Before I start, let me just say that for some reason, Blogger won't let me post pictures right now... it's freaking me out, because I fear they may be in league with eBay. You put up one picture of a Kawasaki Viper...
Anyway, Ben and I just got back from dinner, where we were having a very interesting conversation ("I love you more." "No, I love you more!") about what makes an artist a sell-out. It all began when I noted that I don't like the Black Eyed Peas, not because I don't like their music, but that it bothers me that they sell the rights to their music-- and even their image-- to appear in so many ads. In fact, my mom likes their song that appears in the Best Buy ads so much that she downloaded the song from iTunes-- and at the end of the song, will.i.am blurts out something to the effect of "Go iTunes!", which, in my mind, is just a sell-out piled on a sell-out.
Ben asked me, then, why it didn't bother me that athletes like LeBron James, who I like very much, appear in ads. I wasn't quite sure how to answer, since it really should bother me, but I figured that
a) Some athletes don't get the nation-wide exposure of a band that releases an album that receives wide radio-play (for instance, I would have no idea who Yao Ming was if he did not appear in ads)
b) Athletes are not artists, in the traditional sense of the word, and artists who are true to their work should not exploit it for additional gain.
The assertion that athletes are not artists really bothered Ben, and I can see that, but I stand by my definition.
So I was wondering-- what do you guys think? And yes, before anyone points it out, I know the Beatles have sold some of their songs for advertising, but keep in mind that they did not sell it until years after they had broken up-- they weren't using the ads to further their own reputation (and also, I may be wrong on this, but I think it was Yoko who sold the rights to "Revolution" to Nike).
Whew! I know I don't normally discuss such topics of actual merit, and I'm not much of a debater, so I apologize if my logic is faulty.
We'll be back to the Great Sock Debacle tomorrow!
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
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3 pipers piping:
Wasn't it Michael Jackson that sold the rights to "Revolution" after he bought The Beatles catalogue? Guess Paul won that "The Girl is Mine" arugment and pissed off Jacko.
As for the whole promo thing, it doesn't really bother me. I like to Motorolla commercial where all the artists cram into the phone booth. And the Sirius Radio commercials with Snoop Dogg and David Bowie. And it didn't bother me when U2 did the promo for iTunes. But you have that irrational hatred thing with them, too. I guess overt,, shameless, in your face promotion bugs me, like when Macy Gray wore that "My album drops" dress to the VMAs. But other than that, I'm cool.
Oh, did I mention that I work in marketing and advertising?
I think it was Yoko who sold those rights. Sounds like something Tom would be an expert on.
I don't think hate would be the right word to use to but for lack of a more appropriate word I too hate the Black Eyed Peas (Not hate really) but that song that goes, "My hump, my hump...my lovely lady lumps" has got to be the worst song ever--although funny in the way that it is so horrible you cannot believe it's on the radio kind of horrible. I told this comp class I had that I thought for the majority of people today that popular music had replaced it in their hearts. But I quickly pointed to the hump song as a counterpoint to my own argument.
I thought that song was a joke when I first heard it. I can't believe how much airplay it gets...what is the world of music coming to??
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