As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising Bethany Klein As He Ard on TV: Po Pul Ar Music in Ad Ver Tising This page has been left blank intentionally As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising BeTHAny Klein University of Leeds, UK © Bethany Klein 2009 All rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Bethany Klein has asserted her moral right under the copyright, designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identi.ed as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing limited Ashgate Publishing company Wey court east suite 420 union r oad 101 cherry street Farnham Burlington surrey, gu 9 7PT VT 05401-4405 england us A www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Klein, Bethany As heard on TV: popular music in advertising. – (Ashgate popular and folk music series) 1. Music in advertising 2. Popular music – History and criticism 3. Television advertising i. Title 306.4'8424 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klein, Bethany As heard on TV: popular music in advertising / Bethany Klein. p. cm. – (Ashgate popular and folk music series) includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6665-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Music in advertising. 2. Popular music–History and criticism. 3. Television advertising. i. Title. Ml3790.K467 2009 781.5'4–dc22 2008037174 isBn 978-0-7546-6665-3 c ontents General Editor’s Preface vii Acknowledgements ix introduction 1 1 As Heard on TV: The Marriage of Popular Music and Advertising 9 2 selling r evolution: The r ole of Authorship in Music l icensing 23 3 commercial Art: Advertising as an Artistic Vehicle for Music Placement 41 4 “The new r adio”: Music l icensing as a r esponse to industry Woe 59 5 in Perfect Harmony: Popular Music and cola Advertising 79 6 Taming r ebellion: Advertising’s control over Meaning 97 7 negotiating the Future of Popular Music in Advertising 121 Appendix 141 Bibliography 149 Index 161 This page has been left blank intentionally g eneral e ditor’s Preface The upheaval that occurred in musicology during the last two decades of the twentieth century has created a new urgency for the study of popular music alongside the development of new critical and theoretical models. A relativistic outlook has replaced the universal perspective of modernism (the international ambitions of the 12-note style); the grand narrative of the evolution and dissolution of tonality has been challenged, and emphasis has shifted to cultural context, reception and subject position. Together, these have conspired to eat away at the status of canonical composers and categories of high and low in music. A need has arisen, also, to recognize and address the emergence of crossovers, mixed and new genres, to engage in debates concerning the vexed problem of what constitutes authenticity in music and to offer a critique of musical practice as the product of free, individual expression. Popular musicology is now a vital and exciting area of scholarship, and the Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series presents some of the best research in the field. Authors are concerned with locating musical practices, values and meanings in cultural context, and draw upon methodologies and theories developed in cultural studies, semiotics, poststructuralism, psychology and sociology. The series focuses on popular musics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is designed to embrace the world’s popular musics from Acid Jazz to Zydeco, whether high tech or low tech, commercial or non-commercial, contemporary or traditional. Professor Derek B. Scott Professor of critical Musicology university of l eeds This page has been left blank intentionally Acknowledgements This book and the PhD dissertation from which it originates have benefited from the involvement of a variety of people on two continents. At the university of Pennsylvania, I thank Klaus Krippendorff, Katherine Sender, and David Grazian for their interest in and counsel on this project, as committee members and mentors, and especially my advisor Barbie Zelizer, for her unwavering support and invaluable advice. in the uK, i am grateful to dave Hesmondhalgh for his encouragement of my research and transatlantic move, and simon Frith for his early suggestions regarding scope and organization. Thanks to series editor Derek scott and Ashgate senior commissioning editor Heidi May for their enthusiasm and guidance during the publishing process. Portions of chapter 4 appeared in Media, Culture & Society and an earlier version of chapter 5 appeared in Popular Music and Society; I thank the publishers for allowing me to include the revised versions here. i am indebted to my informants, for sharing their time and their thoughtful perspectives with me. each interview allowed me to sharpen the details of the cultural practice i have attempted to map, and i owe the richness of these descriptions entirely to them. i hope that my portrayals come close to representing their intelligence, passion, and humor. A number of friends have kindly combed sections for typos and unclear logic, and provided a trusty sounding board for my ideas. I thank my current collaborator claire Wardle, and former Annenberg peers nicole Maurantonio, Matt carlson, and the culture club for their helpful comments. i am especially grateful to Adela Smith, full-time best friend and part-time copyeditor, for keeping my prose clean and my mind sane. Thanks to my family for being proud of me, whether or not they understand what i do, and to the many friends who supported me in more subtle ways, by reminding me to attend music events, enjoy restaurants, and share pub quiz duties, when I could have been reading and writing; Nicole Mercurio, Reyna Howkins, and Jeff Perkins were particularly proficient and entertaining distractions during the research process. Finally, I thank Morrissey, who taught me to take popular music seriously: I will never forget the songs that saved my life.