Has It Come To This?

June 10, 2001 2:09 AM

Has It Come To This? There's a certain symmetry in the commercialization of the commercialization of music and yet I can't quite get over this.
posted by willnot (48 comments total)

Like the Now That's What I Call Music albums, this has been going on for a very long time in the UK (usually classical pieces used in commercials though - I've seen such albums from the 70s).

I suppose that it was given a fillip by the identification of source records and brand that followed the Levis 501 campaign in the mid-80s (beginning with Marvin Gaye's I Heard It Throught the Grapevine).

It also went the other way with tracks such as Perez Prado's Guaglione becoming huge hits on the back of adverts (Guinness in that case).

If I'm surprised at anything, it's that your surprised.
posted by Grangousier at 2:40 AM on June 10, 2001

The commercialization of the world (lefties call it comdification) is triumph of capitalism asserting its victory over both communism and democracy. You can grind your teeth about it (and your dentist will sell you a mouth guard) or justsmile and rise above it (you will be sold biofeedback tension reliever)...and whistle a ditty as you go your merry way.
posted by Postroad at 4:20 AM on June 10, 2001

If it had that "let me call you sweetheart" song from the sony commercial, I'd buy it.

Anyone know what that song is?! I can't find it ANYWHERE! Is it just something that was made up?

It's so damn funny.. for those who haven't seen it, this guy is preparing a nice dinner for his girlfriend, and inserts a CD or Minidisc (I forget which) called "Love Mix"...

She sits down to eat, and it's this crazy metal song with this person growling "let me call you sweeetheaaart.. I'm in looooove with youuuuuuu"...

It's damn funny, and I'd love to know where that song is from :-)
posted by twiggy at 5:06 AM on June 10, 2001

I've never forgiven Moby for selling every single song on PLAY to Madison Avenue.

Even scarier, Amazon told me that I would love this CD. Why? Because I bought the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.

Great profiling, Amazon.
posted by crunchland at 6:01 AM on June 10, 2001

> Anyone know what that song is?!

I have not seen the commercial. Is it a modern version of the old Whitson and Friedman standard from 1910?

(By the way, here is a song that actually rhymes June, moon, and spoon.)
posted by pracowity at 6:46 AM on June 10, 2001

On a similar note, does anyone know anything at all about the Mitsubishi radio commercials that have been airing for the last two months that feature a very gruff-sounding salesman? I would purchase the audio clips of them if they were available, but I'd settle for a website with the transcripts. Anyone?
posted by davidmsc at 7:16 AM on June 10, 2001

If it had that "let me call you sweetheart" song from the Sony commercial, I'd buy it.

Anyone know what that song is?! I can't find it ANYWHERE! Is it just something that was made up?

The song is made up for the Phillips cd burn and play three disc changer.

"...There is no imoticon for what I'm feeling right now..."

--- The Simpsons.
posted by Rastafari at 7:49 AM on June 10, 2001

Is there such a thing as being too cynical for one's own good? That commercial musical recordings would be licensed for commercial advertising videos and then reliscensed for a commerical music recording strikes me as the Great Circle of (Commercial) Life - and not at all surprising. Sometimes, we forget that it is not we who will decide what the Great Music of the 20th Century was; generations to come will make that call and wouldn't we be surprised to discover that what was "popular" or "commerical" may yet have no lasting value whatsoever. I like some of this music, some of it a great deal, but let's try to bear in mind that this is hardly the same sort of thing as, say, showing the Mona Lisa with a Virginia Slims wedged between her teeth...
posted by m.polo at 8:34 AM on June 10, 2001

Newbury Comics in Massachussetts used to offer a dozen CDs each week that you were "guaranteed to love" -- if you bought one you could return it for a refund no questions asked, even if you'd opened it. I was thinking it would be nice if Amazon would stand behind its ratings engine with a policy like that one.
posted by sudama at 8:40 AM on June 10, 2001

If this compilation will introduce more people to The Cult and Nick Drake, that is a good thing.
posted by bargle at 8:51 AM on June 10, 2001

The most adventurous, eclectic mix of music in the mainstream media is in the commercials, and not in the content.

MTV, VH-1, and mainstream radio outlets would never venture to play Badly Drawn Boy, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Red House Painters, and Nick Drake.
posted by waxpancake at 8:56 AM on June 10, 2001

Agreed. Not to mention Stereolab, Tosca, K&D, Underworld and many others.

Or even Moby for that matter, before he sold his entire catalog.
posted by sauril at 9:05 AM on June 10, 2001

I stopped thinking of commercially released music as anything other than Just Another Commodity quite some time ago. They use Iggy Pop to sell crap, fine.

Besides, you must admit that's a pretty good mix of tunes.
posted by dong_resin at 9:13 AM on June 10, 2001

Sad but true: if you want a break, and you're making unconventional music, get on a commercial, because MTV ain't gonna help you.

Though it's particularly galling that Nick Drake's music lines the coffers of people who were in nappies when he died his quiet death.

There are a few sites, though, (such as http://www.personal.u-net.com/~westwood/ads/ads.htm, which strangely doesn't work as a link) that identify the music used in commercials, so that you don't have to buy compilations like these which, without a doubt, will embarrass you if a friend or prospective partner finds them in the CD rack.
posted by holgate at 9:32 AM on June 10, 2001

Westwood thing

UK adverts only?
posted by Grangousier at 9:43 AM on June 10, 2001

I've never forgiven Moby for selling every single song on PLAY to Madison Avenue.

That's how Moby got his start. He was an unknown until someone on Madison Avenue heard him and started buying his songs. His songs have graced commercials and TV shows and movies for years and years before he got a record deal. You can't blame him for selling songs to ad agencies when the record companies were obviously not helping him much.

Another group like that is Air, which is an excellent European techno group. I think Delerium is selling some of thier songs now, especially to movies. It's just another market...

And for those of you who are complaning about capitalism and crass commercialization, well, either ignore it or come up with something better. Something better that WORKS.

I'm going to go eat my Kellogs Rice Krispies and Minute-Maid Orange Juice and read the advertising section of my sunday paper now...
posted by SpecialK at 9:44 AM on June 10, 2001

The most adventurous, eclectic mix of music in the mainstream media is in the commercials, and not in the content.

Yes -- you hit the nail smack on the head with that one...

The sad reality is that under the current rules of the music biz, artists are always the last people who ever see a dime from their work... if in fact they EVER see a dime. Iggy Pop, The Cramps, (the estate of) Nick Drake, and the others non-Britney's mentioned here have probably made more money for lending their music to ads than they ever made by selling records. I have a far bigger problem with MLK's "I Have A Dream" speech being used to sell cell phones, or whatever it was they had him shilling a couple of months ago.
posted by spilon at 9:55 AM on June 10, 2001

Tosca is Dorfmeister... Conspiracy!!! Dig into some Peace Orchestra too, just to even things out.

MTV (not MTV2) introduced me to Bjork, Aphex Twin, Jurassic 5, Black Eyed Peas, Portishead, Air... So I took the ball and ran with it. Some people do not care about music. Let 'em.

Rastafari: it's PHILIPS... only one L, but apparently still bold. narf.

twiggy: i think whoever put the ad together produced the song you're looking for in house or whatever. You'll recognize Gomez's "Getting Better", though.

I also like J Ralph's "One Million Miles Away" from the new Jetta wedding commercial... Nikka Costa's "Like A Feather" from that Tommy spot, Nicola Conte's "Bossa Per Due"... commercials are crawling with fun stuff... and don't you dare forget Thievery Corporation... bringing back Les Baxter with "Tropicando"... thank you Dockers. Why doesn't everybody listen to Thievery?

Some people are too hip for their own good. You might feel like shaking those spiffy little horn rims off their pouty little faces, but a smile and a wink will get you much farther. Healthy apathy for all, and to all a good flight.
posted by techgnollogic at 10:00 AM on June 10, 2001

This would be a fine collection if "Mr. Roboto" were not on it. Anyone remember the Onion piece in which ASCAP warned it was running out of songs for sampling -- that actually, it had only two left? One was "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and the other "Mr. Roboto." Even Puff Daddy, the article said, did not want to touch "Mr. Roboto." I laughed about that one for days on end.

Goodness, that song's not even good as camp. There's a whole wasted, supposedly hard-earned dollar. Try BearShare or LimeWire instead for any song here.
posted by raysmj at 10:16 AM on June 10, 2001

I'd be too kind to point people out to this previously MeFied discussion that offers some parallels.

I recently heard Moby's philosophy on all of his music, and it's certainly interesting; his intent was to get it out to the largest possible audience and, arguably, TV commercials are the way to do that. In that case, I think it's rather smart. Is it also sad? Yes, because there is no other vehicle available for the artist who wants exposure and doesn't want to deal with corporate crapola.

I'm constantly reminded of the future world of 12 Monkeys, in which commercials are music.
posted by hijinx at 10:34 AM on June 10, 2001

Something else about Moby ... I saw him interviewed somewhere (VH1? MTV?) about being a "sell-out." He said that in addition to it being a way to get himself heard, he thought (paraphrasing here), "Well, if I get $250k to use one of my songs in a car commercial, I can then turn around and give that money to environmental groups ... so it's all good." He also knew that if he didn't agree to a song's usage, the company would just get someone to do a sound-alike knock-off of it.

Little trivia fact for you: the tracks off "Play" have been used in more commercials than any other album in history. Something like 800 ads.
posted by shauna at 10:57 AM on June 10, 2001

It's arguable that today, to make a song a success, you have to make a commercial out of it: not necessarily by selling the rights to a corporation and an ad agency, but by wrapping it in the kind of marketing trimmings -- the flashy video, promotional materials, TV specials -- that turn a song or an album into a product advertised by itself.

My odd Moby memory: I saw the Nordstrom commercial with "Porcelain", and knew instinctively that the track was by Moby, without having heard the album. Talk about mental penetration.
posted by holgate at 11:01 AM on June 10, 2001

I'm constantly reminded of the future world of 12 Monkeys, in which commercials are music.

I think you probably mean Demolition Man.

Back to the topic... way back in the '80s, Vangelis had an album out with a large sticker on the front that said "Includes the song from the wine commercial." (The track featured in the spots for Gallo wine was "Hymne" from Opera Sauvage.) So this use of commercials to promote music is hardly new.
posted by kindall at 11:42 AM on June 10, 2001

I like some of this music, some of it a great deal, but let's try to bear in mind that this is hardly the same sort of thing as, say, showing the Mona Lisa with a Virginia Slims wedged between her teeth...
posted by m.polo

Sure, and the Mona Lisa has *never* been used out of context or cheapened over the years by misuse.

The song is not on this collection, and it's also not very old and it's jazz-influenced. Still, if you want to argue that things classified more as higher art wouldn't get this sort of treatment, try "Rhapsody in Blue," which has long since become "The Theme from United Airlines" in many minds. I can't listen to the ending in quite the same way anymore, and it'll probably never sound the same. To some extent, does it matter *how* the music is used in an ad? Having the song too tightly connected to an ad can ruin the effect of the song. It matters not whether it's commercial music or not, to me. I just hate having a song I like too closely associated with one company or product. Ruins its effect and appeal. I fail to see why this should be considered knee-jerk or overly romantic or whatever.

holgate: To some extent, all of the biggest pop hits have been advertisements for themselves. Take the entire greatest hits collection of Sly and the Family Stone. That's always my favorite example, but I still love the album. (And yes, the songs sometimes subvert their very catchiness with dark lyrics or wry twists, but that's a commentary on the catchiness. That "Hot Fun in the Summertime" was released amidst riots makes it no less catchy.)
posted by raysmj at 11:43 AM on June 10, 2001

I'd be interested to know exactly how many environmental groups have benefitted from dear Moby's greed and avarice.
posted by crunchland at 12:29 PM on June 10, 2001

I don't even like Moby, but how do you know so much about him, crunchland? I saw his place on MTV's Cribs and unless that was his temporary my-ubermansion's-being-fumigated-for-chickenheads home, he ain't bling-blingin' it too bad... he preaches enough about jungles and soy in his liner notes that all those big bucks must be going to something endangered or deforested.
posted by techgnollogic at 12:40 PM on June 10, 2001

kindall: Yep, it was Demolition Man which, of course, was a far superior movie to 12 Monkeys... on the same planet which features the World Champion Chicago Cubs. Thanks for the factcheck.

raysmj: I just hate having a song I like too closely associated with one company or product.

Curious, what do you think of music videos that overpower songs?
posted by hijinx at 12:42 PM on June 10, 2001

hijunx: Bothers me, but not quite as much. It's still associated with the artist or performer, who in many cases is required to do the thing. It's not associated with one product or company, except the product being sold, which is a recording. It's still cheesy, but further down the cheesy scale. If it's all image, I think people figure it out soon enough, or enough people do anyway, or Duran Duran and Garth Brooks would still be bigger than Elvis, as it were. (Not like Elvis had no imagery that at times overpowered his music, except for the Sun Sessions and "Suspicious Minds," and that whole Memphis record, etc., but even in the latter case there's always the leather suit with the fabulous lil' scarf that's associated with the same period.) It's a complicated thing, this image overpowering all musical worthiness question. Sorta like porn. You know it when you see it -- or see it and then hear it, or what have you, in the case of music.
posted by raysmj at 1:47 PM on June 10, 2001

The trick, of course, is to make music that people like, but that they can't play on TV.

The alternative? People find ways to support artists well enough that they aren't compelled to license.
posted by Twang at 2:53 PM on June 10, 2001

It's official: in every trailer for a John Cusack movie, you must use a song from U2.
posted by ColdChef at 3:12 PM on June 10, 2001

Un-italicizing. Sorry, everybody.
posted by tweebiscuit at 3:56 PM on June 10, 2001

The Nick Drake song was used in such a way that it was in some respects incendental, but a tribute to the artist all the same. It's no different than a zillion movie folks using music to set a certain tone, or whatnot. It's when the music is used as a sort of logo or slogan for the company or product -- as with the United Airlines "Rhapsody in Blue" commercials or the one with "Come Together" -- that you have an extreme problem, in my opinion, regardless of issues of high v. low or commercial art.

Otherwise, the worst that can happen is that a song will lose its effect over time, much in the same way that "heavy rotation" on by-satellite stations (sans DJs) can kill a great pop song today, or at least spoil the song for a couple of years. If people keep calling Drake's song "the Volkswagen" song over the years, you have a problem, but not as a great a problem as the logo/slogan thing, for you know what people mean. And VW is reinforcing a "cool" perception that was already there, a perception that developed in a rather organic fashion, for lack of a better word.
posted by raysmj at 4:07 PM on June 10, 2001

Re the "art v. commercial crap" thing: I read an interview with Randy Newman a few years ago in which he said he'd sell one of his okey-dokey songs in a heartbeat but not, say, "Sail Away." For one thing, the latter is a darkly comic take on the Middle Passage and its aftereffects, so a stable and decent human wouldn't want it used in, say, a Caribbean cruise liner ad. But I believe Newman did allow "I Want to See You Smile" in a Crest ad, or some toothpaste. That was pretty much crap to begin with, a made-to-order movie song, so I don't blame him.
posted by raysmj at 5:28 PM on June 10, 2001

The trick, of course, is to make music that people like, but that they can't play on TV.

That more or less means not making music. Almost anything can be used in a TV spot. Virtually all songs have intros, breaks, and bridges that can be welded together to get rid of any objectionable lyrics for a 30-second period or to make aural space for a voiceover. Yeah, you could make a song that didn't have these things, but nobody would like it.
posted by kindall at 6:54 PM on June 10, 2001

I find it amusing that the "customers who bought this also bought...." section includes Radiohead, who are one of the most blatant "anti-commercialism" bands around.

And there is one kind of trip-hop, almost Macy Gray'ish song in a ?silvertabs? commercial that I have always wanted to get a hold of, but cant figure out who it is.... anyone know? Its got a real catchy bass line and guitar riff, I believe. Funky, sorta.

But, you know, to be in advertising, you gotta be kinda hip anyway, and on top of the underground (or at least the "underground" that has that "underground" non-pure-pop trendiness.... I mean, I'm in the field, doing art-direction and copywriting, and damn, and I consider myself to have a pretty good taste in music/culture(can't stop the shining) ;-)... so why not bring the music to the ads? Would you rather some Britney or some N'Sync? We hear enough of that allready.
posted by Espoo2 at 11:49 PM on June 10, 2001

It should be mentioned, however pathetic it might be, that some people, ME for example, are introduced to artists from commercials. My enjoyment of opera began with hearing it in commercials.
posted by ParisParamus at 4:39 AM on June 11, 2001

did you know that moby is the only artist featured on 'cribs' to have books in his house?
posted by maura at 6:46 AM on June 11, 2001

Espoo2: Gee, I haven't seen Britney in any advertising lately.
posted by raysmj at 9:25 AM on June 11, 2001

God damn Badly Drawn Boy for selling out. It makes me want to go out and buy the edgy new Vitamin C album. I could just spit.
posted by Skot at 9:48 AM on June 11, 2001

To answer an earlier question, I knew Moby back in the early 80's. We went to the same high school. He graduated 2 years after me. We were both AV geeks. The guy I knew was not the charitable vegetarian saint you see today. On the other hand, I'm not (or at least I hope I'm not) the same person I was 20 years ago, either.

As much as I am annoyed that Moby and whomever else sells their music to advertisers, I have to honestly admit that given half the chance, I'd give my eyeteeth to have to make the same decision, and I'd probably do exactly the same.

The ability to sell records today is no indication about what you'll be able to sell in 5, 10, 20 years down the road. And while it may sully their monastic artistic integrity, none of us are saints... well, except maybe for Jason Kottke and Matt Haughey.... I heard the Vatican has already started beatification on both of them.
posted by crunchland at 10:22 AM on June 11, 2001

But dammit, you have to give props to a guy who imports a refrigerator from Denmark because it's the most environmentally sound refrigerator made on the planet. Plus he's a Mac user and a Simpsons fan. Give Moby a break.
posted by Dreama at 10:30 AM on June 11, 2001

you have to give props to a guy who imports a refrigerator from Denmark because it's the most environmentally sound refrigerator made on the planet.

Yeah, I wonder how much extra pollution he unleashed into the atmosphere getting his special fridge shipped to him from halfway around the world.
posted by kindall at 10:40 AM on June 11, 2001

raysmj: Oh yeah, guess I forgot about that one..... Well, my point is that the more GOOD music is promoted over BAD music being promoted, the better, whatever the vehicle may be... And if using Moby songs ween's (hey, how about some Ween in a commercial?) people off of the thought that music ABSOLUTELY MUST contain words/lyrics/guitars to be good, then more power to 'em.
posted by Espoo2 at 9:15 PM on June 11, 2001

Espoo2:

i'm almost certain you're talking aboud Nikka Costa's "Like A Feather" that i mentioned earlier, from a Tommy Jeans add...
posted by techgnollogic at 3:36 AM on June 12, 2001

Who thinks that music ABSOLUTELY MUST contain words/lyrics/guitars to be good?
posted by rodii at 7:50 AM on June 12, 2001

Who thinks that music ABSOLUTELY MUST contain words/lyrics/guitars to be good?

A lot of people, actually. "Good music" is music you can sing along to in your car.

I used to make instrumental music using a MIDI rig I built, kind of a Tangerine Dream/Alan Parsons cross. A good half of the people I played my tunes for said, "Cool, when are you going to finish it?" By "finish it," they meant adding lyrics. Apparently it's taking the lazy way out to not do so...
posted by kindall at 9:17 AM on June 12, 2001

I'm sure that Beethoven, Bach, and scores of other composers, would have trouble agreeing with your philistine friends.
posted by crunchland at 10:46 AM on June 12, 2001