The Unlikely Corporate Rock Band: Phish Page 4

Dry Goods

Another one of the most telling evidences of Phish's commercial drive is the "Dry Goods" section of Phish's website, http://www.phish.com. The unbelievable mass of goods on their site is nothing short of ridiculous. The following is only a brief inventory of what is actually available, all of course adorned with the fashionably attractive Phish logo stamp of approval (link name, followed by what the category contains):

- SHIRTS- four pages worth t-shirt inventory
- WARM THREADS- coats, sweatshirts, etc.
- HATS- various ski caps, visors, and baseball caps
- HARD GOODS- CD cases, mugs, stash tins, socks, buttons, blankets, key chains, Frisbees, puzzles, backpacks, and the list goes on
- POSTERS- various concert and band posters
- BOOKS & VIDEOS- books, documentary film footage, etc.
- STICKERS & PATCHES- three pages worth

Again, this is just a glimpse into the "Dry Goods" section of Phish's website. For a model of comparison, I went to *NSYNC's respective online store at http://nsyncdirect.com. The goal of this was to pit the apparent "non-commercial" reputation of Phish versus one of the most manufactured and notoriously commercial boy bands in the land, *NSYNC. Unfortunately for Phish fans, *NSYNC has four t-shirts up for sale while Phish has four pages worth. While official online stores can only provide a glimpse into how commercial an act might be, it is nonetheless a good indicator. It would be naïve to say that Phish is more commercial than *NSYNC, but the fact that their online store dwarfs that of a heavily commercial act is a strong statement in and of itself.

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