Re: Pop Songs In Commercials

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 04:42 PM 5/12/2003, Sid Schweiger wrote:
> >>This morning on WBZ, I heard two new commercials using Top 40 songs as 
> background.  Toyota is using "Get The Party Started" by Pink and GMC used 
> what sounded like a sound-alike remake of a Meatloaf tune.
>
>Artistic Integrity?  Nay Nay! Show Me The Money!<<
>
>Uh-huh.  Such indignation over nothing.  Since when is this a matter of 
>artistic integrity?  Did you protest as loudly when Microsoft and Ford 
>used "Start Me Up" by the Stones?  Are these musicians and writers not 
>entitled to make a living wherever they can?  Are we pretending this 
>hasn't been going on for decades?

Amen, Sid.

FWIW, this post reminds me of the diatribe Bill Watterson wrote in the 10th 
Anniversary Calvin & Hobbes collection.  I loved C&H and I liked the book 
for the commentary on the individual strips....but when Watterson got into 
his fight with the syndicate over merchandising rights I wished I could 
walk over to him and smack that smug self-righteous grin off his face.   I 
noticed that a lot of artists who get famous seem to forget that if you 
want artistic integrity, don't get famous.   Because you've already sold 
out from being syndicated or distributed in books or on your CD's or what 
have you.   The price you pay for fame is you don't get to have it all anymore.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA
"I'm just got a highly dense molecular constitution, that's all."