As Heard on TV: Reconsidering the Use of Recorded Music in Television Commercials
Abstract:
This article examines the reaction of music industry workers and music fans to the
practice of licensing songs to television advertising. Informants - including musicians,
critics, DJs, independent label owners, and music collectors - were surveyed to determine
both their general opinion of the practice and the traits upon which cases of song
licensing for television commercials are evaluated. While systematic judgment of
individual instances appears to have replaced outright rejection of the practice, the
reassessment seems less indicative of an ideological shift than of surrender to an
environment of media consolidation that accommodates a narrowing range of recording
artists.
Popular music and advertising have long been strange bedfellows. While
commercial affiliations of musicians have become more widespread and conspicuous
over the past two decades, the association has in fact existed since the dawn of
rock’n’roll: the King himself, Elvis Presley, loaned his voice to a radio jingle for
Southern-Maid Donuts (Tayler). Particularly during the 60s, as the popular music-as-art
movement grew, such affiliations between an artist and commercial enterprise have
drawn critical eyes and occasional cries of “sell-out.” These instances of “corruption by
association” (Arnold 205) represent a threat to the authenticity and artistic legitimation of
popular music. Yet, in our increasingly consolidated media environment, licensing songs
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Convention