Posted on 02/09/2004 1:33:06 AM PST by kattracks
One of Sen. John Kerry's celebrity supporters is ready to pull out all the stops to get him elected. Republicans are shrieking over a suggestion by rocker Moby that Democrats spread gossip about President Bush on the Internet. "No one's talking about how to keep the other side home on Election Day," Moby tells us. "It's a lot easier than you think and it doesn't cost that much. This election can be won by 200,000 votes."Moby suggests that it's possible to seed doubt among Bush's far-right supporters on the Web.
"You target his natural constituencies," says the Grammy-nominated techno-wizard. "For example, you can go on all the pro-life chat rooms and say you're an outraged right-wing voter and that you know that George Bush drove an ex-girlfriend to an abortion clinic and paid for her to get an abortion.
"Then you go to an anti-immigration Web site chat room and ask, 'What's all this about George Bush proposing amnesty for illegal aliens?'"
Moby didn't claim that he believed the abortion story.
Last month, Bush did propose reforms to immigration policy. But he insisted, "I oppose amnesty, placing undocumented workers on the automatic path to citizenship [because it] perpetuates illegal immigration."
Republican National Committee spokeswoman Christine Iverson likened Moby's proposal to "dirty campaign tactics we're already seeing from John Kerry."
"His campaign was willing to use these kinds of voter suppression tactics against members of his own party in Iowa and New Hampshire," Iverson says. "John Kerry is a hypocrite. He pledged to run a clean campaign. Then he uses the lowest form of gutter politics to impugn his opponents, Democratic and Republican. It's unfortunate but this is probably just the beginning of the kind of tactics we're going to be seeing from John Kerry in the months to come."
Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said, "I doubt that Moby was suggesting anybody suppress the vote. We did not use any dirty tactics against any candidate.
"When it comes to dirty tricks the Republic party wrote the book. We've already seen Republican attacks and we haven't even won the nomination yet. The Republican Party is clearly afraid of John Kerry."
[snip]
With Ben Widdicombe and Suzanne Rozdeba
Originally published on February 8, 2004
"Pre-existing" is the qualifier that you're hanging your argument on. Sure, some songs are used to appeal to nostalgia. Other songs are chosen to appeal to a sense of "hipness." Or because the song's lyrics are a natural fit for the product ("Like a Rock" was hardly an oldie when Chevy licensed it but it said exactly what Chevy wanted to say about their trucks). Or because it's just innocuous and goes with the pretty pictures. Doesn't change the fact that they've been chosen because the advertisers want to appeal to emotions.
Why do you think that some jingle writers employ sound-alike singers? Why do you think that these same people get sued just for hiring someone who sounds like a celebrity to sing a commerical song? If that same singer were to record a single instead, there would be no lawsuit.
Huh? I've read this paragraph four times and still can't connect it to the argument at hand. Yes, if you license a song, you're less likely to get sued than if you just steal it and hire a sound-alike to record it. What's your point?
It really rankles you for me to call Moby out for what he did, doesn't it?
I don't know if "rankles" is the word I'd use. I just think you're deluded if you think making money through your music via route A is more virtuous than via route B. Once you take dollar #1 for your art, you've sold out. The rest is just negotiation.
Yes, Crumb doodles in a notebook. I could probably make a case that for Crumb, at least, his constant drawing in a notebook or on placemats is a sign of OCD. Given his brothers, I'd say there's a good chance that he's a bit "touched." But instead I'm just going to say that enjoying making art and making money doing it are not mutually exclusive.
Re: Dali and Warhol. Dali was a sick old man surrounded by vultures during the time he signed all those blank sheets, and Warhol...well, Warhol's a discussion for another day. But I'll concede everything you said, and it did have the effect of cheapening his art (good piece in Vanity Fair a couple of months back about the lucrative and controversial business of "authenticating" Warhols). It was kind of an inevitiable outgrowth of his whole theory of Pop Art, a splashy dead-end in art history.
When finding the next buyer (and crafting works specifically for that audience) is the overruling consideration before "creating" something, then the commerce has taken priority over the art.
Ah, well, there's the rub. I doubt Moby made his album (unlike Eno's "Music for Films") thinking exclusively of selling products with it. That was just a happy outcome. And don't forget, "Integrity Sells."
Graphic design commercial art and soundtrack music can be nice but it is forever tied to its sponsor.
Quick, what was Alphonse Mucha selling? And contrarily, given that most art prior to, say, 1700 was either commissioned by church and contained religious themes, or was commissioned by royalty and contained portraits of themselves, wouldn't you say that that's pretty tied to it's sponsor?
The artist who painted all of those Coca-Cola ads will never get his day in an art museum because he was a "hack"
Hey, I just picked up a book of paintings from those "Men's Adventure" magazines of the 50s and 60s.
Real artists create because it is a part of their personality. It is how they communicate and there is a psychological release from "creating".
Absolutely. No argument. Doesn't mean that they aren't looking for places to make some money with it, whether their wife is handling the business end or not.
Ultimately, what "rankles" me is the whole notion of "selling out," which has long been the accusation of the less commercially successful artist against the more successful.
Moby's anti-Bush tricks (Kerry supporters admit to TROLLING conservative sites to hurt Bush)
What about the Coke song, "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing?" I thought that was a jingle before it became a hit.
Great post!
Just a reminder that “Mobyies” are still here.
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