Dreamy, overdubbed vocals hovering over drumstick scratches and distorted guitar loops ask, “what’s that riding on your everything?” as a silver Nissan minivan cruises by the screen. What may sound like an LSD-addled soccer mom’s nightmare is really just the first of a recent string of commercials that use indie music to promote their product. The phenomenon has caused segments of the indie community to backlash against artists who let companies use their songs in exchange for money. We should stop worrying so much about the “cred” of living artists, though and focus our attention on those who’ve had their graves robbed for years.
Hearing an indie rock song on a commercial is no longer surprising. Sure, it was shocking to hear Modest Mouse’s “Gravity Rides Everything” on a Nissan commercial for the first time, especially because they were relatively underground at that time. But after watching a Hummer cruise to the digi-funk of Ratatat’s “Seventeen Years” and a Pontiac steer through the ghostly electronic shoegaze of M83’s “Don’t Save Us from the Flames,” it almost seems natural for an HIV/AIDS awareness group to use The Books’ spliced-up sound collage “Tokyo” to get its message across.
It’s no big crime for companies to use the music of talented living musicians for their commercials. After all, the artists receive royalties that, as noted by Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, they need just to pay the rent. The real crime is when companies take advantage of deceased musical icons that can’t exactly demand such royalties or refuse to do business. Jimi Hendrix probably rolls over in his grave every time “Purple Haze” is played in a Pepsi commercial; high-minded John Lennon would have never let Nike use “Revolution 1” to promote athletic shoes assembled in sweatshops. Even if the company buys the rights to the song, such as when Nike bought the rights to “Revolution 1” from Capitol Records and Michael Jackson, this exploitation is unacceptable. Music is a pure art form that should not be bought and sold by third parties.
While living musical artists can easily maintain their respectability if they so choose, the images of those who are dead can be tarnished at will. Hopefully, those who own the rights to the deceased musical icons’ works will fight against the commercial exploitation of their music, and we’ll be hearing less “Foxy Lady” and more “Float On.”
