I heard Rancid’s Greatest Hits is going to be a Target exclusive as well.

In these hyper-politicized times, will any of her fans be bothered by the choice of the Staten-Island-born, Pittsburgh-raised Army brat to release the album through Target instead of Walmart? Also, isn’t it interesting that country and classic rock geezers do their deals with Walmart while the younger, more urban-skewing artists like Xtina, Alicia Keys and John Legend have deals with Target, which, like Walmart, has most of its big box stores out in the suburbs anyway, and not in the urban core?

@tim_loves_cats: No, you heard wrong. It will be a Fugazi greatest hits album, and it will be available a Walmart.

*PLEASE DO NOT SAY THAT CHAIN OF WORDS ALOUD AS THEY WILL CAUSE THE UNIVERSE TO TEAR IN HALF FROM THE SHEAR IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE STATEMENT EVEN WHEN TAKEN SARCASTICALLY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*

Oh my god. I was totally joking, but Walmart DOES sell Fugazi albums. And one of the two they sell is “Instrument” which was a defacto greatest hits album. [[www.walmart.com]]. Well, universe, it was a hell of a run.

@DocStrange: I hear Bravo has just wrapped shooting season one of Shear Impossibility, its new reality show about making it in the modern music biz.

@Rob Murphy: The majority of Xtina, Alicia Keys, etc. fans still lie in the suburbs. If No Age or Fleet Foxes did an exclusive deal through Walmart or Target (which would be hilarious, btw) than that would raise some eyebrows.

I’ll partly respond to my own question. The “branding” involved in this partnership works both ways. Xtina chooses Target because it is “hipper” and more of her fans shop there more than they do at Walmart (maybe, but who really knows?). Oh, and she gets paid. Target gets to say, “See, we really are hipper than Walmart!”

Okay, people, the challenge is on — let’s try to imagine the most LOLZ-worthy artist-retailer combos. (I need a few minutes to think before I chime in…)

@Rob Murphy: “Hipper” is an interesting point. I grew up on welfare and lived in a lower-middle-class suburb where a number my classmates were desperate to prove their preppiness and would make life hell for anyone who shopped at K-Mart. Target, somehow, never had nearly the same stigma (especially when I’d run into one of the aforementioned kids shopping there on the first of the month). It might have been a local thing, too, since Target was/is headquartered in the Twin Cities, where I’m from.

stephen sprouse never made skateboards for walmart.

ugh, how annoying is it when adults say ‘tar-jay’ like it’s totes funny the billionth time?

Eh…isn’t she managed by Irving Azoff? He’s been doing deals like these for a few years now..

@Rob Murphy: How about Madonna and 7-11? I’m picturing a lovely cardboard cutout display at the counter. I also like Avril Lavigne and Giant Tiger (or whatever the American equivalent might be).

“…through the big-box store my family, growing up, referred to sardonically as Tar-jay.”

I got to watch my cousin and his new wife open their wedding gifts
this past weekend and they got more than like eight Target gift cards.
And everytime one popped up, anyone who said Target was quickly
corrected with a “NO, NO, NO, Tar-Jay!” said in their version of a high
class frou-frou voice.

@Michaelangelo Matos:

My wife is from MN and is amazed at how cool Target has become. When she was in high school you wouldnt be caught dead shopping there or wearing clothes from there…

Now she and I wear a lot of Target clothing without a second thought.

You gotta hand it to Target, they positioned themselves well.

This discussion is becoming very un-rock and roll…

Your family’s store? That’s amazing.