Arrive Without Traveling Monday, March 07, 2005

Wow, that was a poorly fleshed out post last night. I was trying to squeeze something in before I got to sleep but lost energy after a graf or so. The broader point I was trying to make, I suppose, is that there's really no fuddy-duddy mainstream culture anymore vs. the hip, exciting "secret" culture. Even John Zorn shows up in video-game ads. The shock (or at least disconnect) is gone when something from your private fandom makes it into the broader mainstream.
 
That bugs me, just a little. Part of it is selfish: Part of what made Nick Drake so wonderful was that he was a secret. A relative handful of people knew about him, and he took some digging to find. Now, you walk into borders and his record has a big sticker on the front: AS HEARD IN THE CAR COMMERCIAL! And if you missed that, there are a dozen online forums where you can track what's played where. (Random thought: Remember those too-cute Kodak ads James Garner made way back when with Mariette Hartley? She did a guest appearance on Rockford Files a while after that, and the announcer in the promo called her "the girl from the camera commercial!" There's one for the headstone, huh?)
 
I also wonder if the music itself doesn't suffer by being blipverted like that. This is not an original thought, of course, but it seems like the rot is spreading faster and deeper these days, from new stuff deep into the back catalog.
 
Once again, the thought is petering out on me. Anybody else have brilliant ideas?

@ 7:39:00 AM,

1 Comments:

At 7:17 AM, Blogger Rob L. said...

How 'bout this:

Moby offered up his entire Play album for commercial licensing. After that, you heard his music every effin' where. He made a big pile of money & opened a tea store but that album de-NickDraked itself instantly. I predict that there will be no long term life to those songs whatsoever. My point? Something about "commercial synergy" and cross-promotion...

 

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