woes of a music nerd.

Aug 29, 2008

I always knew it would happen. Im one of the people who finds a strange pleasure in discovering music no one else has heard of. Of course im much too lazy to find all the little gems and hidden wonders of the music worlds, so instead i plunder other peoples finds, pick up on the already big indie bands, and even more often, just find songs that were once outrageously popular, but have been lost to our generation (im looking at you Beatles). Point being that im eventually gonna run into people who enjoy the exact same music. that's usually a good thing, but once The Man gets a hold of it it becomes like that fourth kid that you didn't really want, but have to keep. I say this because the other day i was in a store that shall not be named (aeropostale) and amidst the typical angsty teen rock ballads, i heard "Clark Gable" by the postal service. "What in the world is Aeropostale doing playing good music" you ask? I have no response, except that im pissed. I mean it was bad enough when "Hello Goodbye" was covered by a band with a combined sperm count of twelve, but i somehow expected better of the postal service. I of course still adore both the Beatles and the postal service, but the songs almost seem to loose some luster. Hearing songs like that in stores pisses me off, but not nearly as much as songs in commercials. The prime example of this is older then my time. Back when the Beatles were having financial troubles, Micheal Jackson bought up their rights and promptly sold Nike "Revolution 1" for use in a SNEAKER add. This opened the floodgates for the likes of the Jonas brothers. It's not the only example of music exploited by adds. Aerosmith's Dream On, sold cars. Such great heights is used in the UPS adds. I think i may have heard "All you Need is Love" on a diaper commercial. Hell, Great Northern's "Home" (if you get the free single of the week on itunes, you probably have it) is used in one of those touching car commercials. In my oh so humble opinion, music in commercials should be limited to dramatic breathy versions of the company slogan put to music, or shitty covers of Pachelbel's Cannon. Oh. Or that free credit report song guy. I love him!