Uhh, Say What?

[stoutfellow]

Why is Kansas's song "Dust in the Wind" (And all your money won't another minute buy) being used in an automobile commercial?

Why is it being used in any commercial?

Comments

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but all this "you're now officially middle-aged, because we *are* going to use the music you listened to in high school to advertise things your parents would buy" malarkey is *depressing.*

My grown-up card is forged, and I don't *want* a real one, thankyouverymuch.

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. And not necessarily high school music, either. I remember the first time we heard Joe Jackson being played in a grocery store; I thought maybe the clerks had played a joke on management (g), but no. New Wave was now *mainstream* enough to be considered Muzak!

The worst offender, IMHO? The Cadillac commercials. I'm not sure what exactly the song is, but I hated it when it was popular, too. But the whole idea of using raucous rock music to get the buying public to see Cadillacs as *hip* and *cool* floors me. But I am prejudiced; I still have the image of a lady in late middle age (NOT my age, you understand (g)) in a long fur coat next to a bald, high-pressure kind of guy, smoking a fat cigar and driving all over the road. (How silly of me to hold a grudge for so long, innit? (g))

[(Anonymous)]

I remember the first time I heard the Beatles as Muzak. I was about eight, but my older sister was a big Beatles fan, and I can remember it giving me the shudders even then.

I really had no business cringing, though. My first husband was a Beatles fan, and a musician, and I wound up walking down the aisle to "And I Love Her" played on the organ (he'd recorded it himself). I *must* have loved him. There's really no other excuse.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

BTW, that last comment was me (g).

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

*That* is a great story!!

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

It's not just the aging thing. It's that that song is explicitly anti-materialistic.

On a second hearing, I noticed (with grudging admiration) that they've tweaked the lyrics in such a way as to almost reverse the meaning. The words "all we are is dust in the wind" recur in the chorus; the commercial uses the words "all they are is dust in the wind" - as the car sweeps past other automobiles, they crumble into powder...

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Then they have two pluses going for them; they have picked a song that most boomers remember fondly and, ergo, will actually listen to the commercial just to hear it, and they have managed to make a play on words. It still doesn't make me buy it (g).

Sometimes, though, a song I've never heard gets used in a commercial, and it drives me crazy until I can figure out what it is (if I like it, I mean). Remember my babbling, maybe Spring, a year ago? I finally found the song, got the CD...and never did watch the dog show (g)!

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I know. It's just that I tend to ignore Madison Avenue's specific messages whenever possible -- I used to proofread newspaper display ads for a living (g).

Er...

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

1. Some ad exec had a cool techy idea: Hey! We'll make cars go pftttz (like the one hoss shay, though of course, the ad exec wouldn't have thought of that)

2. Whoever owns the rights to the song needed the money

3. The target market only notices (1) pretty tune and (2) Kewl effects.

Who me; cynical?