Slayer Sells Out? + Calvin Klein Hotties 🔥
Hello WNVMers,
This week, Cheryl took on a story that was really fun for her. On its surface, it’s about a Slayer x Igloo cooler collaboration (just in time for your Labor Day BBQ!) that she at first thought was super weird. But it’s ultimately about the extremely Gen X concept of selling out, an examination of a niche fandom, Brands ™, and how what is “offensive” has changed since the ‘80s. She learned a lot writing it and enjoyed a glimpse into the world of thrash metal, a little subculture she only watched from afar in the halls of her large Midwestern public high school in the late ‘80s. (Slayer!!! IYKYK)
And in news You Oughta Know, Victoria Beckham gets the spotlight, Gen X moms are shredding, and Greta Lee’s got the beat. Plus, stylist Stacy London shares an exclusive quote with WNVM about her impending return to the reality show makeover genre.
Ice Ice Baby
Reckoning with the Slayer x Igloo collaboration and the very Gen X concept of selling out
By Cheryl
A few months ago, my Instagram algorithm fed me an ad from Igloo, the cooler brand. I had to stop and zoom in on it. Was that a… pentagram? A satanic goat creature?
Back in June, Igloo announced that it was collaborating with Slayer for the second year in a row on a collection of products branded with the thrash metal band’s signature unholy imagery. It features a cooler with built-in bluetooth speakers, metal cups shaped like cans, and a crossbody sling that holds six cans. The copy on the site reads: “We poured blood, sweat and beers into the creation of our most extreme coolers ever.”
This collaboration really surprised me. The reasons are very much related to my age and generation. It’s a pretty quaint Gen X concept in hindsight, but there used to be real angst when a band, especially one viewed as alternative to the mainstream, was perceived to be “selling out,” either by making their music more commercial and palatable or literally selling their names, likenesses, or songs.
Plus, Slayer didn’t conform to the market of its heyday in the late ’80s and early ‘90s. With its satanic imagery and provocative, sometimes shocking lyrics, it gained both notoriety and fans with the 1986 Reign in Blood album. This was during the Satanic Panic of the ‘80s, when a sector of the populace was worried about demon-led pedophile rings. It was also the era of Tipper Gore’s “Filthy 15” artists and parental warning labels on “offensive” albums. Slayer couldn’t have sold out even if they wanted to because no brand would have offered them the opportunity.
Listen, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck or out of a coconut tree or whatever. I lived through the George Foreman Grill ‘90s! And for almost 15 years, I’ve been writing about celebs of all stripes who fronted campaigns for brands or released their own products. Jon Bon Jovi makes wine. Two years ago I covered male musicians who all launched nail polish lines. Green Day just released a Keurig coffee machine. It’s hard for musicians to make a living just making music these days.
Still, I guess in my Reality Bites-addled brain (I still cringe when I hear Depeche Mode’s “Just Can’t Get Enough” in an insurance commercial), I thought there might be some bands — Slayer one of them — that were immune to the lure of filthy lucre or still too “scary” for multinational corporations to engage. But the spending power of a loyal fandom, the softening effects of nostalgia, and the bleak realities of the music industry cannot be denied.
Selling Out (The Fan Perspective)
I am not a Slayer fan. So, to understand the minds of true believers — the people who would buy these coolers — I tracked down a fan who I’m also comfortable calling the world’s foremost Slayer scholar. DX Ferris is the author of two books about Slayer, the host/writer/producer of a podcast about the band, and an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone and other music publications. He was kind enough to chat via DM and sent a lengthy email schooling me in Slayer 101.
Slayer is part of a group of bands known as the Big Four of thrash metal, including Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax.
“Thrash bands embraced the newfangled punk-informed rejection of commercial potential,” says Ferris. “Thrash bands' material was generally antisocial, violent, graphic, fantastic, rebellious, and/or macabre…The others slowed down, diversified, and actively courted larger audiences by marketing and modulating their material. Not Slayer.”
So how to reconcile that history with a very pedestrian and utilitarian product like a cooler?
“For a certain kind of rock fan — most of them — flying the flag is important, whether that flag is a banner, a T-shirt, a ball cap, or black cooler painted with the color of blood,” says Ferris. “As Rob Gordon says in High Fidelity [the 1995 Nick Hornby novel turned 2000 movie starring John Cusack], ‘What you like matters.’”
Slayer fans announce what they like literally louder than other fans, shouting “Slayer!” or, preferably, “Fuckin’ Slayer!” in places where one might expect to find a compatriot.
“It is a profession declaring, ‘Somewhere out there is Slayer, and Slayer is metal as hell, and we appreciate that, and we find strength and validation in it,’” says Ferris. It makes sense that they’d want to carry their Diet Coke in loudly-branded Slayer coolers.
Slayer put out its last album in 2015 and retired from touring in 2019, though the band surprised fans with an announcement they would play some festivals this year. Lead singer Tom Araya had spinal surgery in 2010 and hasn’t been able to perform his signature rotational head-banging move since, Ferris tells me. The band members are in their 60s; touring and playing thrash metal is exhausting. Selling stuff is a much healthier way to earn money.
“The fans don't seem to mind. I don't,” says Ferris. “It's an honorable retirement plan. Slayer have bills to pay. If they can't tour and sell records, taking money for nontraditional merch is more palatable than selling their music for dumb commercials or investing in morally questionable companies… ”
This plays out online, where many fans — obviously there are exceptions — on Instagram and Reddit seem to support and actively want the products, even bemoaning when certain styles sold out.
I recently came across this line in a newsletter from memoirist and novelist Emma Forrest, who recounts her time writing ad copy: “...I do believe the only people who never sell out are the ones with nothing anybody wants to buy.”
Out Selling (The Brand Perspective)
Slayer is influential and musically important, and worked with producer Rick Rubin in its early days. Its albums have made it onto “best of” lists. The Smithsonian made a documentary about the band. They have a gold record and two Grammys. Slayer has licensed its music in the past, in things like Gremlins 2, “The Leftovers,” and “Billions.” It has been the subject of a viral meme. It has an iconic logo. It has done merch collabs on jewelry, skate gear, and shoes.
In short, Slayer itself is a brand.
“Slayer iconography is extreme and nominally non-commercial, certainly niche and non-mainstream. But that relentless aesthetic represents a pure, long standing brand,” says Ferris. “Slayer's radiating presence as metal icons is valuable to us. So it's also valuable to brand partners.”
Igloo and Slayer’s merch company, Global Merchandising, announced its first collaboration in 2023, via a pretty corporate sounding press release. (Igloo and Global Merchandising did not respond to requests for an interview.) That one must have sold great, because a second collab was announced in June 2024. This time, the press release featured someone from Igloo’s marketing team who was a Slayer fan, gushing about the albums and shows he’s been to. I could practically hear him throwing up the 🤘 in the statement.
What is funny to me is that the collections were released with fanfare on “International Day of Slayer,” which started on 6-6-06 (get it?), a fact I learned from Ferris’ podcast. It’s meant to be a play on words and a middle finger to the “National Day of Prayer,” a Congress-sanctioned event that has been happening since 1952.
I’m old enough to remember when Madonna’s Pepsi commercial got canceled after she dropped the video for “Like a Prayer,” which featured lots of Catholic iconography, a Black Christ-like character (played by Leon Robinson), and burning crosses. Pearls were clutched. The Vatican was pissed. Now, a multinational brand is making blood jokes on Instagram:
Heavy metal and its imagery doesn’t seem as subversive as it used to. Some of the more offensive elements can be interpreted as theater or art, meant to be thought-provoking, not taken literally. Some of it seems — Slayer fans, please don’t get mad at me — more campy than anything else, thanks to decades of desensitizing slasher pics, cheesy hair metal, and “Beavis and Butthead.” We have a water brand called Liquid Death now, for god’s sake. (It is the Slayer of beverages.)
Plus, a few things in Igloo’s corporate ethos point to a comfort level with these types of collabs. First off, Igloo’s parent company, Dometic, which purchased the brand in 2021, is based in Sweden. Scandinavian nations famously love death metal, so a few skulls and some light Christian blasphemy do not faze them. Second, Igloo has been on a co-branding blitz the past few years. It has done collabs with entities ranging from the Care Bears to Iron Maiden and everything in between. There is a cooler affinity group now for pretty much everyone.
“We metal fans like cold drinks as much as the next demographic. We need a cooler,” says Ferris. “We might as well buy a rad Slayer one.”
We are two Gen X journalists who analyze all the '80s and '90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here!
You Oughta Know
A lot has changed (hopefully) since 2013 when “What Not to Wear” ended its 10-year run criticizing people’s sartorial self-expression. In a pivot, hosts Clinton Kelly and Stacy London are reuniting for the upcoming Amazon Prime series, “Wear Whatever the F You Want.” Last week, WNVM caught up with London at a preview of her eponymous, size-inclusive, and Gen X-targeted line on QVC and asked how she feels now about telling people how to dress. “I would never do it again,” said London. “I honestly believe if I could do ‘What Not to Wear’ again, I would take the 'not' out, for sure. It would be much more about being somebody's cheerleader than somebody's advisor.” [Variety; WNVM exclusive]
After the runaway success of her husband David’s documentary, which featured way too much soccer and not enough Victoria, Victoria Beckham is going to get her own deep dive. Hopefully we will get to see a lot of Spice Girls footage and not only her tasteful era. No word on a release date, but it will stream on Netflix. [WWD]
Calvin Klein continues to produce delicious ads with extremely attractive people. Last week, we got Greta Lee looking incredible while doing pushups to the Go-Go’s classic “We Got the Beat,” and this week we get Jeremy Allen White channeling Bruce Springsteen in a denim vest (and also, importantly, shirtless) in a video featuring the song “Crimson and Clover.” Sure, the original was by Tommy James and the Shondells, but that will always be a Joan Jett song to us.
A diverse group of multi-tasking Gen X mothers have added aerials, grinds, and flip tricks to their list of activities. Brooklyn Skate Moms are also inspiring Fawnia to live out her dream of becoming an X-er version of Gen Z’s “Betty.” (Also, justice for HBO Max’s “Betty!") [The New York Times]
A 1986-setting, a send-up of the television industry, and posh British people, including David Tennant, behaving badly? Sign us up for “Rivals,” based on Jilly Cooper’s best seller, which will stream on Hulu sometime after its October 18 U.K. release on Disney+. [Deadline]
Def Leppard is releasing its first ever graphic novel called, obviously, Hysteria. It features a magical guitar. [Vault Comics via Instagram]
Oasis, which formed in 1991 and broke up in 2009, is officially reuniting for a series of shows in 2025. The formerly feuding Gallagher brothers must know that people simply cannot resist nostalgia concerts! (Hilariously, this has also prompted fans of The Smiths to beg them to reunite too. Johnny Mars responded with an image of Nigel Farage, his usual way of trolling the pro-Brexit Morrissey.) [The Hollywood Reporter]
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The Slayer x Igloo collab is a perfect lens to look at the "Selling Out" concept. It's interesting to see how what was once considered taboo and uncool is now embraced. Great post!
Hard for me to relate but I always enjoy the “tongue in cheek” writing ..( more dating of myself there)..I think it’s hard for any music fan to see their idols doing stuff that makes them cringe a bit but life is not stuck in one time ( though lots of music fans..ie, Woodstock folk) think it is..money comes and money goes ( Billy Joel) we all gotta feed someone..or feed your head ( sorry, couldn’t resist) thanks for a fun read.