Some of you may be tired of my obsession with the New Zealand music scene, but you've tolerated my constant name dropping of little-known-anywhere-but-down-under sheep shaggers like Dave Dobbyn, Garageland, Monkey Puzzle, Goodshirt, Scribe and Golden Horse. I love them all, even the pop crap like Steriogram and Elemeno P. So imagine my horror when I saw this Heineken ad last night while watching Top Gear.
OK, I could understand when Apple bought Walkie-Talkie Man for an iPod commercial. Those kids just want to make a buck, and I can dig that -- I'm a whore too. But Chris Knox? The guy who along with Alec Bathgate has given us 30 years of DIY goodness withToy Love and Tall Dwarfs? I don't begrudge him the money; he certainly has earned it, but seriously, Heineken? -- Scratch that: Heineken motherfucking LIGHT?!? Couldn't he at least choose to sell out for a decent beer? Surely the gumboot wearing islanders must have some good beers of their own.
In no way is this as disappointing as the horrible and sickly ironic London Calling incident shortly before Joe Strummer's untimely demise. And I'm glad that this may expose Knox, however briefly, to a wider if more fickle audience, who'll maybe go out and pick up a copy of Beat. Unfortunately, since "It's Love" is the first track on the album they'll probably never make it to his own self-effacing atheist eulogy in "Mortal Coil", or the gut-wrenching story of his father's decline into dementia in "Becoming Something Other".
Of course, as is my modus operandi, this whole post up to this point is just the setup for a tangent. That being, intellectual property. I really think that once a song has been made into a commercial, it is a de facto statement that it is now a part of the public domain. The way I see it, if you've a song given away in order to send a message, then you can't take it back. In the same way that "Imagine" or Guernica are inextricably linked with their messages, when art is used to promote any product or idea it ceases to be the property of the creator, and becomes an inextricable part of the overall culture. Therefore, in my opinion any song or video used for purposes of propaganda by its creator can and should be copied and redistributed with clear conscience.
1 comment:
Right with ya on that last bit. In theory, at least...
Thoughtful stuff - and, in my defence, I didn't know it was Light when I said yeah - I dunno if I'd have let em use my music for a NZ ad. Thanks for the cool words on some of those other songs.
Cheers,
Chris Knox
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