Went home last week for a couple of days to see the parents and sibs in the wilds of central Wisconsin. Watched a lot of TV. At chez Kirschling, that meant Brewers and Twins games, a bit of Wimbledon, CNN Headline News in the mornings, half a Deal or No Deal, AFV, and — because my parents don’t have DVR — lots and lots of commercials. Kept stumbling across these Volkswagen ads I guess I’ve been fast-forwarding through in New York. You seen ‘em, the ones scored with tunes mostly off Wilco’s new album, Sky Blue Sky?
Well, a strange thing happened to me as I sat through these heavily-replayed commercials OVER AND OVER again: I started to like the new Wilco album a whole lot more than I thought I did. I’ve been listening to Sky Blue Sky for the past two months, and I’d pretty much concluded that while I ultimately respected it as a noble move in a different direction for Jeff Tweedy and Co., I was also slightly let down that it didn’t really live up to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or especially A Ghost is Born (an album as absolutely good as it gets in my book, even with that 15 minutes of fuzz). Now, suddenly, listening to songs like "Sky Blue Sky" (used in the ad below) and "You Are My Face" in car-commercial context, I’m all over most of the album again, as if with new ears — especially the opener, "Either Way," which I currently can’t stop replaying.
Is that weird? Am I a consumerist whore? Is Wilco? I say no on all counts. (Go here, left column down, to find Wilco rightfully defending itself.) Doesn’t that happen to you, where you hear an old song in a new pop-culture context, and suddenly you’re in love with it in a way you weren’t before? Which song was it? Go ahead and post your stories below. Or else explain it to me why it’s not more okay than ever for a band to make money and hook in new listeners by selling their music to TV, when huge numbers of us aren’t paying for their music at all anymore anyway?
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The most obvious and recent example I can think of would be the usage of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” in “The Sopranos.” That song became even more interesting and also an important piece of nostalgia for “Sopranos” fans.
I fell in love with Bob Seger’s “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” after it was used in a really great montage in a “Freaks and Geeks” episode.
I discovered Razrlight and “Golden Touch” because of a Pontiac commercial.
First off: Woohoo Wisconsin! I hope you kept your accent to show your colleagues midwestern people aren’t oafs..at least all of us.
And I had a reverse experience with commerical music. I enjoy The Thrills a lot. They’re innovative, yet nostalgic. Then I heard one of their songs on a car commercial and my world sank a bit. Not because they’re ” selling out” but the editing of the song didn’t highlight the band and its music in any way. It was upsetting to say the least.
In my life the band Massive Attack would be instead of Wilco. I love them, I really do. However, I love them a lot more if I only hear one song at a time, interdispersed through a playlist full of other artists.
I learned about Nick Drake from the old VW Cabriolet commercial that used “Pink Moon.” Not to mention several other artists from Scrubs, Grey Anatomy’s, etc. It’s not ideal but as long as it’s done well, it doesn’t bother me too much. Plus, if it’s a way for more people to know about good music and it encourages advertisers and tv/movie producers to raise the bar artistically, I guess it’s a good thing. It’s hard though because for every great song that’s used with some integrity in a show or commercial, there’s some fool that uses Iggy Pop to sell cruises.
Fact is, I think it’s just that these new Wilco songs are damn good, but noboday can understand why because they sound so simple.
Consumerist whore corollary: How much an artist has “sold out to the man” is in direct relation to how much “hipness” you have assigned to them.
I heard “Molly’s Chamber” on a VW commercial and had to buy Kings of Leon.
Wilco rules no matter what!
Breaks my heart. I don’t have a problem with them making a buck either – that’s why I buy every album and pay for every download and buy tickets to every show – but this blows. It like when Bowie sold “Changes” to Pampers!! please stop the madness! Those songs are my songs not some ad guys scheme to sell cars – and that’s coming from a marketing guy.
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