Rolling Stone sent out this tweet a few minutes ago:
10 cases of musicians selling out in ads: http://t.co/VT4fEuyhn9 / @wired
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) February 7, 2014
Ostensibly, this is in response to the Bob Dylan Super Bowl Chrysler ad, which was long and not particularly interesting. But it also raises an interesting question: What does it mean to “sell out”?
The standard answer is that allowing businesses to use your music to sell product is “selling out,” which is something that Mr. Dylan — one of my musical idols — has been doing for a long time.
Some artists — Bruce Springsteen, some members of The Doors — refuse and I commend them for doing so.
But should we really be critical of artists who turn their music over to the ad industry? The answer, I think, is no. What, after all, are we criticizing exactly? The connection to a product or the act itself? If it is the specific economic transaction, then we need to re-examine exactly how our culture industry works and the deals the artists are forced to make just to have the art they produce reach the public.
Recording artists work with labels, which front them money to record and ultimately take off the top a piece of the money generated when a record is released and sold. The writing of the songs, the recording and mixing of the music, the choice of cover art and even the session players, are viewed as elements in a larger economic transaction. Most of these costs, as I understand it, are borne by the artist — charged against the revenue that comes in before royalties are distributed (please correct me if I am wrong). Once the record is released, the artist goes on tour to promote it — again, on the band/artist’s dime — along with making all the requisite appearances on local radio and local and national television, when possible.
These post-recording efforts are lumped under the category of promotion — writers and filmmakers do this, as well — and is generally viewed as part of the business model for producers of popular art.
And, yes, it is a business model — which brings me back to the question of the use of songs in advertising or the artists themselves in ads. The critics of the practice view this as inherently different, as somehow more unseemly than the various economic transactions that occur during the recording and promotions process. Asking artists to sell themselves out to record companies is OK, according to this line of logic, but making a few dollars by hawking Victoria Secret panties, as Dylan did a decade ago, is not. (And, really, how is Dylan appearing in an ad for underwear or cars any different than Matthew McConaugheyand Scarlett Johansen doing the same, or Martin Scorcese appearing in ads for credit cards and so on.)
I’m not saying that there is no difference. Rather, what I am saying is that the difference is not as great as we choose to believe, that the issue isn’t the use of the music in ads but in our decision to subject everything we do in our society to market principles. We have turned everything — including our high and popular arts — into commodities. Lady Gaga’s latest single — of Bruce’s or the Dum Dum Girls’ — are no different under our economic model than a can of Starkist Tuna, a Twinkie or the Edsel. The success of all of these ventures is judged on their sales figures — as bands who have been dropped from major labels because of slow sales know all too well. If the artist needs to license his or her music to make money, who am I to stop them?
Is this right? No. I do believe there is something inherently different about art, that it should not be treated purely as another object for profit. But until we move away from the current system of art-as-commodity — and not only art, but health care and other social needs — we should be careful about leveling charges against musical artists for using what we tell them is a salable item to make themselves a few extra dollars.
Basically, by ensuring that art remains a commodity no different in the marketplace than soap, we are the ones who have sold out our artists. They are not the ones selling out.
Send me an e-mail.
Hank Kalet 