February 08, 2005

• Funny you should mention. Just watched "Grosse Point Blank" tonight, which sports the tune in its soundtrack. Hurried body carrying/burning, while the high school reunion goes on in the background. But aren't we used to this kind of irony? My home town produced the Guess Who, who went on to fame with their hit "American Woman". A big hit, incidentally, in the States. Who was the "American woman" in their song? The Statue of Liberty. They were singing about America. (I don't need your war machines. I don't need your ghetto scenes.)
• I rarely watch TV, and I think one of the benefits of that is my childhood memories (and all the good and bad) remain sacrosanct. The marketing bastards can blow me... they have pretty much ruined TV anyway and have made it to where we hardly ever watch it anymore.
• "[A] bastardization of the immutable 80's classic "99 red balloons"...The zeitgeist of my generation has been rendered trite and meaningless in the blink of an eye." Welcome to the club. It happened to mine (I was 15 in 1978) and the "'60s Generation" before it (you know, the original Beatles fans). And those who came musically of age in the decade or two before the '60s got their songs "bastardized" by Pat Boone and/or Lawrence Welk (though maybe not by being rendered into TV commercials; I'm not familiar enough with that to know). Have they done that to "War Pigs" yet? Maybe in a video game?
• The last time I was into TV was for "Twin Peaks". And that had to do with a girl I knew.
• One song they haven't taken away yet is "Christmas Time is Here" to "A Charlie Brown Christmas". My heart melts everytime I hear it. I'm sure a future ad exec is gestating in the womb of some bland suburban mom somewhere, thinking about one day merging this song with a commercial for rancid, hairy pork-scented air freshener. Until then my memories are safe.
• Thanks, Big Davey, I've actually considered whether I'm succumbing to "old man syndrome" at the young age of 36. Dammit... there's no escaping it.
• Only place I've seen/heard that one, AR, is in The Royal Tenenbaums -- and it's a lovely soundtrack and a worthy movie. Haven't seen it in ads, surprisingly. But THEN I remember: rights to the muppets has only recently been sold to Disney, and suddenly there's been a SPAT of advertising with them. You know, I never realized that it was MISSING -- the advertising, but of course, being so wildly popular, they would have been on everything if Henson had been about that. Those days are gone.
• I try not to get to get too het up about stuff like this - as been said by others a few times recently, I have enough angst going on elsewhere, but... Attn: United Airlines. You completely ruined Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue with your marketing/frequency and now you are doing it again. Stop. It. Right fooking now.
• I got over when BK used "I'll Melt With You" in their ads.
• Some artists have sold the publishing to their music and no longer control how it's used. John Fogerty for example, was livid when his "fortunate son" was used out of context on a patriotic jeans ad. But you cant just use a song without the permission of the copyright holder, so in the vast majority of cases the artist has willingly sold out. Personally, it has no effect whatsoever on my enjoyment of the song in its original context.
• gazing into space, glazed over eyes, minimum wage bookstore clerk working my way through college...i am startled aware. I am staring at the "x" on the cover of 'generation x'. the music? the muzak version of the beatles 'revolution'. sold.
• Ah, that english TV ad for digital radio using a bastardized version of Talking Head's 'Once in a Lifetime' really shook me up. So, I thought, this is the future, and we're living in it, right? Yeah, right. And there's ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky' on that Beetle convertible ad, with the young office drone finding a reason for existence when discovering that car rolling by... aaaargh... And btw, I snicker every time I hear Prodigy's 'Smack my Bitch Up' used as soundtrack in some lame action movie. It's become as clich
• It's not only older music that has that fate, either. It sends shivers up my spine every time I play The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" for someone and they're like "hey, it's the Volkswagon song!" It ruins it for so many potential electronica fans.
• There are some really bad examples of this out there. Led Zeppelin being used to sell cars, anyone? But the worst was when they used Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" to sell the car of the same name. Poor gal's dead and can't defend her reputation, even! But it's no surprise. Corporate capitalism has been co-opting all kinds of things that previously had little to do with profitmaking. Think of ads in schools. Think of 3Com Park, and the Staples Center. And so on.
• "I Want Candy" -- it's about sex. Fucking sex. Candy on the beach, there's nothing better But I like candy when it's wrapped in a sweater Some day soon I'll make you mine Then I'll have candy all the time. Anyone remember "I Want Pringles"? Abomination.
• Every time I see Iggy Pop used to shill for a florist I have to turn the TV off or leave the room. I suppose it's ironic in a way, but my irony/disgust settings just don't stretch that far.
• Hands down, the worst moment for me was "I Don't Want To Grow Up" by the Descendents being used to sell Ford trucks. ...because clearly they should have picked "Bikeage."
• One song they haven't taken away yet is "Christmas Time is Here" to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" I heard a horrible, horrible version of this very wonderful song this last christmas. OMFG, I don't know who it was, but they should be taken out not shot or anything, but given a good, swift kick in the ass.
• Not an advert, but my first ex and I were once persuaded to buy an album made by wannabe singers doing covers of popular pop songs. Most of the songs were bland, all right but nothing really good. Then came "Kiss From A Rose" (original by Seal, theme song in one of the Batman movies). We both sat there staring horrified at his CD player. It took him more than a minute to reach over and turn the thing off. I think we were in shock for at least five minutes after that. It was mind-blowingly bad. Everything about it was so wrong, from the arrangement, to the instruments, to the vocals (oh God the vocals!). We solemnly took the CD, case and all, to the rubbish bin and dumped it.
• Very few people knew or cared what "99 Red Balloons" was about at the time. It was all about the unique sound. People liked the damn German version. It was all about the sound. Unlike "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "99 Red Balloons" was a hit in spite of its lyrical content, not because of it. It was a hit for its sound and it is used now to evoke memories of that time and that sound.
• As everyone knows, Reagan wanted Springsteen's "Born in the USA" for his campaign song. I don't know whether Bruce turned him down, or if someone in the organization finally looked at a copy of the lyrics, but I don't think they ended up using it. Politicians today are lucky to have folks like Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith, I'll tell you that.
• God, I cringe everytime I hear "Lust for Life" nowadays. I think it might be in every other commercial currently on the air. I'm also getting irked at Clapton for the SBC ads, but then I have to remind myself that he was selling beer back in the '80s. The day his "After Midnight" spot aired, he actually went into rehab for alcoholism, IIRC.
• The Charlie Brown Christmas song was used brilliantly in an episode of Arrested Development (that wasn't even a Christmas ep, I don't think). That didn't *feel* like a sell out. Rather, a good use of a good song.
• I don't care for my generation's zeitgeist (didn't at the time, either - never been fond of flannel), but I've had moments like that. Except that I'm enough of a cynic/realist to know that pop music is product as well as craft. It always was. It's not so much that the artist's holy integrity is bruised as that my associations with the song are bruised. "I listened to that song a hundred times when I was 17, and now it's being used to hawk printers. Lovely." It's a personal level, in my opinion. I still cringe, though. Can't help that. The Cure, the Smiths, and Depeche Mode (all in my top ten, yes, I have bad taste) have all turned up in ads, and U2 used "Bad" in some horridly tacky "NFL players are gods among men" type promo. Call 'em sellouts, sure, but "Bad"?! Augh. Crush this sentimental fangirl's little heart, why don't you. Let's see, heroin overdose... multimillion-dollar contract. Heroin overdose... sure, same thing!
• oh come on, a song about kicking a heroin habit used for a luxury cruise line? what's not to love? hearing the Clash used in ads has been jarring. In Iggy's case he sold the rights of the song (and is not ashamed). I don't know about the others... didn't Michael Jackson hold the rights to the Beatles songbook?
• Ah, Beatles. "Come Together" was bastardized in some sort of HP home computer ad (I believe it was) a few years ago.
• A good song is always a good song. Even if I hear one of my favourites on a commercial, it's a little bit of serendipity because I get to hear a good song when I thought I was just watching TV. Integrity has nothing to do with it, and the outrage is all in your head.
• Not mine. I keep my outrage in my collection of Precious Moments figurines.
• I loved it when the raisins danced to "Heard It Through the Grapvine". This the only example I have where the song was improved by a commercial.
• The song was improved? Really? Sounded pretty much like the same song to me.
• It was when I heard "Just Like Heaven" playing as the muzak in an Old Country Buffet that I resigned myself to the death of music.
• MCT - that's the funniest thing I've read all day.
• My favorite commentary on selling out is this one, which I find myself linking to in one way or another about every six months.
• Alex Reynolds: One song they haven't taken away yet is "Christmas Time is Here" to "A Charlie Brown Christmas". My heart melts everytime I hear it. Hmm. Of course there's the teeny problem that the whole show was basically a long commercial for Coca-Cola, an association that was only erased to serve the cause of yet more commercial exploitation:

  Unless you've watched A Charlie Brown Christmas from the get-go, you haven't seen the whole show. Coca-Cola, its first sponsor, had left its mark—or rather its logo, which appeared several times. For instance, in the skating scene, Snoopy throws Linus from the rink into a Coca-Cola sign (did you ever wonder where Linus lands?). Later sponsors objected, and the frames were edited out.

  A cynic might say that your heart has been melting to the strains of an ad jingle all this time. An optimist might say that the human spirit can invent pure and noble memories in spite of one's sordid surroundings.
• Cali: Excellent link!
• The first time I saw this JC Penny ad I had the sound off and noticed it but didn't really pay much attention to it. Then it came on again later and I heard 99 Red Balloons and was soooo disappointed. I mean, JC Penny for Christ sake! I could maybe handle it if it were for The Gap or something, but JC Cheesey Penny?
• I used this song(99 red balloons) for a presentation for psychology class about music and how it's percieved. Out of a quick poll of 30 peers, I found that all 30 of them have heard some sort of cover of this song, but only 3 have of them knew the original song was in german, and 15 of them thoguht it was drug related(red balloons = red pills?) Just interesting how a catchy jingle must imply a good thought. anyways.....That song has to be one of the most covered songs of all time..... a good site keeps track of them all. if I were nena, i'd be pissed.
• Heroin comes in balloons, Maverick.
• "Loving rock 'n' roll doesn't make you a rebel, it just makes you a consumer." (Abbie Hoffman) Maybe he was wrong, but I read that when I was maybe twelve, and it banished any romantic notions I might have had about this.
• Hey, Rorschach - give Saskatoon a big hello for us monkeys. I like the Guess Who, and despite being a USian, I do get the bitter irony of American Woman. Anyway, we need more Canadian music I think. You guys produce some talented folks. (You can keep Rush, though. Just my opinion.) I'm guessing that the problem with the Guess Who song is that, like many Canadians, they were simply too polite to come out and say "Hey, America: Fuck You!" so they did it in a less obvious and overtly pissy way. If it was a US band returning the favor I doubt many Canadians would miss the less-than-subtle message. We don't seem to be good at making a point with quiet dignity (like the British) or even bitter yet carefully controlled rage (as the Guess Who did). As for the thread... My friends and I keep going over this ourselves. "Lust for life" isn't about cruises, it's about heroin addiction, for fuck's sake. Don't these advertising bastards care about musical integrity? It makes me mad when I hear kids associating the songs that mean something to me with a product. The problem is that they aren't marketing these things to those kids, they're marketing them to us - banking on our good memories of song X to be subconsciously associated with brand Y. It's a proven fact that humans can quickly and quite effectively tune out an ad jingle, yet a popular song in which we have already invested some sort of emotion and memory is much harder to ignore. It pisses us off, but it works, doesn't it? When I hear a Zeppelin guitar riff I still pause and look up, even though I know it's going to be a Cadillac commercial. "Baba O'Reilly" I can't tune out, even as my rage seethes to see it used as a theme song for CSI. It just gets worse, too. Imagine what will happen to the Dylan back catalog once he's gone... "Masters of War" in an "Army of One" campaign, perhaps? Someone on Madison Ave. would have to be shot, I think, if it ever went that far. In some twisted sense it's our own fault for liking that music, and for getting old enough to become consumers. I predict within ten years we will hear a bunch of people loudly bemoaning the failure of society because some company will be using Nirvana to sell life insurance or laundry soap...
• In some twisted sense it's our own fault for liking that music, and for getting old enough to become consumers. I'd say not so much that, but for taking it so seriously, or considering this music inviolate in some mystical way. I can sympathize in some way, being the sort who listens to music alone more often than in clubs/concerts, but somewhere out there, there's always someone I can't stand who loves the same music I do. Someone who is reminded of something horrible by a song I love. Separate memory or association from the trigger and this problem isn't so bad. I predict within ten years we will hear a bunch of people loudly bemoaning the failure of society because some company will be using Nirvana to sell life insurance or laundry soap... That's my generation, and I look forward to that day with great schadenfreude-spiked glee. (Perhaps not Nirvana because of the giant death cult that surrounds it, but something of that ilk.) It's great to hear people my age or younger bitch about how horrid "old" music is, not realizing that their favorite band is going to be on oldies stations and in tacky commercials in another 20 years. Oh, no, we're young, we're infinite, we're immortal, we're better than everyone else. We're never going to change or get old or become cheesy. And the jingle played on.
• funny, there's a lot of chatter in here about "christmastime is here"....the song i remember the most from the charlie brown christmas special is this one
• This is off-topic, but is rock & roll dying out? I mean honest to God, is there such thing as just plain ol' rock & roll anymore? Not metal or industrial or any overwrought, posturing bands like Creed. I mean just straightforward, blue collar rock and roll that doesn't abandon melody for screaming. Yeah, I know, vague definitions.
• mct: The only band like that getting any airplay at all is Jet.
• Oh, no, we're young, we're infinite, we're immortal, we're better than everyone else. I felt the weight of all those years plummet onto my shoulders one day, while wandering in a supermarket aisle, as the in-store muzak version of some 80's song chimed on... and I absentmindedly began to whistle it... "oh, wow! toilet paper is 8% off..!"
• rocket: I'd argue that all the "garage scene" and related bands are pretty straight ahead rock and roll. The Vines, The Hives, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Mooney Suzuki. Plus, I freaking love the Hellacopters. But all that's maybe more hard rock than what mct is thinking about, which I'm imagining is more along the lines of Creedence Clearwater Revival.
• No, hard's fine. Hard's great, in fact. And I dig the Stripes. (I also love the stuff Jack White did on the Cold Mountain soundtrack, btw). It can be hard, there just has to be some actual music to it. But I don't have cable (and I've given up on MTV, anyway) and I don't really listen to the radio much anymore, and 95% of what radio I do hear is hip-hop, r&b, and teen pop. Seems like r&r's been in the back seat for a long time.
• Ugh. Please ignore the preceding syntactical atrocity.
• Find out when Little Steven's Underground Garage is on your local radio. It's worth a listen if you like real garage rock & roll from all eras.
• 6 am Sunday morning. Now THAT'S rock and roll, baby.
• You can listen to past shows on the website (I don't know what the sound quality is)
• MonkeyFilter: We're never going to change or get old or become cheesy.
• Fuckin' A right, BlueHorse. Now stand back!
• I have less of a problem with the cover of the "99 Luftballons" then I do with it's tie in to Valetine's Day. Makes me wonder what the advertising genius had in mind when he decided to use a song about accidental nuclear holocaust with anti-American undertones to promote one of the U.S.'s oldest department chains for a day about love. Maybe for Christmas they can use Harry Chapin's "The Shortest Story".
• I think I've heard a loop for this song is used to sell sandwich bags and hair dye.
• I'm just glad that Johnny Cash's family refused to allow the use of "Ring of Fire" in a Preparation H commercial.
• Ooga_booga: You made me laugh till I popped a hemorrhoid!