PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN MUSIC, MUSIC IN ADVERTISING, AND SELLING OR GETTING SOLD

(yet another Top Ten List... brought to you by Anemic Royalty Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.)

Just recently, the latest Dell commercial began with the post-Brit invasion guitar licks and nasal whine of The Strange Boys, an awesome band from Austin Dallas, Texas and my first reaction was surprise.  Somebody at Dell has some goddamn taste!  My second reaction: happiness.  For someone had given the Sambol boys a check. 

This is a far cry from the reaction I had the first time I heard my favorite Beatles song used in a tennis shoe ad.  No, for these days, commercials, soundtracks, and ad campaigns are the new A&R.  Thanks to someone deep down in the pits of some marketing agency with excellent taste in music, we are able to find a Geico commercial more palatable, and in return, an indie band can get enough gas in their van to make it from Wilmington to Asheville.  (You didn't think they traveled the world solely by the sales at the merch table, did you?  The $5 cover at the door when only ten people showed up?)  While I don't have any feelings one way or the other regarding any of those companies, I do thank them for giving these bands exposure they otherwise would not get.

Not exactly the story back in the old days, with Rice Krispies, 7-Up, or Hoverround chairs for old-timers.

Soundtracks have the same effect.  What more is HBO's True Blood than a chance to watch sexy, naked vampires get it on while listening to kick-ass music?  As long as people can stand to keep watching Sons of Anarchy on FX, Scott H. Biram and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will keep getting recognition and hopefully some royalties.

I know what you are thinking.  Or perhaps, I should say I know what some of you are thinking.  And with all full disclosure, I am basing this assertion I had with an unnamed, dirty hippie-chick from a local band.  She took the position that these bands were selling out and had somehow compromised their music by accepting money from these corporate entities.  That somehow the message of the band that drove thousands of miles and played shitty bars for more than 45 weeks of the year to drunks (or inebriated die-hard fans, as I like to refer to myself) has altered because they took what basically amounts to "free money," if ever there were such a thing.

This same girl who lives on government handouts, her daddy's money, and produces records that, deep down inside, she hopes no one buys because she is truly "punk rock," chastises anyone who makes money honestly...

How different is this from the position Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys takes took?  In his will, he states that he bars the use of any and all of his work from ever appearing in advertising.   Is this the same man who likes to "rock my Adidas / never rock Fila?"  Not to sound grim -- and I grew up loving the Beastie Boys, despite them being New Yorkers -- but what if a Beastie Boys song helped promote awareness of stomach cancer?

It's not like anyone's had to change their brand or message by accepting these checks.  It's not like they've stooped to some nefarious corporation and are succumbing to their bidding all in the name of collecting some greenbacks.  While some ads have bordered on lack of taste, I can only imagine how life would have been if someone canned and marketed poke greens for Polk Salad, if a practicing physician were actually named Dr. Feelgood, or if Chuck Berry worked for the Memphis Visitors and Convention Bureau.  I myself have wondered why hospitals don't fight to name their infirmaries after St. James or why Dole or Chiquita never approached Billie Holliday for the rights of "Strange Fruit."

Indeed.

Selling out is a term used by junior high kids and hipster bands that never want to have an impact.  So be it.  I enjoy the fact that these bands are able to come to my neighborhood and that I can enjoy them live on my modest budget.  If I were a millionaire, I'd have them play my birthday party.  But I'm not, so I'll settle driving out to High Point next weekend to catch Wayne "The Train" in a shitty bar or up to Martin's Downtown in Roanoke for whatever they may stir up. 

So I promised a Top Ten list, didn't I?  Enough preaching...

TOP TEN SONGS FOR COMMERCIALIZATION

10.  "It Pays to Advertise" by The Farmer Boys

Oh hell yes it does.  While the two country kids from Arkansas faded into obscurity after a couple of high profile years with Capitol records, they knew two things: Fame can be fleeting and Girls Talk.  It wasn't a copyrighted product that Bobby Adamson and Woody Murray shilled in their 1955 bopping number, but rather their selves and their own sexuality. 

9. "Bitchin Camaro" by the Dead Milkmen

 How much can we say about cars in American culture?  Cars have shaped our culture, transforming us from strictly urban dwellers, to how we eat, to what time of year our television shows air.  Cars have been the number one advertisers since they competed with gasoline (which goes into cars) for spots on early TV.  Every brand seems to have an iconic song.  Ford gets some love from Reverend Horton Heat, Jaguar from the Who and Chuck Berry, and everybody who's anybody has sung about a Cadillac.  One of the sexiest cars, the Galaxie 500, gets some love from Drowning Lovers and Reverend Horton Heat.  Sam McGee does some old time with the Chevy and the Beach Boys broke free from the deuce coupe to sing about a two-wheeled Honda.  So with all of those, why on earth did I choose "Bitchin' Camaro," you ask?  Coin flip.

THE WORLD COVERS LEAD BELLY

It could be argued that Huddie Ledbetter, also known to the world as Lead Belly, was one of the most influential musicians of all time.  While his songs, at the time of his death, were not number one sellers or tearing up the R&B charts, his prolific songwriting covered several different scopes, topics, and genres, which made it very easy for artists to cover his songs for decades to follow. 

Lead Belly learned music by traveling throughout Texas with Blind Lemon Jefferson.  He could play mandolin, harmonica, piano, accordion, and violin but was most associated with the twelve-string guitar.  He went to jail twice for murder and both times was rumored to have been paroled by playing music for the governor or the warden.  He achieved fame by riding with Alan and John Lomax and, in those travels, worked to preserve early black music for all of history.

Without Lead Belly's life, we would not have the versions of the following songs:

Note: While I am fully aware that Lead Belly did not author or originally record all of the following songs, often I have found that his recording is the most popular.  If at any point someone feels that I am neglecting the original songwriter or recording artist, please feel free to submit a correction. 

 

"TAKE THIS HAMMER", covered by Big Bill Broonzy

Not only is this one of the greatest songs for quitting your job, but this work song has seen so many different versions that it is sometimes hard to follow its descendants.  Many versions, like Big Bill's, manages to stay true to the original.  However others have recorded it as "Nine Pound Hammer," "Take it to the Captain," and even Johnny Cash's "Tell Him I'm Gone."

"COTTON FIELDS," covered by The Beach Boys

This song gets a surprising amount of attention from non-Southerners, which is something I would like someone to explore.  Creedence Clearwater Revival can be forgiven of course, since they ripped their entire act from Dixie.  However Harry Belafonte, The Beach Boys, and the Irish punk/folk group The Pogues had as much fun with it as did Elvis, The Carter Sisters and Webb Pierce.