Ramblings on music.

I saw a Kia spot the other day featuring a catchy little ditty about defeatism and it reminded me how much music has changed in our lives, not just the nature of it and the genres but how and where we’re exposed to it, where we seek it out, how we make it. Its place in advertising has changed, too. Once an artist was considered a sellout if he let his or her art be sullied to sell shoes or deodorant, but now that Neil Young mindset seems anachronistic and commercials have actually become an important channel for artists to get exposure.

Ad agencies love to create commercials that reflect culture (or, some might argue, pander to cultural trends), and for a time they would commission jingles to reflect the style of the hour: Give me something swing, or Give me something ska or Make it sound like so-and -so, but not so much that so-and-so sues. But jingles fell from favor (and I have a specific one in mind I blame,) and agencies discovered they could license well-known songs and either run them as is for authenticity (so we’ll know that “Revolution” means a running shoe) or modify them in more client specific ways (Swiffer.) The argument there was easy to make — so much equity still in the hit, instantly recognizable and already in the memory banks, the brand basking in the glow of musical celebrity. Or agencies could hire someone to make jingles that sound more like songs, like this ten year old classic.

Now we’re at a point where some agencies want obscure songs for their clients, presumably because one must be hip and sophisticated to even know of obscure music, and using it gives the brand instant hip rub-off.I think there are two paths of least resistance driving this beyond hitting a jingle saturation point. First, with so few actual national playlists on our corporately consolidated stations, more music remains fresh to more ears. That would be the case even if music production were still done as it was fifteen years ago, but that’s changed, too. The sheer number of artists and tracks I think has exploded because the recording studio can now be packed in an overnight bag and assembled for the price of a mediocre used car. Some advertisers forgo an expedition down the long trail preferring obscure quality from the vaults, as Volkswagen demonstrated with the ghost of Nick Drake eight years ago or so, but the past is finite while the current stuff is refreshed almost hourly. So plenty of win-win situations are possible. Good artists who might never have their music exposed to an audience the size of a national media buy get fresh ears, and maybe a bunch of traffic and sales from viewers seeking out the song in the commercial (usually as close as Youtube.) It’s almost as if commercials were music videos for both the brand and the artist. It’s sure easier than the Ashley Dupre route, though less scandalous and lucrative.J

ingles aren’t dead, of course. Just yesterday I heard one in which the singers successfully stuffed “hearty chicken noodle casserole” into a measure that I think originally accommodated only “Mmm-mmm-mmm,” and jingles are still fairly local and regional. Overall, however, it seems I hear fewer and fewer. I spoke with a music pro friend of mine, a guy who’s made a good name for himself over the years, and he’s felt a dramatic shift in the nature of jobs coming his way. At one time, much of his work was jingle related, though his work always sounded closer to songs, but he’s felt the dropoff in that kind of work, and he attributes it to the agency creative departments.

“Some ad agency people feel that unless music is ‘found’ it won’t ring true,” he told me. “They think that if music is created for advertising, it’s not authentic. It empowers the egos of creative people when they find something that exists.” I think he’s right. The people who create advertising are sensitive to the fact that advertising in general is considered skeptically by the consumer. A 2003 Gallup poll put advertising people near the bottom of the list for honesty and ethics (they’ve moved up one notch since a similar poll I remember from the 80s. Click the pic for details.) So anything to boost credibility in a given ad is in play — a familiar celebrity voice, a “real” song, maybe a name director, testimonials etc. Still, I don’t think it’s a given that an existing song accomplishes that. For instance, a few years ago, Lowes used Bruce Hornsby’s song titled “Gonna Be Some Changes Made.” Now, while I can see how the title might apply to remodeling, but after reading the lyrics and buying the CD, I don’t think Mr. Hornsby was singing about spackle, so I’m not sure if that affects the credibility meter.

One company attempting to match composers and songwriters with producers is Pump Audio. Personally, I think it’s a great idea, and I like their search interface, though I wonder why on their page of six advertising samples, only two had lyrics, which are “do-do-do” and “da-da.” I’ve listened to a good many tracks there and many have lyrics that could apply to an advertising message, assuming you could make the edit for broadcast length. Instrumental only tracks take us closer to the stock music zone, where I’ve found some very, very good, useful, and affordable stock music all over the web, better overall than existed ten years ago and far more of it.

All of this can be great for producers and advertisers, though I’ve seen some music abuse from our technological advances, such as a two-minute pharma commercial that used the same six-second loop for the duration and seemed like torture. These dramatic shifts have not been kind to the veterans who spent years composing original music for advertising. Now much of their work is postscoring and sound design, tools to tell a story and facilitate shifts in mood. I consider these folks a valuable resource that’s too often ignored by ad agencies these days. While it’s true that existing songs are available and sometimes perfect, I suspect that some agency creatives don’t honestly consider original music for the brand, as if the brand itself cannot communicate authenticity with its own music. Many composers of jingles are also excellent songwriters and can create a song communicating a theme and context tailor made for the campaign. Admittedly, that takes more money and more thought up front. Reverse engineering is always easier.

There are other vaguely disturbing stories I’ve heard lately about music in general — about staff songwriters facing tougher times and declining sales. Sometimes music feels more like a commodity than artistic expression, and I wonder whether it will be easier or harder for acts and industry talent to build the critical mass needed for longevity or survival.Yet there’s all this potential scattered everywhere. The other day I actually bought my first music download because the terms finally made sense to me. I bought a few albums from Kevin Montgomery at Amazon because 1.) The files are untainted by any digital rights management scheme that would limit me in any way and 2) they came in glorious 256k bitrate, which is broadcast quality. 3) The album price compared to individual tracks was low enough, barely. I would never have heard of this artist were it not for a social networking site.

And technology continues to change the landscape daily with sites like Pandora, Amie Street, Last FM for listeners (though I wonder if these models reduce our exposure to new styles of music or expand it) and for artists who want to collaborate, some promising and maybe revolutionary tools like eJamming, CCmixter, and Spinexpress. Yes, I’m a man of my word. When I say a post will ramble, you can count on it. Jump in anywhere.