt collection at any given time. Weirdly enough, R&B/Soul came in third, with $493 for 14 shirts.

The study also broke down “unspoken band tee rules,” which will feel a little questionable for metalheads overall — apparently 43.3% of those surveyed said they bought a band’s shirt to specifically wear at their concert, while 40.6% claimed that only authentic, licensed band merch is considered “real.”

When it came time to declare one band shirt the winner of all, it was, unsurprisingly, a hard rock shirt. By a considerable margin, AC/DC won the title, with 21.4% of those surveyed claiming they own one of the band’s shirts. Behind them were Aerosmith, with 18.1%, and Queen with 16.9%. What might surprise some fans is how far down Metallica were, coming in below Eminem of all people with 13.2%. We’re amazed Slayer didn’t make the list, given how many celebrities love to rock their logo.

So there you have it: if you own an AC/DC shirt, your’e trendy. Way to go, sell-out.

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Words by Chris Krovatin