Do You Care When Bands Team Up With Brands?
SodaHead Music
2011/10/21 18:05:16
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241 votes
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"Selling out" has always been a bit of a controversial term. The implications are that any band willing to team up with a big brand to make some extra cash must be compromising their artistic value. But when we see brands like Dos Equis and Geico engaging with its audience in a fun and interesting way, it's harder to criticize artists for signing on. You don't see anyone lambasting Isaiah Mustafa for driving those Old Spice commercials because most people loved them.
Now, when product placement gets in the way of a good thing (think "I, Robot" with Will Smith), there's a good chance the public will notice. But even that's evolving. Take the first season of Zach Galifianakis' "Between Two Ferns," for example. Each episode features an interruption from Speed Stick, but because the show emphasizes awkwardness and irony, it works. Instead of annoying the audience, Galifianakis manages to integrate the brand into his show's narrative.
Music is going in the same direction. In the '70s, The Who poked fun at corporate branding with "The Who Sell Out," but when Kanye West sings praises to the "most high, Prada," he's not being sardonic and he's not just out there trying to sell something. He wears Prada, and it rhymed. Music and brands have become an integral part of our culture. Do you care if they mix?
Now, when product placement gets in the way of a good thing (think "I, Robot" with Will Smith), there's a good chance the public will notice. But even that's evolving. Take the first season of Zach Galifianakis' "Between Two Ferns," for example. Each episode features an interruption from Speed Stick, but because the show emphasizes awkwardness and irony, it works. Instead of annoying the audience, Galifianakis manages to integrate the brand into his show's narrative.
Music is going in the same direction. In the '70s, The Who poked fun at corporate branding with "The Who Sell Out," but when Kanye West sings praises to the "most high, Prada," he's not being sardonic and he's not just out there trying to sell something. He wears Prada, and it rhymed. Music and brands have become an integral part of our culture. Do you care if they mix?
Top Opinion
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Chris D 2011/10/21 19:01:38No
Its all selling out.
If you are writing a tune and need a cultural reference to make a point, fine. If you are mentioning a product to make a buck for you, the product's manufacturer, or both then it is selling out. You have changed your 'art' in order to make it a glorified Madison Avenue jingle.
Most advertizing is a LIE. They hardly ever deliver what they get you to think you may be getting.
It,...most of the time is physiologic smoke and mirrors.
It fits right up there with Politicians, News Media, and people like Joe Biden just to name a few.
This industry (Marketing) has over the year’s commited at the university level Bachelors, Master PHD degrees, in Economics and Marketing.
This now has encompassed intertainment, political interest, the internet that we pay for as well as TV.
TV advertizing has gotten so consuming it’s a wonder everyone doesn’t have a DVR.
And so it goes on and on to LIE to people, to get them to either buy some tangible object or but into an an ideal or invest in something or the other.
Marketing, Marketeers, Liars, and Thieves, on and on.
(uh.. sounds like the beginning of a Cher Bono song)
"Keep the masses on the path to consumerism...." Works for the purchases of the CDs, downloads, concert tees, hats, concert tickets, etc., doesn't it?
It doesn't change into something it wasn't the minute a band becomes main stream enough to have their names and faces help to be associated with another product. It's always been about people liking them, knowing who they are and wanting to buy their music and products. Period.
It's a business, not a religion people.
Even the notoriety the MJ got when his hair caught on fire in the Pepsi commercial filming.
Were it me, I do what didn't mess with my image and allowed me and my band more face time.
So if I'm heavy metal, at the hieght of my career and cool factor, I'm obviously not going to do a commerical for Peter Piper's Pizza or Trojans.
Now, if Jose Cuervo decided they were needing to sponsor my tour? Hmmm. Sure.
It's all in the way it's done.
Ozzy on a superbowl commercial last year, his whole Osborne's series thing, Ozzfest, his career is at the point where it works. His voice is shot, his brain is shot, he'd better capitalize somehow and Sharon is the genius behind that one. Geez, even Honda is in on it with the family spontaneously starting their own acapella version of Crazy Train on the road trip.
Music? Art? Books? They need to be marketed to reach an audience, but shouldn't - in my opinion - be sold like a can of beans. It is what is wrong with Clear Channel and the like: selling the artists and songs they control in the venues they own by playing them on the stations they own. They don't allow artists to make better art / entertainment. They manufacture a need for the crap by selling it to the public.
You may be okay with that. I am not. I'm not talking about a tour sponsor. You want to pay the band $1M so the only tequila served at venues it plays at is Jose Cuervo? Go right ahead. But if the band starts playing songs about Cuervo as Kanye mentions Prada? Yeah, then I start seeing the band differently.
When a band isn't mentioning a product because of a cultural reference, but because they are willing to lower their musical standards in order to push a product? They go from being respected artists to Madison Avenue Jingle writers in my book. It has nothing to do with mo...
Music? Art? Books? They need to be marketed to reach an audience, but shouldn't - in my opinion - be sold like a can of beans. It is what is wrong with Clear Channel and the like: selling the artists and songs they control in the venues they own by playing them on the stations they own. They don't allow artists to make better art / entertainment. They manufacture a need for the crap by selling it to the public.
You may be okay with that. I am not. I'm not talking about a tour sponsor. You want to pay the band $1M so the only tequila served at venues it plays at is Jose Cuervo? Go right ahead. But if the band starts playing songs about Cuervo as Kanye mentions Prada? Yeah, then I start seeing the band differently.
When a band isn't mentioning a product because of a cultural reference, but because they are willing to lower their musical standards in order to push a product? They go from being respected artists to Madison Avenue Jingle writers in my book. It has nothing to do with money. Good for them if they achieve fame and wealth. But I think it should be on musical and innovative talent, not on product placement.
You mention Ozzie as an example. I think its apt and a good one. He used to be taken seriously and was innovative. Now he, as you mentioned, is cashing in, selling out, and is a joke. I think other bands should realize that is the inevitable outcome if they choose to sell out as well.
Tom Kaulitz looks sexy in a Reebok ad!
Of course it's ok in some cases. Like Harley commercials, because most of the music I listen to and Harleys are parts of the same lifestyle. That's why this kind of commercial would be also reasonable.
They're still making their music, they just want some money.
Spinal Tap
KISS did it with Pepsi AND Dr Pepper, 10 years apart
Ronnie Dio radio spot for Budweiser (starts @ :15)