Record Labels as Branding

We record collectors think we're soooooooo special. Yep, we know all the cool bands before they're actually cool, we can tell you who produced the second Suicide album, why Enya is actually really cool, etc etc etc etc.
I have always known that my music habit has been the privilege of a consumer society, but the similarities between picking out the best record at Other Music and shopping for clothes at Macy's was almost shoved into my face while reading Chapter 7. In indie music culture branding is inescapable, and basically essential for a band's survival. Record labels are a symbol of cool, and when record buyers go into stores, in general they will search for the label as some sort of indicator as to whether or not they should purchase that record, tape, or CD. Collectors search out old records on labels by bands they may have never heard of just because they carry the seal of approval that the label connotes.
I have run out of time before class starts, so I'll post this now, but I'm going to come back to this after class and finish my ideas!