Are TV Spots Good For Indie Bands?
June 23, 2010 - 16:46PM
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In a word; yes. Small bands get a huge boost from being the background music in a TV commercial. The average American consumer probably hasn't heard of bands like "The Dirty Projectors" or "Francis and the Lights". And that's OK. How could they? They don't spend their free time searching for music they haven't heard yet. While we hate what that mindset does to the music industry, it's still OK to not be "into music". But some people like to discover things.
Perhaps you have a favorite restaurant, or better yet a dive bar that you like to hang out at. We have ours and a few of the reasons we like it is because it's never crowded and the ambience is "cool". We feel like we found this little gem of a spot. A bar that "gets us" and never tries to be something its not. Maybe your a film buff. You love to watch movies that are categorized as "indie", "art" or "foreign". Did you see The Wrestler? Let's say you did, and you really liked it. And you want to tell your friends about it so they can share their thoughts during a future discussion. But your friend says "No, I probably won't see that, I don't like wrestling." To your friend, the title of the movie meant he/she would have to sit through a couple hours of watching someone wrestle. They made a quick association based on the facts at hand. This is going to make a point very soon, we swear!
Pepsi has a new campaign called "Refresh Everything". They are about to rollout new TV spots for the campaign that include a song by Rai Knight called "New New". Who's Rai Knight you ask? A young artist and songwriter out of the Detroit area that dubs her style as "Trip Pop with Soul". To us, she's like a sugary Fiest. And her single, "New New" is pretty good. It's catchy, she can definitely sing and its poppy enough that there could be mass appeal. But in a few weeks it'll be downgraded to "That song from the Pepsi commercial".
Is that good or bad? Well, there's no question that Pepsi will carve the soul out of the track. Knight says "shit" a lot in the song. That's actually one of the reasons we like it. The song is so sugary sweet that when the word "shit" comes out in the chorus it's so unexpected that you perk up when you hear it. Almost like when you eat a bunch of chocolate and then eat something salty. It's a shock to the system, but totally welcomed. Taking "shit" out of this track will take a lot of the bite out of this track. We also fear that it will rob Mrs. Knight of her sassy, "I'm cute but kinda dangerous" style. We fear she will be reduced down to a basic catchy track that reminds consumers they are thirsty...For Pepsi.
So in the long run, will this help or hinder young Rai? We're not sure, hard to say. But we know for a fact that "cool" indie artists like Rai will continue to be used in TV spots. Mostly because the cost to license their music is a fraction of the cost when compared to "mainstream" music. And the people that make the music decisions for these spots are... tragically cool hipsters that spend the majority of their paychecks on skinny jeans, thrift store t-shirts, retro gold casio watches and old cameras. They take up-close, slightly out-of-focus pictures of paint flaking off lamp poles and they photoshop ironic phrases like "Forever and Ever" on the image in a Helvetica derivative font. And they carry composition notebooks everywhere they go that are full of ironies, doodles and slogans that they think are clever. They DO spend their time finding new music. They take pride it in. Just look at our blog.
Perhaps you have a favorite restaurant, or better yet a dive bar that you like to hang out at. We have ours and a few of the reasons we like it is because it's never crowded and the ambience is "cool". We feel like we found this little gem of a spot. A bar that "gets us" and never tries to be something its not. Maybe your a film buff. You love to watch movies that are categorized as "indie", "art" or "foreign". Did you see The Wrestler? Let's say you did, and you really liked it. And you want to tell your friends about it so they can share their thoughts during a future discussion. But your friend says "No, I probably won't see that, I don't like wrestling." To your friend, the title of the movie meant he/she would have to sit through a couple hours of watching someone wrestle. They made a quick association based on the facts at hand. This is going to make a point very soon, we swear!
Pepsi has a new campaign called "Refresh Everything". They are about to rollout new TV spots for the campaign that include a song by Rai Knight called "New New". Who's Rai Knight you ask? A young artist and songwriter out of the Detroit area that dubs her style as "Trip Pop with Soul". To us, she's like a sugary Fiest. And her single, "New New" is pretty good. It's catchy, she can definitely sing and its poppy enough that there could be mass appeal. But in a few weeks it'll be downgraded to "That song from the Pepsi commercial".
Is that good or bad? Well, there's no question that Pepsi will carve the soul out of the track. Knight says "shit" a lot in the song. That's actually one of the reasons we like it. The song is so sugary sweet that when the word "shit" comes out in the chorus it's so unexpected that you perk up when you hear it. Almost like when you eat a bunch of chocolate and then eat something salty. It's a shock to the system, but totally welcomed. Taking "shit" out of this track will take a lot of the bite out of this track. We also fear that it will rob Mrs. Knight of her sassy, "I'm cute but kinda dangerous" style. We fear she will be reduced down to a basic catchy track that reminds consumers they are thirsty...For Pepsi.
So in the long run, will this help or hinder young Rai? We're not sure, hard to say. But we know for a fact that "cool" indie artists like Rai will continue to be used in TV spots. Mostly because the cost to license their music is a fraction of the cost when compared to "mainstream" music. And the people that make the music decisions for these spots are... tragically cool hipsters that spend the majority of their paychecks on skinny jeans, thrift store t-shirts, retro gold casio watches and old cameras. They take up-close, slightly out-of-focus pictures of paint flaking off lamp poles and they photoshop ironic phrases like "Forever and Ever" on the image in a Helvetica derivative font. And they carry composition notebooks everywhere they go that are full of ironies, doodles and slogans that they think are clever. They DO spend their time finding new music. They take pride it in. Just look at our blog.
Rai Knight • New New from Rai Knight on Vimeo.
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Directed by The Work & The Silent Giants
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