It is a travesty among travesties. A trend is emerging as MTV, VH1 and other stations use the only good music left not for their prominent music videos, but for background music in shallow shows.
Stations, especially MTV, need to get their priorities straight and recognize who should really be represented as the mainstream of their stations and who actually deserves to be kept in the background. Right now, it is mixed up.
Last fall, the new MTV show, \Laguna Beach,"" marketed itself by using songs of bands like The Shins and Postal Service in their promos. Because the preview for the show used the music of such talented musicians, I thought the show itself would be interesting and engaging.
I was, indeed, misled by the good music. I should have realized this show was just another poor attempt on the part of MTV to take advantage of reputable bands in order to support worthless shows.
Shows like ""The Real World,"" ""Newlyweds"" and ""The Fabulous Life of..."" are packed with sound splices from bands including Earlimart, Muse, Daft Punk, The Hives, Bloc Party and The Strokes to name a few.
The lowest point of inserting a splice in a show was using the colorfully beautiful song ""Heaven Adores You"" by Earlimart in the horrendous ""Ashlee Simpson Show."" It is absolutely appalling for this show to place such a dynamic song by a reputable band and associate it with an untalented ""star's"" poor program. The song has an intense emotional impact, but the show's producers exploited the song's value by attaching it to Ashlee's flubbing of her song on ""Saturday Night Live."" The song coerced the audience into feeling sorry for Ashlee.
It seems ironic that television shows with pointless concepts splice only portions of some of the greatest modern songs to create a show soundtrack and set the mood with added depth. On the other hand, the fact that some of these programs use good bands as a soundtrack highlights the fact that the creators understand these bands have talent and a recognizable market that latches onto the songs.
These indie songs are forced into the background of throwaway shows but receive no representation on video countdowns. This makes it seem like the band and song cannot stand alone or be represented, as if the bands are unworthy of their work.
Perhaps a small ray of light can be found on ""The O.C."" soundtrack. They promote indie songs on their show, credit the bands and have even released ""The O.C."" soundtracks. This effort not only adds depth to a show but also helps the band gain needed exposure. If more shows would use this approach and credit the bands placed on their show, it would be a much more reputable tradeoff.
Last summer, Kmart struck a deal with the Raveonettes to feature their song, ""That Great Love Sound"" in their commercials. Franz Ferdinand's ""Take Me Out"" is now being used in a PSP commercial and the Yeah Yeah Yeah's have a new song in an Adidas commercial.
The use of indie songs in both advertisements and superficial shows undermines the artistry and meaning of the song as it is attached to a product, show or brand. While there is no escaping this trend, bands and labels need to be careful not to alienate fans by using their songs to ""endorse"" a product or show.
These songs, commonly played in the background, need to come into the foreground so people in the mainstream can hear the song in its entirety and appreciate the band without it being attached to another television show or commercial. Only then will songs be represented, noticed and valued to the fullest.
Beth Wick can be reached at eawick@wisc.edu.
