It's one thing if a company hires you to write a piece of music for them -- then there's no confusion about what the piece of music meant in the first place and should mean to the audience, as well as where the artist stands about going to work for that company. It's quite another when you take something that was supposed to represent something personal and rebellious that resonated to a lot of people and turn it into a Jaguar commercial. sh on 4/25/03 10:09 AM, Sean Westergaard at seawes@allmusic.com wrote:

i saw an interesting article a while back (i don't recall where) that was making the point that advertising is one of the only places left where any sort of creativity with regard to music programming can take place, since radio is so narrowly programmed almost everywhere. i actually heard an 11th dream day song used on a bank commercial! they don't get any radio play to speak of. the article interviewed the couple who front apples in stereo as well. sony licensed a track they did for a commercial. the apples said it was difficult for them to agree to, but on the other hand, it made them more money than an entire tour, and since the song was something that was already written and recorded, that they didn't have to compromise artistically. they also have a baby, which influenced their choice. the woman made the comment that had she been younger, and her favorite band licensed a track to evil conglomerate sony, she would have been royally pissed.

i guess the bottom line is tha "selling out" can be done to varying artistic degrees, and it might be a whole lot easier to say no to the money if you're rolling around in it like John Densmore presumably is.

sean

Waits' point is wonderfully salient.

Of course, nobody on this list cries "sell-out" at Lou Reed or Miles Davis for hawking Honda Scooters (which neither of them rode), so I suppose there's a double standard.

sh