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music
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What Have They Done to My Song, Ma?
21 Mar 2011 by eburns / No Comments
I read last week a blog post titled, “5 songs marketers tried to ruin—and 2 that they did”. As I read the list, it got me thinking, “hey, you missed a bunch of other songs.” Remember Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll” … hawking Cadillac? The Allman Brothers’ “Melissa” coaxing us to connect … via Cingular Wireless? I shot an email to the staff here at PAN and got a slew of other songs that my colleagues would add to the list. For example:
• Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock” – Chevrolet
• Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” – Royal Caribbean Cruises
• Wham!’s “Freedom” – Chase credit cardMy question to the staff also led to a very interesting discussion with my colleague Mike O’Connell, surrounding whether it is still considered taboo for marketers to use such songs in their commercials or if it is a more acceptable practice. Mike and I discussed this issue for a good 45 minutes (shhhh – don’t tell our bosses), but from that conversation we came to a few realizations.
First – Mike was quick to point out that the days are gone when there was a complete separation from music and the selling of goods. Songs that were once fighting the establishment are now being used by the exact parties they were looking to discredit – and you know what? That’s OK! (I was surprised by this because Mike is part of the very generation these songs speak to.) He noted that although it doesn’t always work, as can be seen by the numerous articles and blog posts available today, in many cases, the marketers and advertisers have done an excellent job breaking their products into new market segments. They do this by playing at the heartstrings of a memory that a song can recall or by demonstrating to a younger audience that a company/product is “in the know” because they are familiar with some of the hot up-and-coming artists of today. We both questioned, though, how Janis Joplin would cotton to the car company appropriating “Mercedes Benz.”
Second – Mike also pointed out that marketing’s use of songs from yester-years often gives a long-forgotten song — and band — relevance in today’s market. Take, for example, Biz Markie’s “Just a Friend.” Two decades after they hit the airways, the lyrics somehow sounded fresh when two twenty-something couples sang them in a drunken cab ride promoting Heineken: “Oh baby you, you got what I ne-ed, but you say he’s just a friend…” Now an entirely new audience (people who either weren’t born yet or were too busy watching “Barney”) are now singing Biz Markie’s lyrics!
Third – Both of us agree that, in today’s age of content, it is easy to have quality music at our fingertips – regardless of format. No one is recording mix tapes or hunting down 45’s with otherwise unreleased “B” sides. Rather, the use of music in today’s commercials has helped musicians and bands go from total obscurity to the mainstream; think Vampire Weekend and the blizzard of Honda “Holiday” commercials.
So, after our discussion, Mike and I came up with these three indisputable facts. We also discussed many other aspects of music integrating with marketing – such as the use of songs for TV show themes, but that’s a different post for a different day. What do you think? Has this integration of music and marketing been mutually beneficial or has it trashed the legacies of yesterday’s classics? Is it burning out today’s pop standards before they’ve had a chance to settle into our psyches? Let us know what you think.
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