Music Pimpin'

Wow, it is amazing how the world of music has changed over the past dozen years or so. I heard a song on the radio today by Train - "Get To Me." It is really catchy and I am sure it gets a bunch of airplay, but the first time I heard this song it was in a cell phone commercial many, many months ago. Five years ago, this song would only have been in a commercial months or perhaps years after it was a big old radio hit. Not so anymore, this song was in a commercial and that finally got it airplay. This song is from 2003 but is just getting popular now.

Ten years ago, they wouldn't have used an actual hit song, they would have doctored it up a bit and used that for a commercial. The best example of that I can think of is Toby Keith's "Big Ol' Truck" was pimped into "I'm A Ford Truck Man" - sad but true. There are dozens of other songs suffered the same fate and their commercial alter egos are all just as forgettable.

Bands are just pimpin' themselves out all over the place these days for a shot at some dead presidents. How many bands does "One Tree Hill" pimp out in each episode? Seems like they pimp out a dozen songs in every damn episode. (OK, now you know I watch "One Tree Hill" like a pre-teen school girl.) It used to be taboo for a band to have a song used in a network TV show. They were considered sellouts for that kind of exposure. Now it can jump start someone's career.

Oddly enough, the first TV show I remember doing this was.........drum roll please...............Beverly Hills 90210! They were pimpin' the Bare Naked Ladies back in 1997, the Goo Goo Dolls in 1995 and good old Jamie Walters waaaayyyyy back in 1994. Like I always say - everything I learned, I learned by watching 90210!

"I just scored the most righteous job of the summer!"