Sound Taste

Say it ain't so, Joe

I guess it's compay Friday. "5" blogger and frequent Sound Taste commenter Kiko Jones has a  barbed, thought-provoking response to my little Joe Strummer gush last week.

He points to how "The Clash’s music [has been] knowingly and wilfully defanged by their use in shilling jeans and luxury cars (!) in recent years." The latest of the offenses is the use of "Pressure Drop" in a Nissan ad (itself a Toots & Maytal cover). At first I didn't quite place the piece, since they only loop the guitar part and a bit of the hummed chorus. When I finally figured it out, a part of me died just a little. The worst hit of course, was the first one, hearing the dangerous guitar of "London Calling" on a Jaguar ad.

Not that I'm categorically against the use of cool songs in ads. I too have gone off to find tunes after hearing them in an ad (or, egads, a TV show). But it's when the song so obviously, um, clashes, with the product that I feel a little nauseous.

Rob Walker had a real interesting piece a few years back on how subversive music gets in ads. In short, the ad companies cherry-pick song parts, most people don't pay attention to lyrics beyond the chorus, and the bands signed off on it anyway. Sigh. I just change the channel.

Kiko also mentions Fender's $900 Joe Strummer Telecaster, a replica of Joe's trusty ’66 model. I'm not a guitar geek, but I always wonder -- what is it people think they're buying when they drop $2,600 on a replica Van Halen "Frankenstrat"? I think this is the textbook definition of fetishism, whether you're talking anthropology, sexual psychology or Marxism. But what do I know? I'm just a girl.

Future paperweight

Some companies are smart and see Latinos as a huge consumer base that tends to be loyal and spends, for example, $21.3B on telecommunications. And then there's Microsoft, which has decided that its Zune isn't lame enough, and is now coming out with a limited-edition Wisin y Yandel player, pre-loaded with the duo's new album, "Los Extraterrestres," video and a couple of other mild goodies. Leila Cobo at Billboard reports that the mp3 player will be sold at Wal-Mart starting Oct. 29, a week before the new album hits stores.

This is almost as bad as the White Stripes Holga camera. Reggaeton haytahs will quip that nothing on earth can be improved by adding a dem bow beat to it, but seriously, what is the point of this? Anyone fool enough to drop $199.94 on this device deserves the annoyance that awaits 'em.

I agree with Adam Krebs at Zune Thoughts. It's a "glorified reggaeton CD."

[image via ZuneOnline]