Nike features Saul Williams Song in New TV Commercial – VP Freaks Out
When I first saw Nike’s new television ad during the other night’s episode of South Park, I couldn’t decide what I was feeling. Anger, joy, discontent, surprise, shock, dismay? Saul Williams’ righteous anthem – “List of Demands (Reparations)” – raises the hairs on the back of my neck. But now that Nike has plundered it for the “My Better is Better” campaign, I can’t decide if I should be outraged or pleased.
Given today’s market it’s no wonder that artist’s are looking for new ways to get more exposure. Bands like Wilco, Feist, and Andrew Bird have compromised their integrity for the likes of VW, Apple and Marriott. I don’t even want to talk about what happened to the Shins after Garden State. But is there a limit to this sort of bullshit? Should I be happy for Saul or pissed at him? Is this a necessary evil?
No, let’s take it to another level. It’s not even a question of discovery to me. I’m not going to play the sellout card or pretend to be cool because I already knew about the likes of Williams two years ago. No, that battle can be fought by some other blog. This is the sad bi-product of the digital music revolution and the iPodization of America.
Yup – that’s right. Even though we’ve successfully destroyed record labels and ridiculous CD prices, we’ve failed to realize that we’ve also destroyed a little bit of art in the process. Get ready for the new era of the single. Get ready for artists to stop making albums and start releasing one new song each month to garner ad revenues on their websites. Get ready for increased prices of concert tickets. Promotion is now a question of mindshare and advertising. We really have no one to blame but ourselves.
To prove my point, I took a screen shot from Saul Williams’ iTunes profile. Hmmm… guess which song is most popular?
Yes, it’s “List of Demands (Reparations).” Nevermind that the song is part of an incredible album that really questions the nature of hip hop – no, we don’t have time for that anymore. Trim the fat and give me 3:18 of bliss. Isn’t anyone curious about his other work? Maybe you only care if you write a music blog.
I guess we can’t blame Saul Williams or other artists who’ve paved the way for a different kind of corporate structure to the music industry. But as our attention spans continue to get shorter and shorter I think we’ve got to wonder what we’re doing to the art of it all. Sure, now you have the freedom to explore several artists, pick and choose songs, and cram those iPod buds down your ears, but what’s going to happen to art for art’s sake? Call me a romantic, but I think this is a tragedy. I want artist to take risks, explore their music, and not play to the masses. Otherwise, we’re going nowhere fast.
MP3s:
Saul Williams – List of Demands (Reparations)Saul Williams – Black History Month
Nike has an interesting history of getting non-mainstream and pseudo-anti-capitalist people to do ads, from The Beatles (albeit against their will) to William S. Burroughs.
My college adviser wrote a book called “Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh” that’s a great read on the cultural power of advertising.
I’d think of it in another way. Artists make as much from one hit song on iTunes as they did selling two million albums, so it doesn’t really make them take less risks. Creativity will always be there, as will the quest for a hit single. People bought albums for one song only all the time – now they just have a way to avoid it. The artist still gets paid …
As far as “selling out” – that’s a thing of the past, a totally antiquated concept. Brand association and selling your art to advertisers is just the way things happen now – they can control it, and fuck it if you get paid, right? It’s up to the individual artist to decide if he/she’s comfortable associating him or herself to a particular brand. In this case, Saul Williams is apparently OK with Nike – child labor, sweatshops, foreign outsourcing and all. I’d say that’s more a commentary on who he is, rather than Nike.
Don’t you care about the form of the album? Yes, there can be creativity in making the best “single” but what about the best “album.” Are you not sad to see it on its way out? I am. To me the album is like a novel, a single a short story. Both involve creativity, sure, but to create a novel takes, in my opinion, much more talent. However, I do realize I’m not a thirteen year old waiting for the next Hannah Montana single. It’s just sad that you’ve already resigned to seeking the single as the musician’s new “quest.” I always thought the radio song was what musicians complained to their labels about. Now there’s not much point in making anything else.
Wait a second … Don’t you think it’s a bit idealistic to think that artists are out to construct great albums and only that? There are some that do, but not many – they’re out to get rich. Scrilla, scratch, paper, yayper. If every band out there had the opportunity to do a proverbial deal with the devil that could get them a hit song, but at the cost of compromising their musicianship or putting out an album with only two good songs, 95 percent would jump. The album isn’t dying – bands that make great albums want to make great albums and will continue to do so.
I’m an album only listener – all my playlists are albums and I listen to an album at a time. I haven’t found it more difficult to do so in the past three years.
That’s because you don’t have a brain. If you think the only reason people form bands is to make money, you’re way off. It’s to get laid.
pffft… look how far behind Idolator is:
http://idolator.com/379647/saul-williams-net-album-gets-boost-from-shoe-ad
Stranger Dance 4EVA.
I like this post in that you have concisely explained the ‘ipodization of america’. The music industry has been altered by Napster, itunes and the digital medium to force a change in the money-making aspect of the industry. Right or wrong, it’s a consequence of the actions that have preceeded it.
One point I think the blogosphere has failed to consider is that Saul did not sold out get his name out there, but that he in fact is manipulating the system. I once saw an interview with Michael Moore in the movie “The Corporation” where he said the following:
“You know, I’ve often thought it’s very ironic that I’m able to do all this and yet what am I on? I’m on networks. I’m distributed by studios that are owned by large corporate entities. Now, why would they put me out there when I am opposed to everything that they stand for? And I spend my time on their dime opposing what they believe in. Well, it’s because they don’t believe in anything. They put me on there because they know that there’s millions of people that want to see my film or watch the TV show, and so they’re gonna make money. And I’ve been able to get my stuff out there because I’m driving my truck through this incredible flaw in capitalism, the greed flaw. The thing that says that the rich man will sell you the rope to hang himself with if he thinks he’ll make a buck off it. Well, I’m the rope. I hope. I’m part of the rope.”
Love him or hate him, Moore makes a good point here that applies to Williams. To militant, anti-establishment people like them, TV networks, billion dollar movie studios and even Nike’s bottomless marketing dollars are a tool which can be used to disseminate information. This isn’t Saul selling out, this is Saul taking advantage of the ‘greed flaw’, in Moore’s words, to put out his message. He isn’t a hypocrite, he’s an innovator – as an artist, and as a revolutionary.
I was not one of the ‘cool’ people, as the author mentioned, who knew of Williams two years ago; I learned who he was because of this mainstream add that plays every other commercial during the NBA playoffs. After buying his album (yes, I bought the whole thing on itunes), I’ve come to really appreciate that his move to put his song on the commercial was likely not a decision he took lightly, and is rather one that he felt would enable him to gain a wider audience at the expense of the very medium he was using to put his word out – a faceless, slave labour company with virtually no scruples. The fact that he made money for having his ad play wasn’t the objective, it was some icing on the cake. A final ‘F*ck you’ to the establishment.
- PSTG
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