Last Thursday, Ben Cardew wrote an interesting article for the Stool Pigeon about bands, branding and what it means to “sell out” in 2012. This has become a familiar topic in recent times and I remember particularly a panel talk a couple of years ago at Hard Working Class Heroes where a very similar point was debated. I say debated but really it was generally decided that “selling out” was an old-hat idea that should be discarded in this brave new world of gross advertising saturation where every musician is/should be out to make a buck. Of course, this was decided by a panel of people who work in the music industry rather than as actual musicians so their entire raison d’etre is to make money out of music. Obviously they would take any possible opportunity to do that.
Cardew’s article is similar in its conclusions though it at least makes a stab at understanding why someone wouldn’t want to license their music for some advertising company to use. It falls down in its reductive nature though, saying that “in 2012, a [Bill] Hicks-inspired cull of the artistic register would mean the decimation of any forward-thinking music collection leaving a couple of Minor Threat 12”s and one Radiohead CD. Iggy Pop’s doing insurance ads; Thom Yorke isn’t. You decide who’s worthier of the artistic register.”
Now, if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t die a little inside every time you see one of Iggy Pop’s insurance ads then you can probably stop reading. If, like me, you find them to be a sad spectacle making a cartoon out of a pretty legendary artist, then you might understand where I’m coming from. I should say though, Iggy Pop isn’t the worst. He is of a different time, a time when people like him could become famous making the kind of music he made. That doesn’t happen any more, much like Radiohead couldn’t really happen again. So we should really be concentrating on artists coming up now, people who were essentially born into our current situation.
Cardew does make one exceptionally cutting comment about that current situation; “it’s pretty brazen to criticise an artist for taking the corporate loot if you’ve downloaded their entire back catalogue gratis from The Pirate Bay”. This is the crux for most musicians, even those with unshakeable scruples. If people, fans, aren’t going to pay for this music, who is? As Cardew points out, the likes of Converse, Scion and Mountain Dew will. They are making up the shortfall from loss of sales and the ever-increasing price (and, hence, diminishing profits) of touring. Well, they’re making it up for a select few artists who fit into what they think their brand should sound and look like in 2012. So if you’re busy booking sync deals with ad companies, think about how Carles talked about content farms recently, how “It diminishes the fan connection to an artist” and how “U just look and sound the way ‘new music’ is supposed to sound”.
The unfortunate, self-aware “safeness” that is required of musicians who fit into the marketing plans of major companies has also leaked into the live music market, mostly through festivals though increasingly in smaller situations as well. The festival market in Ireland and elsewhere is completely dominated by brands (mostly alcohol brands here) who want to force you to drink/consume/wear their product while you stare and distant bands playing on stages covered in ads for their product. This has become accepted practice, even among smaller festivals like Body & Soul though it is obviously at saturation point at Electric Picnic and (the festival formerly known as) Oxegen. The Picnic is a great case in point, especially the Bacardi-sponsored area that is now a well established part of the festival’s make-up. They book an interesting combination of local and world-famous DJs, though they are all told to play music that fits the “Bacardi experience”, i.e. colourful, upbeat house-lite. So it’s not really about the integrity of the DJ or the crowd’s desires, it’s about how well both of these things can fit into Bacardi’s vision of their market. Jack Daniels, Smirnoff, Heineken, Bulmers, Bavaria, Absolut and Jameson are all engaged in a similar market in this country alone.
Arthur’s Day is the same logic, taken to the streets in an apocalyptic application of brand engagement without equal. There was a little talk this year about how the (many, many) bands playing Arthur’s Day events might be compromising their integrity a small bit for the sake of cash but it wasn’t widespread. How any band could actively engage with a day and night so obviously driven by corporate greed is mind-boggling, but few (if any) worthwhile bands actually do. Those that do play defend it on the grounds of maybe pocketing a couple of hundred quid and having a good time playing to a packed pub. It’s unchecked hedonism, pure and simple, on everyone’s part.
One of the most pernicious examples of festival branding gone too far is when Arts Council-funded events are sponsored by major (again, mostly alcohol) companies. We can see this most obviously at the Absolut Fringe Festival and FMC’s Hard Working Class Heroes, which is heavily sponsored by Bulmers. Both of these events/organisations offer something to the cultural landscape in Dublin, hence they receive their funding from the Arts Coucil. However, they are both compromised by their reliance on corporate sponsorship which demeans the experience for performers and for audiences, especially as both have the remit of providing an outlet for supposedly adventurous or underground art in different forms. But if no one kicks up a fuss and people buy tickets, then what’s the harm, right?
In the end, selling out isn’t really one act or a line to cross. It’s a frame of mind. If you’re happy for your art to be used to sell something that you don’t personally endorse, that’s selling out. As seen above, that doesn’t (just) mean parading around on television with an iPad for a million quid*, it’s about choosing how your art is presented and therefore how it is absorbed and understood. Remember, that thing you have is what they want. It’s up to you to put a price on it.
*If someone offers you a million quid to parade around on television with an iPad, you might as well just do it. That’ll pay for a lifetime of great art making.
