I just puked


The rockers and heroes of my anti-establishment youth, and the psychedelic days of the 1960's and 1970's have all "sold out" by selling their music copyrights, either directly or indirectly, and classic songs are now being used as commercial beds for all kinds of corporate CRAP, usually cars, trucks, or SUV's. Just heard the Who's "Happy Jack" used as a bed for the Hummer H2. Talk about incongruity!!! Think John and Keith are turning over in their graves?!! Excuse me, gotta run...after writing this post, I feel the urge to vomit again. B.T.W., anyone familiar with the Fools song "Sold Out"? It should be an anthem for the aging rockers of the 21st. century. How much money do these rebels turned whores need anyway?
fatparrot
At first reading I thought to myself, "who cares", then at lunch I hear a Ford commercial using "Anyway You Want It" by Journey, a disgrace!
This is another good thread. The gross commercial use of this familar music is done of course to target our age group. Some of you, at this point, are in control of a large portion of the consumer dollars.The artists, as mentioned earlier, are not always in control of the rights to their own work and have lost the say in what is done with it. Who knows if Nick Drake's estate has control of his songs or even if Chris Isaak has control over "Wicked Game".It is too bad to hear some of the tunes used in such a way but american business will find a means to help market product in any viable way possible.This has been going on for many years and will continue to do so.I remember reading a few years ago that Micro Soft paid Mick and Kieth an obscene amount for the right to use "Start Me Up' for one of the incarnations of Windows.Cadillac paid Led Zep some fantastic amount or "Rock N' Roll" which has had by far the longest and most constant run of any song used in an ad I know. It was first used during the super bowl a couple of years ago and has been used constantly right up to the present. You know as bad as it is it always makes me smile the first time I hear an old nugget on a commercial. Like last night when I heard "Happy Jack". I used to play that tune over and over again way back then. The surest cure for all this is just to shut the TV off and donate it to your favorite charity. ;^)

Cheers, Lee
Nrchy: That is the murky question can art have an exchange value and an use value? Adorno, stated that it was the middle class that created musical art not the upper class (remember it was the nobles and clergy that used the middle class artists like Mozart and Haydn); the lower class had their own artists and art (singspiels, folk songs); there was always an intermix between low art and high art. Music publishers could make money off both. Art according to the greatest artist of the middle class, Beethoven, effected all social classes. The monopoly capitalists changed all that, since high art after 1920 became autonomous art rather than art within an integral social context, ie modern music of Schoenberg and beyond. It was no longer viable, to too many people. The middle class, could no longer understand the "music" that was fast becoming an autonomous art without any social or cultural function. Classical music became from the 20s onward, with that insult to music Toscanini, a fossilized, historical travesty. He and the New York Philharmonic and later the NBC Symphony, played the warhorses over and over, the list of accepted pieces becoming shorter and shorter. The advertisements(the right hand of the culure industry), proclaiming: hear the greatest conductor, playing the greatest music, with the greatest orchestra, it will be the greatest event of all time. Even today, the same warhorses are played over and over, you wonder why classical music is such a mess! A Pavarotti concert is promoted as a rock concert. Hear the greatest singer sing the greatest songs ever! What about pop or rock music? Is it not the same: the playlists of the radio stations are tightly reigned in. Classic Rock, Oldies, Contemporary rock, Country, it is all part of the culture industry. Isn't it to hear a song over and over the same as liking a song? How do you think you get to hear anything if not from the culture industry? You think you get to hear a song because it is artistically satisfying? No because the culture industry tells you to like it so you will buy it. Why do you think the culture industry is so nasty to the internet interlopers? They are disrupting the exchange value of their culture products!!!
Who f’in cares what an artist does with their property?
he or she certainly doesn't lose sleep over what i think.
this is the united states, right?

and what if the artist doesn't even own the rights to his or her songs? remember how happy paul was when michael launched a footwear revolution.
we could debate ad nauseum who owns what but again why should we care if someone chooses to sell the rights to their song to a company selling something we stand a high probability of purchasing anyway (a car, jeans,beer etc)? i feel like i'm at a dead show surrounded by kids priveleged enough to indulge philosophical and artistic idealisms.

hey, if it were me and i wanted to make a few million off of a song i wrote, i’d tell the lot of you to f#%k off and let me be. On the other hand, if i’m a consumer and i disagree with an artists choice of “whoring’ themselves then i should have the fortitude to abandon fandom and accept the disappointment. Artists are people too, subject to all of our mortal flaws and failings. they should simultaneously have the right to make sound business decisions
personally, 'revolution' still kicks my ass everytime i hear it and i'm more inclined to buy pumas.

as audiophiles and stereophiles, maybe we should be ranting about our favorite artists, groups and orchestras that have been the unwitting pawns and marketing media for the high-end audio industry. haven't you had that dream where the veil has been lifted and you realize you have been coerced into buying hi-fi systems (or cabling, pick your poison) worth more than most luxury sedans. or maybe not...

some people make me feel that recording artists are children who haven't quite lived up to their parent's expectations sans the personal relationship a parent (typically0 share with a parent or parents. maybe we should stop and ask ourselves if we ever really knew the artist on a personal level. maybe they were willing to prostitute themselves from day one for XXX million dollars, but never revealed this because that kind of marketing $$$ was previously unrealistic. or better yet, maybe they aren't as fabulously rich as we might think. maybe they were screwed out of every nickel and dime the record companies could get. or maybe not. again, who f'in cares???
this is the united states, land of trial lawyers, err, i mean opportunity, right?

anyway, at the end of the day, if it is or was a good tune, then it will remain something i want to listen to (i.e. zep's rock and roll)
now if you'll excuse me, i have to go finalize the paperwork at my local cadillac dealer...
Obviously Fatparrot you have a large body of great songs that you've written and the corporate types have been pursuing you for years to commercialize your art. No matter how many truckloads of cash they offer, you've stayed pure and resisted. Keep the faith, baby!
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