After starting my ‘Music Diary Songs of Note’ I quickly realized that I wanted to look at both pop music for the music video trends, and also at some of the great jazz and other recordings I hoped to feature. So I’m going to use the ‘Music Diary Songs of Note’ label for the times I want to focus on the MUSIC, and now I’ll use “Pop Goes the Music Diary” when I am looking at the music industry.
In case you didn’t know, Britney Spears has a new song out called ‘Hold it against me’. It sort of reminds me of a joke running through my junior high back in the 1970’s:
If I told you that you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?
Oh wait – that pretty much IS the song! Yeah, you take an ancient infantile ‘pick up line’ and attach a hackneyed but infectious beat, force-feed it to the masses with sufficient money, and you have a ‘hit’.
But just in case the song didn’t catch on in spite of all the back-room deals and cash pumped behind it, Britney had a back-up plan: the video is actually a mass-marketing onslaught! Sure we have largely become immune to product placement – but then what does it say when something actually stands out as egregious pandering?
Britney reportedly made more than $500,000 from the blatant placements, which came from dating site PlentyofFish.com, make-up brand “Make Up For Ever”, Sony and the fragrance Radiance. Sony Music is Spear’s label, and Radiance is her fragrance, so those aren’t surprising. PlentyofFish.com got such a huge amount of camera time that the site has reportedly seen a massive up-tick in traffic.
Product placement might be a part of life, but such blatant pandering is both arrogant and demeaning. Sadly, since people don’t just accept it but actually respond to it, don’t expect it to go away any time soon …
Here for your own consumption is the latest Britney Spears fragrance commercial … um … Sony commercial … er… website commercial … uh … make-up advertisement … oh yeah … music video!
