It was only a very short time ago that any hot artist or band allowing its music to be used in a commercial was considered an artistic sellout. Today commercials with recognizable popular songs (some with lyrics having no relevance to their commercials!) populate TV and films at a rate that is alarming to jingle companies and composers looking to score the next BMW TV spot.
The major music companies (EMI, Universal, Sony, Warner, etc.), distracted by the likes of Napster, continue to protect and fortify their musical gold with better barbed wire. Faced with the fact that the big pot of money is now lots of little pots that must be gathered from multiple revenue sources, the Big Guys have opened their vast catalogues to ad agencies and film houses for licensing into ads and movies.
Licensing has historically been a painful, expensive and time-consuming headache, with lawyers mucking up the process in their wonderfully time-consuming way. Now, with the use of the Internet, the process is faster, simpler and cheaper for licensees.
Let’s add to the licensing pot every minor label and publisher with its hopeful artists and obscure tunes. Throw in online music distribution dot coms and music brokers, not to mention stock music (needledrop) companies, and stir rapidly. What we get is a lot more product than demand—more music than there are commercials or productions.
What I see happening is a race for distribution at the expense of musical content, both creatively and in terms of audio quality.
With commercials so much a part of today’s culture, why are they so easily forgettable? I believe it’s because music and song lyrics are now just an afterthought in the creation of spots. Back in the 1960s and ’70s, hot lyricists and composers created music for memorable, award-winning national commercials, and then became stars and major music talents in their own rights. Some examples: Paul Williams, Barry Manilow and the Carpenters.
We’ve got to rejuvenate original commercial music. It is a comment on our creativity and our profession that so many spots are using tired old standards. Have we lost the magic of solid lyrics and melody, and been covered up by a wall of sound design? Have time, money and fear of taking risk in our industry driven the great jingle singers to boring, but steady, gigs in Vegas and Branson?
It’s time to re-introduce the most powerful form of commercial music—the jingle—with multi-tracked vocals in tight harmonies, backing up a really hot solo singer. Seven singers, a choir, the Peruvian High School Marching Band—I don’t care! Bring back the spontaneity of live, human voices, and don’t throw them into the Pro Tools blender when they’ve left the studio.
It has to begin with the copywriter. Write us a lyric, or throw us a few key words and turn us loose. The hippest music house in the country harbors latent jingle writers who would leap at the chance to brand a client’s product with a 30-second vocal hit.
Nothing brands like the human voice. Compare it to the clunky Intel mnemonic.
I rest my case.
