Wilco Weighs In On The Volkswagon Vitriol
For the record, we take no issue with Wilco lending their tunes to VolksWagon's "it gets inside you" ad campaign (except that they're sorta silly, the "You Are My Face" one, anyway). As mentioned last time, though, there's hundreds of folks that are hot, bothered, and casting boulders over at the Via Chicago forum (see The inevitable sell-out post...). Always sensitive to fans' wants, womens' needs, whatever, Wilco HQ has offered their VW apology (via wilcoworld.net):
As many of you are aware, Volkswagen has recently begun running a series of TV commercials featuring Wilco music.Why? This is a subject we've discussed internally many times over the years regarding movies, TV shows and even the odd advertisement. With the commercial radio airplay route getting more difficult for many bands (including Wilco); we see this as another way to get the music out there. As with most of the above (with the debatable exception of radio) the band gets paid for this. And we feel okay about VWs. Several of us even drive them.
If you're keeping track, this is not the first time Wilco has licensed a song to or even been involved in a commercial...
...most recently a TV spot for Telefonica Mobile in Spain used a Wilco song and some years prior Jeff Tweedy appeared in a campaign for Apple Computer. Wilco have licensed hundreds of songs to television shows and films worldwide... from festival-only indie films to major motion pictures and weekly TV shows.Jeff appeared in an Apple ad? And Sky Blue Sky didn't get a free plug in Apple's new ad campaign? iPhone is such a dick.Thus far the songs in the VW campaign are "The Thanks I Get" (a bonus track from Sky Blue Sky sessions, available for download via the Enhanced CD and via iTunes) and "You are my Face". We expect to have more details re: other songs shortly. The current plan (subject to change, like everything) is for 5 or 6 songs to be used.
That's it. Don't believe everything you read unless you read it here.
HQ
Posted at 2:21 PM
Tags: Wilco
I say good for them. Wilco is one of my faves. This new record is not what the hipsters wanted so they might as well leave that part of their fanbase behind and "sell out."
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I don't understand why people take such issues with musicians making money. I mean, wouldn't you like them to be able to afford to continue being musicians? Hell, be happy for Wilco that they are gaining exposure on their own terms. Most musicians don't even own the rights to their own music, and find their creations in random commercials all the time, against their will. So if Wilco wants to give VW permission to use their music, more power to them! Dispel the myth people, just because you listen to an artist's music doesn't give you some sort of ownership of it. So back off of Wilco!
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They gotta eat... it's not like theyre making millions off these things. Maybe if Arcade Fire did this they could afford their own basketball.
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Ju Bean...Exactly.
God forbid a guy like Jeff Tweedy can feed his kids, pay his mortgage, and make car payments like the rest of us.
Good for him.
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Probably a bunch of angry Chicago Volvo drivers who are upset that Wilco wasn't used to promote their choice of car.
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When you listen to Alt. Country Easy Listening bands do you have much room to complain about people selling out?
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I don't see this controversy that blogs keep mentioning. Most people who leave comments seem supportive of the band. Sensationalism, IMO.
I don't care. I say, good for them. I'm happy that they're getting more attention. Jeff and the boys deserve it.
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For the record, "hipsters," no matter how loosely defined, aren't really Wilco's audience. Young professionals who are likely to buy a new car? Bingo! This is just a fine example of marketing synergy.
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people need to stop being babies over this. this is what wilco does for a living. so what if they have a song in a vw ad? fucking of montreal sold a song to outback steakhouse!!! even though they didn't perform the song in the ad. like these people would pass up 50,000 dollars or whatever these bands get paid for this sort of thing.
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get ready for this, guys
it's seriously good
"VWilco"
i am a marketing genius, it's true
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Advertising and Consumption are the driving forces of our society and the modern world. Not being okay with this doesn't make people reactionary. Wishing there was a better way for culture to be disseminated isn't wrong.
When we assume that our culture's way of utilizing Art for profit is the best way to do things, we are being lazy. Why is poetry dead in America? Because you can't sell cars and body lotions to a poem. But in fact, advertising copy has become a new form of poetry. Read the back of a gourmet potato chips bag if you disagree.
Art for art sakes is considered a dirty concept because we all embrace art as the means to promote consumption.
Gaudiness and profit define us, but I think balance is a good thing. Musicians don't always need to sell their music like this to live decently, especially not Wilco.
Sorry, I'm done now.
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Billy Donovan will probably be banned from coaching in the NBA for 5 years.
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The Apple ad with Tweedy was kind of neat, actually. Couldn't find it on YouTube but someone's hosted it here: http://www.appletvads.com/2006/07/10/ipoditunes-upload-4/ It's "Itunes concert long".
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I don't have problems with this inherently. I just hate the way they save face:
"With the commercial radio airplay route getting more difficult for many bands (including Wilco); we see this as another way to get the music out there."
Note to Wilco - beside KFOG, KCRW, KEXP and KGSR you never really were...on the radio.
I think the new record kind of stinks, so if they can get paid to make mini soundtracks to a car I might just buy (I live in NYC - no need for a car), more power to them.
Now, when I make all that NYC moolah and move to the burbs...that's when I am going to by my Spoon approved Jag!
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Jeff has kids that will most likely attend college some day as I am sure do the other members. You would do the same thing.
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Seriously, who the hell cares? They're making money and getting their music out there for others to enjoy. And don't tell me any of you hipster douchebags don't enjoy the fact that whenever one of these commercials comes on, you can proudly say you know that it's Wilco, or Of Montreal, or Feist playing in the background.
Hey, at least they're not little whiny bitches like Kevin Barnes was and never tried to use some stupid excuse to justify their actions.
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Speaking of Jeff and his kids, they've appeared in a Quaker Oat Meal commercial. That was kinda cool, actually.
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"Advertising and Consumption are the driving forces of our society and the modern world. Not being okay with this doesn't make people reactionary. Wishing there was a better way for culture to be disseminated isn't wrong."
Yes but there's a difference between "I wish this wasn't the way it was" and "Wilco is teh sellouts! How could they put a song on a car ad?!!?!". If you sit here and are angry at Wilco over this, you're a part of the latter group, and you're a douchebag.
"Why is poetry dead in America? Because you can't sell cars and body lotions to a poem. But in fact, advertising copy has become a new form of poetry. Read the back of a gourmet potato chips bag if you disagree."
*rolls eyes at the amount of blow-hardiness evident in this paragraph*
"Art for art sakes is considered a dirty concept because we all embrace art as the means to promote consumption."
Nothing like a sweeping generalization to make a valid poind...
"Gaudiness and profit define us, but I think balance is a good thing. Musicians don't always need to sell their music like this to live decently, especially not Wilco."
Who are you to decide what Wilco do or do not need to do? Wilco is a popular band at the moment, but if you remember their documentary... There was a point that Jeff Tweedy struggled to buy fast food for his kids. To say that there's something wrong with him for further securing his family's financial future with this incredibly HARMLESS act is just asinine.
"Sorry, I'm done now."
Don't apologize. Just get your head out of your ass.
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"For the record, "hipsters," no matter how loosely defined, aren't really Wilco's audience. Young professionals who are likely to buy a new car? Bingo! This is just a fine example of marketing synergy."
Exactly.
I gotta agree with christoball. I think Wilco sucks balls, but let's be honest for a second. Wilco does not NEED the money from VW. I mean, it's not like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a flop and they're starving on the tour bus cause they had to buy gas. Everyone in defense of Wilco acts as if the money is the reason for the music, or at least, that the two must be inextricably interconnected. On the record, music as art has existed for much, much longer than music as a means to make money.
I don't enjoy saying that I really like Common when I see him rapping for the Gap. I really liked the Of Montreal track that's now got a corporately mutated twin, and I don't really like that. When the Postal Sevice blew the fuck up over Honda ads, it made me stop likeing the songs as much. So when someone who really liked Wilco's music for the art of it get's offeneded when it's used to make money, it isn't always becuase they're afraid of their fragile indie-cred getting shattered; it's because they feel that this music meant something more than cute, hip, zippy German autos.
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from this post
"Wilco HQ has offered their VW apology."
I don't see an apology. In fact, they seem pretty comfortable with the idea of licensing. Many musicians (especially of the indie variety) have accepted licensing as a valuable source of income and exposure in an industry that is, quite often, feast or famine - mostly famine.
Lofty, antiquated ideals don't pay the bills or feed your family.
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"I gotta agree with christoball. I think Wilco sucks balls, but let's be honest for a second. Wilco does not NEED the money from VW. I mean, it's not like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a flop and they're starving on the tour bus cause they had to buy gas."
Oh come off it. People do tons of things for purposes other than necessity. It's blatantly ludicrous to attack Wilco for putting their songs in a commercial for a car. As they said, they enjoy the product, even. This is really nothing but lame whining from a bunch of kids who are most likely trust-fund addicts anyway.
"Everyone in defense of Wilco acts as if the money is the reason for the music, or at least, that the two must be inextricably interconnected."
No, but they do take part in a business called the "Record Industry". It is their job to make money off of music. There are tons of people who make art and never get a dime off of it. But because of that, you most likely haven't heard of them. That's not a bad thing, but it's also not a bad thing to make money off of what you create. You people are coming at this assuming that selling your art is a horrific thing, which it's absolutely not.
"On the record, music as art has existed for much, much longer than music as a means to make money."
Art existed before money. So what? Artists for CENTURIES have made a living off of their art. Was Michelangelo a sellout for being commissioned to do the Sistine Chapel ceiling? Were famous classical musicians sellouts for writing some of their most famous works as commissioned work for kings and the church?
NO. Again, get off your high horse.
"I don't enjoy saying that I really like Common when I see him rapping for the Gap."
Because you're an image conscious douchebag. That's your own problem, not Common's.
"I really liked the Of Montreal track that's now got a corporately mutated twin, and I don't really like that. When the Postal Sevice blew the fuck up over Honda ads, it made me stop likeing the songs as much. So when someone who really liked Wilco's music for the art of it get's offeneded when it's used to make money, it isn't always becuase they're afraid of their fragile indie-cred getting shattered; it's because they feel that this music meant something more than cute, hip, zippy German autos."
No, it does mean they are afraid of their fragile indie-cred, I think that's blatantly obvious.
Again, it's like saying that Mozart's music has lost it's music because they used a segment from his Requiem in the opening scene of X-men 2 (which they did).
Again, your argument is asinine.
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"Mozart's music has lost it's *meaning*..."
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Once again, I'd like to say that I think it's a brilliant move by Wilco to use a large corporation, such as VW, to get their music exposed to a larger audience, and as a side benefit ... to get paid for it.
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Christoball & Colin,
The problem is that you both are basing your entire arguments on this notion that there is this underlying greed in the actions of artists who use their work to promote mass consumption.
Nobody is saying that art for art sake is a dirty concept; in fact, it is one to be revered and greatly appreciated. But not every artist's goal is to make art for art's sake, and it would be terribly foolish of both of you to assume that because someone chooses to indulge the corporate world, of their own free will, that it is somehow founded in greed.
The fact is, deciding how your art is to be presented to the public is just another aspect of an artist's work. Whether it be a painter who chooses to hang his work in a gallery or sell it to an advertising agency, or a writer who chooses to craft a full-length novel or write quips for the back of potato chip bags; who are you to say that this isn't representative of what Wilco wants to do with the rights to their music?
Artists have a notoriously long history of doing things they don't necessarily support to fund their work. But if it directly comes out of the artist's mouth that they take no issue with the sale of their work, you are allowed to disagree and voice that fact; however, that doesn't make it an expression of laziness or greed, so much as it is directly representative of what the artist wants to do with their creations- and that's their right! Everything after that fact, i.e. its personal meaning to the listener, is yours to have and treasure. But please don't make it seem as if you have any say whatsoever in how the rights to someone else's work are used. That is an arrogant and self-aggrandizing stance to take on this type of situation and let’s hope you realize that.
By the way, do you two know something about Jeff Tweedy's bank account that we don't? Both of you just made very brazen assumptions about his financial soundness, born only of your perception about the implied wealth of musicians.
I'm done.
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I was speaking generally. I don't think Wilco sucks balls, in fact I like their music a lot and don't hold what they chose against them.
Colin expresses it more personally, that music associated with a commercial can affect your enjoyment of that, just like music associated with a great scene in a movie can enhance it.
Forms of art are communication tools. That's what I meant by the potato chips, in which case flowery writing more associated with literature is used to elevate potato chips. I think it's interesting.
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@indeed -- "I don't see an apology."
(n) apology - a formal written defense of something you believe in strongly
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@dick
ok, fair enough. i was thinking of the other definition...
(n) apology - an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret.
By either definition, Wilco owes nobody an apology for making money off of their work.
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Isn't it weird that I totally hate when Zeppelin sells Cadillacs and "Revolution" is used for Nike, but I love when "Picture Book" by the Kinks is used to sell printers?
Wilco is the cat's onesies.
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i drive a vw jetta. guess i've achived total hipster status now.
score for my image
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More power to them for making commercials. The ads with Wilco, Cat Power and others are the only ones I don't fast forward through. Its their art, if that's what they want to use it for -- essentially, to spread the word and make a few extra bucks on the side -- more power to them.
Where I have a problem with GREED is with sell out bands like the White Stripes, playing Madison Square Garden in NY, where only about 10% of the crowd will have good seats and the two of them will make a fortune. I mean, its only two of them to split the (post expenses) take. If the lazy bastards would work four performance hours instead of two (taxing, I know...), and played two nights at Radio City instead, everyone would have had a great time. Now, THAT is selling out.
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I could see fans getting upset if the Wilco track used in the ad was some sort of rock-n-roll-hall-of-fame-worthy classic track that had been played for 30 years and Wilco was already wealthy beyond their dreams, but neither case is true so c'mon people. So they sell one of their songs for a dang commercial. Who cares.
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Not that Wilco should need to justify licensing their music to people anyway, but the point anonymous Wilco member/rep makes about exposure-through-commercialization is spot on. If someone hears the song from a VW ad, learns it's Wilco and discovers their oeuvre, that's as legit a way to be introduced to music as any. Case in point: I first heard Nick Drake when I was 13 or 14 because of those "Pink Moon" ads. I don't think that cheapens Nick Drake's music or my enjoyment of it in any way.
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Dear Scott,
Hey, what's up man. Got something to tell ya. I really couldn't give a rat's ass about Wilco, they suck. But the word, man, the word is spelled VOLKSWAGEN, with an 'E' not an 'O' - y'know, it's like, German and stuff. Please, I implore you to make the correction.
Righteously yours,
El Senor Spellcheck
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VOlkswagen turned me onto Spiritualized. weird.
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i'm going to personally stop selling out in protests of this. is there such a thing as underground accounting?
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i remember an article shortly after the yankee foxtrot hotel sell-buy-sell fiasco a while back. it said tweedy's taxes report that he made a little over 30,000 personal income that year. 30,000? you can barely survive in arkansas with that little much less chicago. give the guy a break. i'll defend him...and this is fom a guy who prefers jay over jeff any day of the week.
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What's the big deal? Instead of charging for all the free music/video downloads that their fans have been enjoying, (not to mention the availability to listen and download their album before it even hit the shelves), they are charging VW to use their song. Which will unfortunately get more air play than through radio. (This is because most radio sucks) It's not their fault that the music industry is an arena of evil. When they start talking about bling, then we can worry.
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"fans' wants, womens' needs, whatever"
was that a reference to the cribs "men's needs, women's needs, whatever"? because if it was, props. if it was indirectly done, nice job.
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for some reason i get the impression that the people complaining about wilco trying to make money off their music are the same entitled children that bitched about streaming tunes rather than mp3s.
let's look at the big picture. forget the rest of the band; jeff tweedy is 40 and married, with two kids, 11 and 8. i don't know how talented his sons are at sports or music, but chances are he and sue want them to go to college. not cheap these days.
none of these guys made anything during the uncle tupelo and early wilco days. cheers to them.
plus i do kind of dig the commercial where the dude is afraid of the valet taking his car.
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