Uncharacteristic track from Matt Johnson - i.e. it's not a song of despair and a Thatcher-esque Armageddon - that has now become the soundtrack for the latest M&M ad.
Posting this video got me thinking about how the music of your youth has become associated with commercials and advertisments. Check out this hilarious post on identitytheory.com that ruminates on the co-option of music from youth culture for commercial ends:
It’s clear to me now that many of the pop songs of my youth will be turned into commercial jingles. Sometimes this is a shocking process, but oftentimes it’s just disconcerting. Iggy Pop selling the cruise liner life? Nick Drake selling cars? I lose my bearings when I hear these things.
And now a song I associate with all manner of psychic dead ends is trying to sell me pants.
Trousers.
With pleats.
While we are on the subject of music/icons of one's youth being disconcertingly associated with products and goods, Eric Cook has alerted me to an ad featuring Blixa Bargeld, lead singer of Industrial music outfit Einstürzende Neubauten. I am unsure whether it is a masterful stroke of genius to cast Bargeld in a commercial where he reads from a product catalogue as though it were performance poetry. Did Bargeld sellout? Or is Bargeld making turning the whole "celebrity" endorsement on its head? Watch below and judge for yourself:
5 comments:
Hey Jude....
Blast from a Singaporean past man. Do u remember your BMT buddy? Well if u do then it's me Rizal!
It's amazing how Google can track someone down from eons ago....
Anyway, like your beer-gut man - a sign of prosperity!
Hey Rizal, It's been a long time. i think the last time I saw/met you was when were still in National Service right? How's it going? What are you doing now?
About Google, yeah tell me about it. And with a name like mine, I don't suffer from the phenomenon of having an google-twin with the same name out there.
That ain't no beer gut you're seeing there .... it's all au Naturale ;)
You remember me! Yeah it's been a while eh? I've moved to Perth for a couple of years now - working a humdrum job to pay the bills....
U coming back to S'pore after u finish skool?
I've been to a few places in Perth but I got a place now in Westminster - very untrendy, unlike Claremont. The furthest I've been out of Perth was to York - need to see more!
Well yeah, hanging around in the US would be a good idea - no reservist eh?!? wink wink...
Anyway, can i email u at your skewl email add then, rather than through this comments column!?
Yeah, do write to me at my email address. I am pretty good with email.
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