When Pete Townshend of The Who remarked that he considered the Apple corporation similar to a vampire, my ears perked up. I thought he was going to make some sort of socially poignant statement about culture. However, it turns out he was merely grumbling about how the iTunes store affects the flow of money to artists.
How odd it is that the rebellious music movements of earlier decades has become mainstreamed into dullness. You can walk into Target or the Gap or Walmart and hear U2 belting out “early in the morning, April 4, a shot rang out in the Memphis sky,” as you purchase an industrial-strength box of diapers or a carton of blueberry yogurt. You can listen to the Police sing “we are spirits in a material world” as you browse through spandex pants.
I suspect that the next logical step is that marketing agencies will contract bands and singer-songwriters to write entire songs or albums to specifically push various products. No doubt, we will soon be able to hear Jay-Z rapping about the Geico lizard or the thrill of Safelite Repair Auto Glass.
I guess the socially poignant comment about Apple, vampires and culture will be left for you to make. Wait – I think you just did. Didn’t you?
Maybe I should’ve left the culture comments up to the yogurt.
Don’t they do that already? Product endorsement and such? I miss the 60s and the 80s. Not that I was around for any of that free loving that went around in the 60s (born in 1970) but still, how our forefathers of that era must be wishing they’d done more.
Yeah, they do. It’s just kind of weird and funny when you get these anti-establishment rockers doing product endorsements. “Free love! Let’s change the world! By the way, Fastwrench Tires are now on sale for 39.95 each!”