In 1952, composer John Cage debuted a 3-movement piece wherein the musicians were instructed not to
play their instruments at all. The concept was to allow whatever ambient noise occurred in the concert
hall during the 4′ 33″ duration of the piece to serve as the music. It was a philosophical statement
that made newspaper headlines and generated passionate commentary from critics and audience-members alike. One of those comments was, “I could’ve written that myself!”
That’s how my ego feels when I hear super-simple songs like this one used in a great TV commercials:
The song is “Clash” by Caravan Palace, a collective of DJs and producers based in Paris, France who
specialize in the genre called electro-swing. This is one of those brilliant song licensing choices
that works not because the singer sounds good; or the musicianship is stellar; or the composition is
clever; but rather because the singers’s voice just sounds interesting. It’s like seeing a shade of
blue on an Italian sports car unlike any shade of blue you’ve ever seen…you can’t stop looking at it.
Here’s a similar Diet Coke spot by the same ad agency – New York-based Droga5 (clients include UNICEF, Under Armour, Healthcare.gov & Spotify. The song is “Suit” by the Australian band Boom! Bap! Pow!:
Once again, this is not the kind of skilled singing that would compel any judges on The Voice to mash
their red button and spin the chair around. But as John Cage pricelessly replied when all the Muggles
roared, “I could’ve written that!”……….”I never said you couldn’t.”
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Mike Bielenberg is a professional musician and co-founder of http://www.musicrevolution.com, a production music marketplace with over 30,000 tracks online where media producers, video producers, filmmakers, game developers, businesses and other music buyers can license high-quality, affordable royalty-free music from an online community of musicians mbielenberg@musicrevolution.com. 
