Believe. It’s a motif running through Pop Vulture. Believe in Bez. Believe in Jarvis. Believe in Debbie Harry. I’ve been asked a few times now what the whole Believe thing is all about. And it’s difficult to express it exactly. But I’ll try.
There’s the short, shallow answer: the simple fact that a black and white image of Bez with his maracas and the word BELIEVE underneath looks pretty cool. (And on many levels that should be enough. We’re talking slogan T-shirts here, kids, looking pretty cool is pretty much the whole point.)
Then there’s the homage to / blatant rip-off of Shepard Fairey’s HOPE poster for Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign. Every artist is a cannibal, right? And it’s no crime to be inspired by one of the most iconic images of the century.
There’s the Pop Vulture banner itself, of course: Believe in what you wear. But still. Why Bez? Why Jarvis? Why Debbie? In fact, now we come to it, why believe at all?
In an uncertain, unstable, unpredictable world, ruled it seems by men and women motivated mostly by ego and avarice; in an age of influencers over information, opinion over objectivity, deepfakes, alternative truths, alternative facts, alternative realities… it’s hard to find something to believe in. The AI camera always lies, the algorithms only echo prejudice and misinformation, and whatever Hope the 44th President of the United States represented was chewed up and spat out and booed offstage when the 45th took the oath.
In the face of so much deceit and cynicism, maybe believing in something – anything – has never been so important.
What do I believe in? It sounds trivial (it’s not trivial), but I believe in the power of a song to make things better. To show things as they might be, as they should be. To make us feel something honest and unfiltered. To lift us out of unreliable reality and, as a piano man once put it, forget about life for a while. The way Thom Yorke’s voice cracks as he sings “I wish I was special”. The way Johnny Marr’s guitar soars as Morrissey urges us to burn down the disco. Screw it – the key change in Taylor Swift’s Love Story. Emotions don’t follow algorithms. Pop music doesn’t lie – and nothing bad ever came from dancing. Don’t fight it; feel it.
Believe in Bez, or Jarvis, or Debbie Harry. Believe in the Smiths or Radiohead or the Arctic Monkeys or The Monkees or Olivia Rodrigo or Taylor Swift or whoever. Believe in the joy they give, the power those songs have to take you out of the uncertainty and show you something simple and pure and honest and brilliant. Even if it’s only for three and a half minutes. Even if it is just a pop song. Even if it’s just a lyric in a pop song, or a key change in a pop song. Believe in it… because it’s something worth believing in.
Want to explore more culture‑driven designs? Browse our full collections of Slogan T‑Shirts, Slogan Tote Bags, and Accessories.
