Fake nostalgia

[SODDI]

Today's abomination:

Marc Jacob's perfume using Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream'" to sell their scent.

Almost as bad as Audi using The Stooges' "Search and Destroy". But of course they looped out the lyrics:

"I'm a street-walking cheater with heart full of napalm
I'm the runaway son of a nuclear A-bomb..."

Those lyrics don't really sell cars.

I'm calling it fake nostalgia because I'm pretty sure people who buy Marc Jacob's perfume and Audi's cars never ever listened to Suicide or The Stooges back in the day - or even now - but the music gives the commercials a kind of veneer of authenticity, of wildness that the prospective buyers never had and never will have.

My favorite is when Volkswagen used Psychic TV's "Roman P". Did they know what that song was even about? They just wanted the line "Are you free". Not these lyrics:

" Sharon walks alone as your wife
Sharon gives her life for a knife
Sharon floating high up above
Sighing, crying, dying below

Life of money, life of sex
Life of money, life of hex
Little girls drinking and eating of cake
Little girls gorge you, your greatest mistake"

[xoxos]

or is it simply jealousy

i dunno, i figure a lot of that audience might actually know those records, the way our fellow gen x'ers sold the f**k out on everything

and who can blame them, before jesus jones released a followup

oh sure bro i got alllll the coil albums i love that one with the dick on it. but (segue to zoogz rift and john trubee) i can get a job in computers from my dad and i'm kind of good at getting everything in order. and i have to buy some candy now.

[Rappo Clappo]

Overexposed. That's all.

[jancivil]

I know as much about Suicide as I do about Marc Jacobs perfume.
I try not to experience TV commercials too often (which cuts down some on unsolicited unhappiness).

[jancivil]

i dunno, i figure a lot of that audience might actually know those records, the way our fellow gen x'ers sold the f**k out on everything

The converse would surprise me considerably more

[thecontrolcentre]

Presumably the bands get paid

[Roman Empire]

I know as much about Suicide as I do about Marc Jacobs perfume.
I try not to experience TV commercials too often (which cuts down some on unsolicited unhappiness).

I think that it´s actually a great way to get some vibes out to a broader audience, that might never have reached them otherwise.
When I was a teen there´d also be retrostuff now and then in the commercials, and I´d often try to find out who the artist was and dig more into it.
I think this is helping curious people to discover music that can broaden their horizon - thank God it´s not all Spandau Ballet or Kenny G that are used for these things.
And about the editing: Well, if that´s the price to pay for more people discovering great oldies, it´s worth it IMO.

Best Regards

Roman Empire

[jancivil]

I'm glad you can find the positive in this.

actually I can't stand the interruption in the first place. after a while of not watching the box, it's intolerable.

[Roman Empire]

I'm glad you can find the positive in this.

actually I can't stand the interruption in the first place. after a while of not watching the box, it's intolerable.

I generally don´t like commercials, and watch tv max 20 hours a year - the rest is streamed/downloaded. This is not about me

Best Regards

Roman Empire

[SODDI]

Presumably the bands get paid

I think the record companies get paid. Iggy, the only surviving Stooge, gets like $3.75.

[SODDI]

I know as much about Suicide as I do about Marc Jacobs perfume.

Not so much the 2 man band Suicide as its electronics guy, Martin Rev. They were part of the original NYC punk scene. He put together his kit from pawn shops and junk stores - nasty old pre-77 drum machines, Farfisa organs, shitty Echoplexes and possibly some Buchla components. And a ubiquitous toy piano. His stuff was repetitive and inexorable, totally electronic. I still love it.

"Dream Baby Dream" was Suicide's closest thing to a club hit. Ric Ocasek from The Cars produced it as a 7" EP. Alan Vega, the vocalist, died a year or two back, he was never as interesting as Rev. Rev went on to do electronic doo-wop and then normal synth stuff.

Electronic punk from the gutters of the Bronx.

[Roman Empire]

I was too young to known Suicide when they were "big", but as a teenager, in 1986 I had a 70s punk fascination period where I was bigtime into Generation X, the band. Somehow when researching Generation X, I became familiar with Suicide and found their vinyl at the library. When Alan Vega died, I decided to see what they´d be like today for me, and I was surprised to still find alot of joy listening to their music. There´s a certain intensity and depth in the way that they expressed themselfes which is hard to replace. So.. I´m really pro that the youth of today get to know them. Whether if through commercials, superbowl ugliness or iphone games is less important

Best Regards

Roman Empire

[SODDI]

I was too young to known Suicide when they were "big", but as a teenager, in 1986 I had a 70s punk fascination period where I was bigtime into Generation X, the band. Somehow when researching Generation X, I became familiar with Suicide and found their vinyl at the library. When Alan Vega died, I decided to see what they´d be like today for me, and I was surprised to still find alot of joy listening to their music. There´s a certain intensity and depth in the way that they expressed themselfes which is hard to replace. So.. I´m really pro that the youth of today get to know them. Whether if through commercials, superbowl ugliness or iphone games is less important

Best Regards

Roman Empire

If you haven't already, give a listen to Pere Ubu, another one of those punk outliers. Interesting, odd electronic work from Allan Ravenstine who used homemade stuff and an EML Electrocomp.

And then there's Foetus (J. G. Thirwell). He came out of that art punk/no wave grouping.