Pots and Kettles

On the most recent Sound Opinions (I'll post links to the stream and podcast when they're online), Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot took Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks to task for selling "Everybody's Happy Nowawdays" to AARP. (I talked about that a few weeks ago.) DeRogatis went into even more detail last weekend in the Sun-Times. I've never been a proponent of bands selling their music to advertisers, and I agree with the arguments DeRogatis presents, but I fear that those are arguments that have long been lost. When you look at the financial deck is stacked against artists dealing with record companies, the bands have to make money somewhere. (For a bit more in-depth argument, you might check out a two-part report on Morning Edition a couple of weeks back about selling songs for commercials featuring Randy Bachman [who, even though he defends selling "Taking Care of Business" to Office Depot still refused to lease it out for a toilet paper ad] and The Spinto Band).

One of the points DeRogatis made in the Sun-Times and on Sound Opinions is that "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" isn't actually about being happy, but any irony the song has is lost in a commercial in which everybody's having a great time celebrating their birthdays. Thus the song is cheapened. He may be right, but any credibility that idea has slipped away when the Sound Opinions producer faded down Buzzcocks and brought up the next segment. Admirably, Sound Opinions solicits feedback from listeners, and the show features messages from people who call in. But how do they introduce this offer of two-way interaction? With one of the most heart-wrenching ballads I know about the barriers technology can erect against communication and the frustration that can cause, the Replacements' "Answering Machine." Cleverly, the producers fade the song out before Paul Westerberg sings, "I hate your answering machine."