I guess we’ve got to blame the Stones.  Their 1981 partnership with Jovan
broke the barrier and set the trend.

It’s important to start with this event because it proves the lie everybody
in the touring business has been spouting for the following twenty five years. 
That acts NEED sponsors to make ends meet.  That you can’t tour without
Madison Avenue money.  That Stones STADIUM tour went clean/sold out.  Tell me, how can the biggest rock and roll band in the land go on tour and sell out and
LOSE money?  Can’t be done.  Unless, maybe, the tickets are a buck.  That Jovan
cash just went to the bottom line.

But that’s the entertainment business circle jerk.  Where those in power live
in a rarified air where the end consumer doesn’t exist and what they dictate
reality is IS!

Then came hip-hop.

According to my research, black culture is different.  It’s about getting the
money NOW!  And if you can do it at the expense of the man, BE PROUD OF IT! 
Maybe it’s because all the recording companies of yore ripped off the artists.
 Maybe it’s because African-Americans are fearful they won’t live to see
another day.  Whatever the motivation, they want the cash now.  Even if it’s at a
discounted rate.

And, since the rappers were doing it, the rockers jumped in.

Then, with the aging of the population, hipsters started populating
advertising agencies.  And they selected some hip old numbers as soundtracks for cool new ads.  Like using that Trio song to sell Volkswagens.  A sales resurgence
for that track was used as justification for labels to now license NEW tracks
for commercials.  Then the example of Moby’s "Play" licensing was used as
FURTHER justification.

Although it was found revenue, the licensing of the "Play" tracks didn’t
break that album.  Traditional MTV and radio airplay did.  But, now the labels had
PROOF!  That this was a new AVENUE!  Through which you could break BANDS!

But I ask you, how many bands have been broken recently through commercials? 
Better yet…  How many bands who’ve benefited from commercial airplay have
SUSTAINED CAREERS?

And now in this airplay challenged world, wherein MTV plays almost no videos
and radio plays the same damn urban tracks again and again, labels say this is
the only way to BREAK a band.  Make no mistake, it’s just whoring out for the
buck.  No real band has been broken by selling out, all the real bands have
been broken the TRADITIONAL way, via ROAD WORK!

But the worst thing about the commercialization of hit music, QUALITY music,
is that music has now become a second-class citizen.  A JOKE!  Music went from
the PRIMARY entertainment medium, the one that entered your heart and STAYED
there, to an afterthought secondary to the primary vehicle.  A lubricant at
best.  Napster didn’t devalue music, it’s the pricks in the business who cut up
the carcass and sold each and every part, sometimes to more than one user, who
eviscerated the public’s belief.

And now things are over the top.

U2 pimps for Apple.  Again and again and again.  Did you see the new ad Steve
Jobs trotted out in his speech on Wednesday?  Watch that.  Does that seem
like a hit to YOU?  No, that’s just U2 trying to elongate their touring schedule.
 Stay in the public eye.  As was their appearance on "Entourage".  Only one
thing…  Their tours sell out ANYWAY!  So that’s a REAL head-scratcher.  The
ONLY one benefiting here is Apple.  Especially when you realize that MTV has
proven the more you’re exposed, the shorter your career.

Then there’s Paul McCartney.  Does his tour really need to be promoted by
Fidelity Investments?  It’s not like there are tickets available.  It’s not like
he needs the cash to make ends meet.  Especially with the prices he’s
charging.  It’s just PURE greed.  By someone richer than whole COMMUNITIES!  And you wonder why people no longer believe.

But it gets worse.  Crack Sir Paul’s new CD and you find a LEXUS ad. 
Disguised as a contest, wherein you can win a new car.  BUT, you’ve got to visit the
WEBSITE first.  Where you have to endure an endless Lexus ad before you can
enter your personal information for a sweepstakes you’re not going to win.  Why,
when people are loath to give out their personal information on the Web, for
fear of spam, never mind identity theft, do Capitol and McCartney believe
their audience is going to stand for this?  Play along ignorantly?  No, people are
offended.

Now, some will argue all this is necessary to get the message out.  That
Paul’s got a new album and tour.  Well, it’s not like this story hasn’t played out
in the conventional media.  God, he played the SUPER BOWL!  It’s like
desirous of reaching someone in an old age home in Montana they’re batting ALL of us over the head again and again.  Like we’re not supposed to be pissed off?

And then you’ve got the Stones for AmeriQuest.

Nobody’s breaking bands here.  This is just pure greed.

No one’s asking the average American to sell out.  Why do you think he tole
rates these rich bitches getting richer?

I’ve got to tell you, he doesn’t.  He’s pissed off.  Maybe he’ll still go to
see McCartney or the Stones, but he doesn’t feel bad at all about stealing the
rest of the music, and is sure the wannabes making deals with corporations
today are worthless hacks who he shouldn’t pay attention to.

Don’t tell me it’s a different era.  That everybody does it.  That it’s
accepted.

That’s like telling me they’ve invented a new way to have sex.  That people
now sport six toes.  Human nature hasn’t changed.  Abuse the audience while
claming profiteering is NECESSARY and expect a backlash.  One within which CD
sales are down and nobody wants to see the new acts live.