Merchandizing and the Sex Pistols: Abandoning or Honoring their spirit?

(image obtained via Billboard.com)

Punk-rock founding fathers The Sex Pistols have officially gone off the deep-end.  Last week a licensing deal was announced, pairing the Sex Pistols with French perfume manufacturer Etat Libre d'Orange.  The new fragrance named after the band comes complete with a Sex Pistols commemorative bottle featuring the band's 1977 "God Save the Queen" art work.  Upon hearing news of this fragrance I had to ask the following question:  At what point does a band lose it's credibility in chasing business opportunities?

The Sex Pistols are now more than 30 years removed from their classic studio work.  The band's hey day lasted from 1975-1978, followed by short lived reunion tours in 1996 and 2002.  Together with the Clash, the Sex Pistols are undoubtedly the most important band in early British punk rock.  Built in part as an art project by their recently deceased manager Malcolm McLaren.  McLaren was a devious spirit known for pushing the limits of fashion and music through his S&M inspired clothing store SEX.  Legend has it that McLaren built and named The Sex Pistols, hand picking people from the local punk scene.  McLaren's greatest gift to the band was manufacturing their attitude (one could argue they were merely a punk-rock version of The Monkeys).  McLaren claims to have planned out the entire short lived career of the band, the story was played out in the 1980 film The Great Rock N Roll Swindle.  A swindler, McLaren may have been.  McLaren retained all rights to The Sex Pistols name and music until the mid-eighties when he lost a court battle to John Lydon (Johnny Rotten).  It can be argued that this new fragrance by The Sex Pistols is merely a continuation of their original identity:  "Make money, turn heads, and do what is not expected."

Perhaps a fragrance costing $51 a bottle is the most punk rock thing a bunch of geezers formerly known as The Sex Pistols can come up with and sell.  Then again, it could be that in the aftermath of McLaren's 2010 death, a new modern swindler has emerged to market the band on its terms.    The perfume deal starring the band was licensed by business partner Live Nation Merchandise.  Executive VP of worldwide retail and licensing for Live Nation Merchandise, Michael Krassner claims that Johnny Lydon and other band members have been closely involved with the licensing decision.  Live Nation shares hefty profits with Johnny and the Pistols for other merchandise including (I did not make any of this up) alarm clocks, shoes, laptop skins, and virtual characters in "The Sims" video game.


When I first learned of the new fragrance my reaction was a hefty:  WTF?!?!  I mean, what does it even smell like?  (Maybe it's a dead ringer for the spoof Gheorghe Muresan cologne?).  Then it hit me, forget the smell.  It's irrelevant whether the classic Sex Pistol's bottle has a worthy fragrance inside.  There are thousands of bands that can't sell a free bumper sticker for every band that has continued selling power more than 30 years after their last new music was released.  My question posed was: At what point does a band lose it's credibility in chasing business opportunities?  The answer is that a band with nothing to prove (30+years of no new music) can't lose credibility.  If a band like The Sex Pistols can still strike a licensing deal for an absurd product such as cologne, they have officially achieved eternal status in the "pantheon of music stars"(thanks Bill Simmons for the pantheon of sports).