I know a lot of people get angry when their favorite bands lend out their songs for commercials. “Sell out!” they cry until their lungs bleed. Get over yourselves.
Where else are they going to get their music heard? Radio? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. MTV? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. No. MTV2? Sadly, no.
These days, it’s getting harder and harder for bands to get their music heard. So you gotta do what you gotta do. It worked for Moby. His album Play sold 5.32 trillion records thanks to the appearances of songs in countless movies, commercials, video games and TV shows. It works.
I bring this up because a few weeks back me and my girlfriend were watching some sort of cartoon on TV when a commercial for the new Saturn car came on. We liked the song, tucked it in or brains, forgot about it. Then a few days later Methodmal posts something in the donewaiting.com forum about The Walkmen doing a song in the Saturn commercial, and yee-haw, the connection is made.
I go out, I buy the CD, I love the CD. Never would’ve happened if not for the song in the commercial.
On the other end of the spectrum, if I were to hear “Come As You Are” by Nirvana in a Ford Focus commercial, I’d probably think it’s lame.