November 1, 2000

I've been watching too much TV as of late. So much so that I'm starting to recognize trends in television advertising.

One thing that I've noticed, which may be old news to you, is that many TV advertisements use background music that has been specially created to mimic a soundscape already made popular by a commercial artist.

For example, an ad for T-Fal frying pans uses a dance soundtrack with a woman wailing the blues over top of it. And I thought, this sounds like Moby.

And there was another ad - for Special K breakfast cereal - that also had a dance beat in the background with a barely audible voice singing "I'm a star. I'm a star" over and over on top of it. And I thought, this sounds like a bad Fatboy Slim's Rockafeller Skank.

Now if I recognize a new anything three times in a given period, I call it a phenomenon. The clincher was a particular segment from an interview with the lead singer of Radiohead that I heard on the CBC. Thom Yorke was complaining how his songs have been exploited as numerous car companies and the like have been using Radiohead-ish sounds - tweaked just enough to get out of asking permission and paying royalties - in numerous television commercials. His songs are very personal to him and so to him such acts are reprehensible. 

As are many other acts of commercialism. In fact, I understand that the interview with the CBC came with the condition that Yorke would be interviewed by the author of No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies by Naomi Klein


 
email
home
archive
maglog
radio
viridian
links
aboutme
mail
home
 archive
maglog
radio
viridian
links
aboutme