Who cares what other people think or what image they associate a song with? How many AWESOME songs have shitty music videos? Is the song forever ruined because the band made a shitty music video?

Nearly every band sells out in some way... that's how they succeed. They almost always are going to endorse something and be associated with something shitty. Even Thee Mighty Sonik Youth and the Starbucks debacle.

I just think people think too much about this shit. Who cares? Music is out there and can be used however it needs to be used; applied in any way. Ultimately, the band let this jeans commercial happen, and what can I say? It's a cool commercial. Would I actually buy those jeans? Fuck no! Do I think someone is going to buy those jeans because Sunn was in an ad? Yeah, some weirdo probably will. Does it matter either way?

...


Well, time to put on my cd-r copy of FLIGHT OF THE BEHEMOTH. I'm going to mark the title out and write "I Dream of JEANie" in place of it.

If some company wanted to use my band's music in a commerical, I'd be pretty amused.

But then again, Garnier have been using a pessimistic rant (Transplants' "Diamonds and Guns") to sell shampoo, so I guess anything's possible...

whatever energy a song has in the world is immediately diluted by it's inclusion in a commercial aired for the masses and absoprbed by countless thousands more than would ever actually listen to the record.
just my feelings about it.

I loved when Yoko sued the fucking shit out of Nike for using revolution to sell fucking sweatshop sneakers

If I had a band I WOULD DEFINITELY CARE

You'd definitely turn down tons of money to have a song you wrote be heard by tons of people in a harmless advertisement? That's respectful but... uhhh...

The point of making music is to make yourself happy with music. Of course, most people want to reach a broad audience... unless you're Jandek, most bands want to advertise to an extent. This is just part of the "Bizness".

I highly doubt people are going to think of jeans every time they think of Sunn because of a 30 second snippet from a 15 minute song.

Rob, would you shut down the people who make fanmade music videos and post them to youtube? "Oh noes, my music is overlayed over some anime bullshit, IT'S ALWAYS GOING TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH IT! IT HAS A MILLION HITS, TOO -- FUCK THE GUY WHO MADE THIS GAY SHIT!"

Most bands are just happy to have their music heard, in any context or capacity, regardless of the situation...

Hey, I had a thought!...Isn't Sunn (the band) just an advertisement for Sunn amps anyway?

And Merzbow is an advertisement for the sound it makes when you flush your radio down a toilet while being fucked by an elephant.

I bet Handel lost a lot of fans after that Levi's commercial.

he did. No one gives a fuck about his 200th anniversary this year.

Handel went down the tubes after that commercial.

atsonic (like the new avatar BTW) I do not thing it is harmless at all. There is a reason bands like sonic youth do not "lease" their fucking ART to marketing assholes trying to co-opt their "cool" to sell some bullshit product man.

They did lease their music, though. They have songs in shitty video games like Guitar Hero and that shitty Starbucks shithole. I'm still not going to think of plastic guitars or mocha lattés when I listen to 'em. But who knows -- someone might associate Kool THing was "STAR POWER!" (not the song but the guitar hero thing...). But, even better -- SY made lots of money from it, a lot more people know who they are, and a lot more people are exposed to good music.

If we were a political band trying to make some sort of statement, I'd probably care more, but...

I think if you honestly get into music, you won't associate songs with products. I'm not afraid to admit that I was one of those people that thought Lust for Life was a jingle for Carnival Cruises; but I didn't know shit about music at the time, so I'll forgive myself. I first heard the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" in a Nissan commerical, but I don't associate the song with cars, since I've gotten into the band's music.

I think it depends on what song you use. If it's a song that's old or obscure or both, then it's a little interesting (I was pretty amused to hear "Pictures of You" in a commerical for HP photo printers), but if you use a song that's current and/or plastered all over the radio and everyone knows that the song has absolutely nothing to do with the product being advertised (case in point: whatever company was using the Smashing Pumpkins' "Today"), then it just makes the company look stupid, greedy, etc.

As far as I know, Apple Records sued nike for that.
Yoko gave permission to use "instant karma" a few years later.

Great songs are used in shitty movies all the time. Great songs are used in shitty video games all the time. Great songs are used in shitty commercials all the time.

I dunno, I can ignore all that shit and just enjoy the great song without thinking about the other bullshit. But that's just me.

I turn down the vidja game music and play my own.

I can ignore it easily, but I still hate it wih the rage of a thousand supermassive black holes.

you're a good 50 years off.

see how little people care about handel?

all I'm saying is that selling out to marketing is a slippery slope, and it runs only one direction.

if you are the people, then you're right.

In all seriousness, Unsane - Scrape made me kinda want to take up skateboarding!

that was a cool video. but imagine how suck it would ahve been to hear Scrape used instead as background music for a Target commercial featuring skating kids selling back to school clothes?

Handel is the dope shit.