We Are Proud Of Our Choices

Brought to you by the mighty cleaning power of Drano (April 2010)

I just watched Gaga and Beyoncé’s new video for “Telephone” and I feel dirty. Not because of its sub-Tarantino exploitation movie imagery. Rather, it’s the shameless intrusion of the mobile-phone, soft-drink and camera paying for the good Lady’s 10-minute flights of promotional fancy that leaves a bad taste. It feels cheap, whilst funding something that’s obviously very expensive.

I’m from the last of those few generations lucky to have enjoyed advert-free state broadcasting and whose early messings-about with music or paint were facilitated by social-security money or university grants. Post-punk, we were the privileged inheritors of an Enlightenment notion that art should be autonomous and independent. The recent return with a vengeance of product-placement – the noughties felt like the fifties – reminds us that it has rarely been so.

Once high-art existed to sing the praises of Kings or God. In the 20th century popular art was co-opted to do so for soap-powder or motor-cars. And when you fund something with sponsorship or advertising then the people paying tend to want a say in what that something is, often with awful results. Movies lumbered with clumsy product-placement. Reality shows chosen over TV drama. In 2001 Fay Weldon wrote a novel called The Bulgari Connection. She took £18,000 from the jeweler and was required to mention it twelve times through the course of the book. Such crassness breaks down the fourth wall in the most insulting way possible.

Unlike the novel, despite the computer, much popular art remains expensive and can’t be made independently of patronage. As a consumer I don’t want to choose only from folk or indie – sometimes I want Up!, Mad Men or ZTT. And if I want to be Trevor Horn I need a major label or an established artist to work with. It’s amazing what one can do with a laptop today but I’ve been spoiled by vintage microphones and trained engineers, by the magic of full orchestral string and brass sections. Falling budgets mean I may not get these resources in future. Any soft-drinks or phone companies out there with a soft-spot for orchestral disco? Call me, there’s a record I want to make.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 9:53 am. It is filed under groove columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.