Much has been said about punk songs being used in commercials, whether the original music loses some of it's integrity or not when it's being used to sell goods or services. I myself have flip flopped a bunch on the issue. In my twenties I was super into DIY and non-corporatism, I had the almost militant fervor of a letter writer to MRR. I think as I've gotten older I've learned to let go and feel more like it's none of my business what other bands choose to do with their music and careers... and frankly, punk bands pushing 50 probably do need to be cashing in on their old careers a little to make some money. You can't tour in a van across the US playing club shows when you're 40 or 50 like you did when you were 18. I also kinda get a kick out of realizing how songs I grew up listening to wormed their way into mainstream culture, although more than likely most people hearing Iggy Pop's "Lust for Live" on a cruise commercial or The Buzzcocks' "What Do I Get?" on an AARP commercial have no clue who the bands are. It's more than likely it's some 30 or 40 something punk rocker worker for an ad firm that made that stuff happen. For better or worse though, it will continue to happen.
That brings us to this, not just punk music being featured in a TV commercial, but punks starring in TV commercials. Johnny Rotten has been spearheading a butter campaign in the UK. I know many of you will think it's horrible, but I actually think it's pretty funny and totally not surprising, Rotten has always given the fuck you to convention and the punk scene.
2 comments:
and the corpse of punk is dug up and stomped on one more time.
yup. i gave up on that whole thing. first of all, the whole idea that punk isn't corporate is a bit like thinking that teenagers aren't corporate, when they are the best target market available. of course its corporate. maybe as teens we werent as fooled then as they are now, whereas it seemed you learned more about punk by reading zines and going to shows and books then while now these kids just sit at home and watch tv and that gives them punk culture. it all fucked up, time to give up on it and make it into something else (which in time will have the exact same thing happen to it).
+HeMoth
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