Feist is the new navy

OK, again with the advertising. There’s a new holiday series of commercials from Old Navy with the following lyrics

You’ve got your’s and I’ve got mine, You’ve got your’s and I’ve got mine

It’s all the usual visuals of folks lounging around in ways no ordinary person ever would. It should end…

All it takes is a voice like Feist and some marketing flash

(italics mine of course) I know it’s actually a ‘Stars‘ song but the gestalt of the thing culminated an idea for me. I like Feist, I like Stars, I like the sound of those voices. The interesting part is that I rarely here mention of the rise of Feist in popular consciousness without an equal mention of the role that a certain iPod advert played in it. In the commercial the video for the song “1 2 3 4” is playing on several iPod video players that are edited together against a nondescript background. Some call it multi-layered meaning. I just wish I could tell which layer matters most, which layer actually means something to people. Is it the cool factor of the device that sells the Feist or vice-versa? An artist is most interested in their connection with appreciators, partakers and co-operatives in their creation (I feel this way so I create + you feel this way so you respond to my creation). In all honesty an artist is usually just as interested in selling records. I originally intended to just bash Apple and corporatism for the rest of the post but it occurs to me that perhaps on some level that iPod does at it’s core endeavour to celebrate or encourage that connection. If Apple wants to break someone like Feist to the world why not just make an entire music video with an iPod player playing a video of “1 2 3 4”! Why must corporatism always exploit and spoil art? Perhaps it’s time they become participants and patrons of it……oh, and could they pay the bill too.

Merry Christmas and/or Happy Holidays. May the iPod under this year’s tree be newer than the last.