I'm not entirely sure why the Absolut Vodka commercial featuring a version of Joy Division's "Ceremony" bothers me as much as it does. I'd thought I'd gotten over my outrage at the notion of musicians "selling out" to ad firms pretty soon after Neil Young sent up a final gasp of indignation with the great spoof video for "This Note's For You." What was the last instance I remember upsetting me? The Beatles' "Revolution" in that Nike ad, maybe. By the time Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" hit that yuppie Volkswagen spot I was just like, Oh, that would be a fun, driving around with some friends listening to that song. (And then maybe a nice glass of rose.) And when the Who's "Baba O'Riley" welcomed everyone to the dawn of Cisco computer network's new age or whatever, you know, fine.
But this Absolut ad sucks. Every time it comes on, it just bums me out. Even though all those bottles hanging in the forest look really cool, I think. Hearing "Ceremony" in this context just seems very, very wrong. Maybe its because Ian Curtis is dead, and there's no way to be sure he would have been okay with the usage? But Nick Drake was dead long before that Volkswagen ad, too. I guess it just has to do with the supreme awesomeness of "Ceremony." And how the song does sort of seem, well, sacred in a way, since Curtis died so soon after recording it. (And probably also because it's called "Ceremony." Duh.) This new version, by the Brooklyn band Fall On Your Sword, hews very closely to the one New Order did soon after Curtis' death. Too closely for comfort, I guess. It's been covered lots of times before, by Radiohead and Xiu Xiu and, best I think, by Galaxie 500, who slowed it way down, allowing for full reverent appreciation of its breathtakingly beautiful melody. I'm all for the covers. The more people that get to know this song the better. But please, keep it out of television commercials from now on. Thanks.
I also am in a blind fury, and for similarly inchoate reasons. Though I thought it was hilarious when Carnival Cruises adopted Iggy's "Lust for Life" and only hoped that M. Osterberg laughed all the way to the bank.
Oh man, that Carnival Cruise ad was the best. I was always torn between frank admiration of how they managed to elide the lyrics (using peppy voiceover!) and screaming at the TV "that song is about HEROIN!"
That is a long, heartfelt, circuitous journey to "please drink our vodka."
Like a night of drinking, it did not end where I expected it to.
I was expecting more, "Please donate to the Smithsonian."
This is nothing compared to the BP ad that uses "Search and Destroy."
(with a heart full of crude oil.)
I believe the song predates Ian Curtis's death, but I do think of "Ceremony" as a New Order track, and think you should too.
I prefer the Joy Division version from Still even though half the vocals are cut off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reqQ7DKa_RY
(addressing the title)
The JD version is live, right? I like the New Order one because the production is great, and I can play it for people to dance to / dance to it. But people can disagree about such things.
galaxie 500's cover is perfect. actually almost every cover of it is great. new order's version seemed to transform it into a curtis tribute, which makes any commercial use of it even more icky.
Christ, I could go for a Bloody Mary right about now.
(But not because of this commercial because it weirdly makes me not want to drink vodka, and I can't even place why!)
Fall on Your Sword is such a joke; they're not a band, they're graverobbers. You should hear their "cover" (by which I mean photocopy version) of "Bella Lugosi's Dead." Assholes.
Yes. The carbon-copy aspect is gross. And as used in the commercial, makes the "doing things differently" tag that much more ridiculous and insulting.
"Trying to do things exactly the same leads to SHITTY COVERS."
Nothing nothing nothing will ever top CCR's "Fortunate Son" appearing in a Wranglers Jeans ad. No one remembers this and I can't find it on youtube, but it's all just the music and no lyrics until the commercial ends with "Some folks are born made to wave the flag, Ooh, they're red, white and blue..." to a scene of the American flag waving. And then it stops. No pointing cannons. No It Ain't Me. How heart warming. It still makes my brain cry to think about it.
The thing that's annoying me right now is the Kia ad that uses Black Sheep's "The Choice is Yours." I don't care that they use the song, just that it's such a godawful ad! It shouldn't be hard to make that song look cool, you know? I kinda think the VW ad is not a bad visual treatment of "Pink Moon," but the Kia ad has like frat hamsters and hamsters driving in toasters and oh it's all just so awful. It's such a great song! How are you going to make it seem lame, you know?
I'll continue to bring this one up, but the VW ad where they used Psychic TV's "Roman P." is always my absolute best / worst favorite. Some of the worst early-90s visual style in service of selling cars married to an art terrorist's song about Roman Polanski. AWESOME.
Dave, musicians rarely have health insurance or retirement accounts. It may help your outrage to think of the advertising industry as a musicians ace in the hole for old age. That said I was mildly outraged that the Red Hot Chili Peppers licensed their music to Disneyland for Space Mountain. But they all have mansions in Malibu and Beverly Hills.
The Joy Division version is superior to the New Order version IMO.
What sucks most about this commercial is not actually the use of this song. It's the sucker punch that comes at the end of the music juxtaposed with those visuals and text. One gets the sense the ad is not an ad for a product but something, somehow, better than that. And then it's just a fucking vodka ad and for a shit brand at that. It's the combination that truly grates.
Perhaps i am not reverential enough about the music i like, but when those fake ass Marxists Stereolab sold out in the 90s for a fucking car, all bets were off on me caring about this subject ever again.
Since we are on this subject, i have to say that i really hate Phoenix themselves above all else. I hate them for basically writing music specifically FOR such purposes. Whether this is the case or not, the tight fit between the commercialism of their sound and car commercials rankles me more than misappropriating good music.
At the end of the day, that Joy Division song is still good and Absolut can't ruin it.
I hate to admit that I didn't know of Nick Drake before the VW commercial. So I am glad for the opportunity it presented to me.
Everybody has to learn everything sometime.
I was in the midst of a child induced Barney, PowerRangers, Pokemon fog, and I distinctly remember that song drawing me to the television to listen. I never purchased a VW.
@Baboleen - I know some people that didn't know about Velocity Girl before their VW commercial. I guess it works out in the end?
How about Band of Horses "Funeral" for that Ford ad? Or Grizzly Bear -- GRIZZLY BEAR -- offering "Two Weeks" for VW and the Washington State Lottery?
I get that indie bands are now getting a ton of exposure by going this route, but really? "Funeral" for a car ad?
Well, it is complicated. Because it's not just the exposure. It's become the only way--along with touring--to make any kind of significant sum of money. Which is important when you're paying out four or five people--at least, that's just the members of the band.
I mean, Grizzly Bear's album sales are probably pretty good, so maybe they're just greedy.
I thought the Grizzly Bear song was a new track?
(for the lottery ad, I mean.)
What gets me is "When you do something differently you get something exceptional." Yep. By definition. Absolut: We know what words mean.
To me it just sounds like the death rattle of the music industry.
Those are ice cubes.
In wine!
So, as I understand it:
Neil Young fought against the tide in the '80s, but commercialism was kind of cool anyway, and New Wave bands and popstars and aging hippies turned yuppies alike all sort of understood the irony of it.
Then Pearl Jam and Nirvana came along, and agreed with Neil that commercialism sucked, and umm, something-something integrity! It was the death of irony!
Then Pearl Jam's integrity meant they couldn't tour for the rest of the decade, and Nirvana's "integrity" meant that Kurt Cobain couldn't tour for the rest of forever. And TRL came along, and Britney Spears was sort of interesting (read: hot), and what was the deal with Fred Durst? We knew it wasn't important to have opinions on these matters, but we wanted to anyway. Rebirth of irony!
Then Bush v. Gore wounded irony. We tried to be serious and political. 9/11. Death of irony.
Then Kelly Clarkson v. Justin Guarini! Very Serious Actor Johnny Depp dressed up as a pirate! Re-birth of irony!
Kerry loses. Death of irony!
Kid gets fired for skipping work, dressing up like a fairy, drinking beer, and posting it to Facebook. Rebirth of irony!
Financial crisis. Death of irony.
Obama and Lady Gaga. Birth of really earnest irony.
Oil spill and Absolut. Death of earnestness and irony.
That about right?
Iron my shirt.
Next up: birth/death/rebirth of sarcasm.
I have the same reaction to this ad, which is now polluting the NBA finals:
It has to do with identity. This song once belonged to me. And I am not a hamster in a toaster. Nor will I ever drive a KIA. Watching these ads feels like getting dumped for someone who Tivos The Marriage Ref. I KNOW YOU, WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? Remember when we had our first kiss in the high school parking lot, it was 10:30 a.m. and we were going to be late to class and Drew had the gate of this Jeep Cherokee open and he was playing this with his aftermarket speakers that he was so proud of? And now you're that person who tweets about your social networking consultation expertise. It wasn't always like that.
Everything's corrupted, can you just leave me ONE THING to consider sacred? One? I'm only asking for Black Sheep, not like Pearl Jam or anything. Nobody will notice if they don't make their reunion splash on the third stage at Coachella.
Just, mine.
The Awl comments don't like embeds. Here's the profane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfJnqbudMzs
Normally I don't mind when an band sells out for a commercial. You get to a certain age, you want some financial stability, maybe a house. Kids are expensive, etc. The romanticism of being pure for your art is short-lived when you're still in a one-bedroom apartment at age 40. And I think some bands don't attach the same emotional meaning to their songs --how can you after playing the goddamn thing 500 times?
HOWEVER. New Order are not starving musicians, and I presume they still own the rights to this. So that's strike one. And the spot itself is terrible --wankery about twee art projects, a completely fake artistic community, unoriginal imagery. It could be for anything. Microsoft? Sure. Miracle Whip? Life-insurance? What the hell.
At one point after Johnny Cash's death, an ad agency wanted to use "Ring of Fire" in a Preparation H spot. Cash's family blocked the idea. So, yeah, there's some integrity left with some artists (and their heirs!).
If you hadn't linked through I would have thought that was pure urban myth. Unbelievable.
Isaac Brock in the Onion AV Club. Makes sense to me.
O: Was licensing your songs to commercials a tough decision?
IB: Figuring out ways to pay the rent isn't really a tough decision. Around the time we did the beer commercial and the shoe commercial, I thought, "Am I compromising my music by doing this?" And I think not. I like keeping the lights on in my house. People who don't have to make their living playing music can bitch about my principles while they spend their parents' money or wash dishes for some asshole. Principles are something that people are a lot better at checking in other people than keeping their own. My rationale behind the beer commercial was, "I like drinking MGD! I like beer probably more than I should, probably more than is healthy." I was hoping I could get a lifetime supply out of the deal, but I guess I'll have to buy it with that big ol' check. [Laughs.]