Friday, July 10, 2009

Cross-Marketing


So obviously this is a rockin' song, and Santigold is in top form (as usual).

My favorite part, though, is at about 2:08 in the video, when it stops being a slightly dumb throwback video and starts becoming an action figure commercial. This is the one thing that I am really going to miss about the near-universal culture that Micheal Jackson represented; the ridiculous cross marketing. As I'm sure you know, the man had a videogame.

It doesn't seem to make any sense to have action figures of members of bands these days. Not only is no one that big, but no one is demanding that kind of fandom, the kind that requires you to own everything associated with them and obsess about them from afar. Recent promotional material seems to mostly involve buying stars lunch, finding out they're just dudes, etc.

The distance between us and our stars is shrinking. And isn't this what we wanted? Talulah Gosh was singing about imagining themselves as pop stars just 4 years after Thriller. "Her life will be a movie". They knew it wasn't just pathetic to dream like that; its also liberating.

Talulah Gosh - Talulah Gosh

So yes, its sad that no one who makes good things will ever be that huge again, but that's the choice we've made. To be less dependent on the vast marketing network, to be more "independent".

Maybe we can make our own action figures.

(I promise I will shut up about MJ now.)

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

David Bowie is Nikola Tesla



I love it when a song gets covered by a band that has absolutely no business covering that song. Cases in point here: an incredible motown rendition of Wilco's I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, a couple interesting new takes on old classics, and finally, Belle & Sebastian covering Billie Jean. You read that correctly. And they do it right--the only way to cover MJ is to cover him completely straight.