Push the Button

From the rock n' roll teddy boys of the 50s to the Primark Ramones shirts of the 10s, music and fashion have always been linked. Punk went high fashion with McLaren and Westwood's SEX boutique and continues today with the likes of Puff Daddy; even Metallica have had a dabble.

The cheapest and most accessible way of displaying your music taste on your sleeve (or more accurately, lapel) was popularised by Stiff Records in the 70s: the button badge. Since then, music fans have been adorning their shirts, jackets and bags with them.

Around the end of the last decade, the humble button badge was given an upgrade. Apple introduced the 6th generation of the iPod Nano, reformatted into a inch-and-a-half square with a vibrant screen, enabling the user to display the album art of the playing track on the device, presumably clipped to the user's shoulder strap or lapel. You can pick up one of these for around £85.

With a more retro look, and at a much lower $12 price point, Playbuttons have been adopted by some record labels and musicians looking for value to add to their releases. They look very similar to the old school button badges, but have a headphone jack socket that doubles up as a USB charging/data interface. The limited edition Lady Gaga "Born This Way" PlayButton (displayed opposite) was released as a limited edition collector's item for $50 a pop, but some have decided to take advantage of the almost disposable nature of the device to use them as a freebie release preview tool.

The Gossip, in preparation for their latest release, A Joyful Noise, distributed a number of free PlayButtons at various pubs around the south of England featuring an exclusive preview of a few tracks from the forthcoming album. It's an idea borrowed from such sites as BookCrossing and a nifty marketing gimmick. Will it catch on?