Adding a new category to the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, The Art and Technique of the American Television Commercial, is not something that is done on a whim. In fact, now in its 13th year, the closely watched AICP Show hasn’t added a new category since 2002.
The last category added was advertising excellence/international, which recognizes work from overseas. Prior to that, a talent/performance category was added. "It’s a pretty involved process [to add a category]," notes Matt Miller, AICP president/CEO. That stipulated, the decision last month to add a category honoring musical arrangement to this year’s show was a relatively smooth process. Miller and officers of the Association of Music Producers (AMP), the moving force behind the new category, agree that it was simply an idea whose time had arrived. (AMP and AICP are sister organizations.)
Jeff Rosner, AMP president and owner/executive producer of Sacred Noise, New York, says that in recent years, as he and others in the music business mulled over what they thought was their best work, often it was an arrangement of existing music—work that didn’t fit the existing AICP Show categories of original music or sound design. "You look at some of the best stuff you’ve done, and you think, ‘I have no place to put this,’ " Rosner says. "AICP is such an incredible show. It carries such weight in the industry that not to be part of it, for the work you are proudest of, seemed to be a concern to us."
And, as Rosner and others point out, it isn’t an insignificant category of work these days. It’s generally accepted that about a third of the work done by music houses specializing in commercials is adapting and arranging licensed music. "Music companies are reinterpreting existing music in a way that reinvigorates whatever the piece is," relates Rosner. "There were so many pieces of music that could not be submitted because they were arrangements of other original tunes."
"Over the past ten years, the entire structure of music for advertising has been shifting so that any musical source in the world is fair game," notes Jan Horowitz, AMP secretary and VP of David Horowitz Music Associates (DHMA), New York. "We particularly like it when it calls for our expertise as musical producers to either bring fresh insight and musical dimension, or to cross a style. With AMP and AICP now being sister organizations for three years, it only makes sense to showcase a little broader picture of what the AMP member companies bring to the art and technique of commercial filmmaking."
The work
Although the new category wasn’t a hard sell to AMP membership or to the AICP, the process of pushing it through was difficult. "AMP member companies had been talking about the need for a third musical category for a couple of years," Miller says, "but it was only after last year’s AICP Show that they took their case to the AICP. From the first conversations with the AMP, it took some months." After those conversations, Miller asked AMP for the best examples of musical arrangements by its member companies and a formal proposal.
The association put out a call to member companies for commercials they had scored but could not submit to the AICP Show because they didn’t fit into the categories. After a meeting with 18 music producers in New York, a DVD of the spots and a formal proposal were presented to the AICP Show committee in October ’03.
The proposal identified four types of musical soundtracks that would be included in the new category: "amazing arrangements" of pop tunes, standard songs and classical themes; "ad music," songs or themes written for advertising that have endured over the years and been rearranged for newer commercials; "songs," adaptations of lyrics, styles or updates with current performers; and "classical," adaptations of classical music.
The show committee agreed to the proposal and recommended the change to the AICP board of governors. "The board of governors looks at any possible changes to the show," Miller explains. "Their job is to oversee the integrity of the overall show, so it doesn’t change whimsically every year. It took a couple of months to get it through."
It wasn’t, however, tough to convince the board to add musical arrangement as the 24th category of the show. "[The proposal] was laid out very well," Miller says, "and [musical arrangement] is a large piece of what is being done musically in advertising. We’re really happy to have this category and we’re always happy to partner with the AMP and work with them to help look at the craft of scoring commercials."
"This is perfect for what our needs are," Rosner adds. "It was a great way to go."
