When you turn on MTV these days, you'd be lucky to find it playing music, let alone rock and roll music. Everyone seems to be into rap or hip hop, or electronic music. You just don't see guitars as much these days, and that's bad news for the Guitar Center. They may have been trading for over half a century and did very well when rock was 'in', but now it isn't, they're up against it. Their current debts sit at $900m, and sales dropped 36% in the ten years from 2005 to 2015.
Somehow, the firm managed to agree a refinancing deal for its debt and has responded to the drop in sales by opening new stores in what it considers to be better locations. It's a bold move, and we hope it works out for them. What they could really use is someone to make rock and roll cool again!
To insure one’s house, one’s car or to underwrite a life insurance policy, that is common practice. But who would pay an insurance premium for his/her thumb, legs or smile? Stars, of course.
At the top of the ranking are the legs of Mariah Carey, worth 810 million USD: The diva became, in 2006, the Gillette brand muse for the advertising campaign «Legs of a Goddess». She then took out an insurance policy with London Lloyds to protect her legs, a decision that is far from being insignificant. Among its customers, the London insurer then included several icons of music, such as Bob Dylan or Rod Stewart.
David Beckham’s body insured for 195 million USD: European champion with Manchester United in 1999, David Beckham was in 2006 the most renowned footballer of the planet. In relation to his sporting activities, he took out an insurance cover for his legs. The huge amount paid for his insurance would reportedly exceed the 103 million USD disbursed by Real Madrid for the cover of Christiano Ronaldo in 2009. The fashion model would later extend his insurance cover to his entire body.
15 million USD in insurance for Kim Kardashian’s curves: The curves of Kim Kardashian are her number one beauty asset. The reality TV star, who is crazy about plastic surgery, has underwritten an insurance policy worth 15 million USD to protect her famous butt.
The culinary critic Egon Ronay assured his taste buds: The famous Hungarian culinary critic has insured his taste buds since 1957, for the amount of 400 000 USD. An original insurance policy which allows him to cover his sense of taste without which he will no longer be able to practice his job.