I was at my brothers girlfriends dance show the other night and a song came on that reminded me of a film and instantly I thought to myself, i’m going to have to watch that again.
It was the song that Stifler and Bear have a dance-off to in the gay club in American Pie The Wedding, I don’t know the name of the song, hows it go now ….. she’s a maniac, Maniac on the floooor ….. After that it got me thinking about how successful brands / franchises have almost exploited brilliant songs – exploited because you remember the song from an advert, movie even a soap, not because it is a cool song or you like the artist.
Mind you maybe soaps don’t exploit actual songs, but their theme tunes are almost the only thing that is distinguishable about them – they all seem to have the same story lines, but everyone knows the, duh du du dudududu du dun na na na na naaa na na na, that was suppose to be eastenders.
Its not just songs either, it could be a chime or beep that instantly reminds you of that particular product, everyone knows the windows chime – im not a pc, but i recognise it.
The brand that stands out for me, unsurprisingly, is Apple. When they were doing the black shadow like figure dancing on a bright coloured background – you could tell it was an apple advert by sight but furthermore you could tell it was an apple advert if you weren’t in the room and could hear it come on the tv. Once Flathead by the Fratellis kicked in, for some reason you assumed it was for apple and not an advert for the Fratellis’ new album. Im going back abit there – 3 years or so, but that one still sticks in my head and i actually bought the album after i realised who sang that song.
Im a big music fan and I believe brands and music take advantage of each other, artists let the big boys use their songs for publicity and the big boys use music to gain a viral advantage over competitors, google “what song is used in the new apple ad” and you will see lists of people asking that very question, wanting to know the name of the song, but the only way to describe it would be to mention the advert they saw it on, creating a viral spiral.
– a successful brand shouldn’t just be visually pleasing!