Recently Vodafone has been airing an advertisement for their new Vodafone world - a world of limitless oportunities, where the sun shines and dogs catch frisbies and lovers stroll hand in hand. The soundtrack is a soundbite of the song 1970's "Another Girl, Another Planet" by the only ones. I adore this song, and have personal conotations with it. But I now have a horrible sense of commercial product identity when I play Another Girl, Another Planet at home. Instead of the memories and ideas that the song conjures up, Vodafones slogan "Make the most of now!" springs into my head. Basically, the ad has nearly ruined the song for me. Interestingly, the optimistic ad concerns idealistic worlds that YOU can create with vodafone. Some of the (depressing?lyrics of the song are
I always flirt with death
I could kill, but I don't care about it
I can face your threats Stand up tall and scream and shout about it
I think I'm on another world with you
I'm on another planet with you
In the uk, the song is the on hold music when users call up to discuss their plan/account information.
My point is, is that big compaines have now made claims on songs.
Some examples:
*Beach Boys Wouldn't it be nice is now linked to a chocolate world where chocolate people buy Cadbury chocolate.
*Glam rock apparantly is all about meat. T-Rex's We love to boogie now promotes new zealand beef
*The exponants - Why does love do this to me has been on recent Air New Zealand commercials
*New Radicals - You've got the music in you - Every car company ever to have made cars anywhere in the world
*Jose Gonzalez's cover of Heartbeats - the add with the bouncy balls was used in a sony commercial
*And most recently Regina Spektor's fidelity has been used in Yahoo Xtra commercials.
How much must artists receive in order to give intellectual connotation property of their songs to big companies/conglomerates. And is it a good or bad thing? The good side of course, is that more people can hear musicians/songs. But the bad side, is the song will (arguably) always be attatched to a product. The song can easily be killed. The artist can be seen as "selling out". Overlyprecious fans (ie. me?) are likely to feel cheated that an artist who they've held with much respect concerning their lack of selling out. Although, in saying that, I'll always love The Only Ones, and I'll Always love the song. And it brings back good memories of my past each time the advertisement comes on. But it's definately made me think all about advertising and music. It can be quite interesting to watch tv and see if you recognise songs.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I'm surprised that a company would want to associate itself with a particular song (and therefore a particular image) so closely. In the case of Vodafone, i've had to call them a LOT recently (to my eternal regret ... I don't get those precious minutes of my life back again *sob*), and the hold music has been driving me mad ... I just hate it (sorry about that). It doesn't make me associate positively with Vodafone ... so why would they take the risk?
And also, did I mention I hate it?! Arggghhhhhh!
Post a Comment