I believe that artists with music appearing in teevee advertisements should
demand that the name of the song and artist appear briefly in the corner of
the screen, a la American MTV when they used to play videos (as opposed to
the putrescent tripe they now air...Euro MTV appeared better to me, although
<granted> the Amsterdam spacecake patina probably helped...shout-out to the
upstairs chill-out room at Cafe Chocolata, Spuistraat).
TV ads provide unparalleled exposure, and are viewed by millions
instantly...I had several very non-IDM-familiar friends ask me (since they
figured I might know) who did that "song about clouds in the VW Beetle
commercial," which was of course the Orb's Little Fluffy Clouds. A brief,
simple text fragment identifying the music as the Orb might have spiked Orb
interest among the joe sixpacks of the world, but maybe artists would rather
take the filthy ad money and run, without betraying their street cred.
I'm still wondering about the music from an Intel commercial a few months
back, the one where the sock puppet was sauntering about (no, not Flat
Eric)...it sounded suspiciously like Fila Brazilia's "Pots and Pans."
- Fred Church
bigkumquat@aol.com
np: VH1 Behind the Music, Ozzy Osbourne episode (video)
Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup (audio)