Product Music

One of the oft-unrecognized benefits of the internet, especially the 2.0 version, is the vast amount of historical media artifacts available for immediate retrieval. Out of print books and records, obscure films, underground comics and zines—these were once physical objects, typically produced in small numbers, which required great patience and tenacity to track down. It was not unusual to encounter collectors who had been searching for some highly prized artifacts for several decades.

While original media artifacts are always highly prized for their authenticity, there were many of us in the 60s and 70s who simply wanted the ability to listen to the music, to see the images or to read the words with our own eyes. Ownership is great for bragging and all, but it’s a lot more fun to share the cool stuff with others. Fortunately, today’s internet—what with its infinite series of tubes and all—makes most of that instantly possible.

Which brings us to today’s great find, product music. We’re referring here to the classic  industrial musicals of the 50s and 60s. Borrowing on the cultural legacy of the work song—a worker-created tune designed to alleviate the boredom of a physical, repetitive task—companies relied on elaborate song and dance numbers to promote enthusiasm and camaraderie among the employees. The main difference, which eerily foreshadows many contemporary developments, is that the songs were written not by the workers but, rather, were outsourced to professionals based on management’s whims.

The result is a treasure trove of surreal, whimsical ditties sung with an earnestness and enthusiasm which is no longer possible in the irony-infused, detached cultural pose of the present. Consider “Up Came Oil” (Exxon), “He’s a Penney Man” (J.C. Penney’s), and the classic “My Bathroom is a Private Kind of Place” (American Standards). The always entertaining WFMU blog has the whole catalog available for download in mp3 format. In a similar vein, check out an entire LP of Chevrolet Showroom Music from 1972. Our personal favorite is the “Test Track for Factory, Impala and Caprice.”

Upon listening to this music, one can’t help but to recognize that there was a time and place in which marketers were content to simply entertain. Compared to today’s world of hyper-targeted communications and messaging, where every word is focused-grouped ad nausea, with supposed scientific precision, the casualness with which marketers appeared to approach their craft seems darned refreshing. Today’s auto ads, for example, may communicate volumes of information about product performance or (supposedly) trigger aspirational emotions, but they aren’t very fun to listen to or look at.

While we’re surely not suggesting anything resembling another wave of ironic, nostalgia-based marketing, is it heresy to even suggest that the message might not be as important as the medium? 

Comments

[BG]

Fantastic!