M.I.A. honda civic ad - SOLD OUT?

It's pretty much common knowledge that a record deal is a forgiveable bank loan - you really have to be selling shitloads of CDs to get rich from your music these days. There's every chance that M.I.A.'s living completely on credit right now, just like every artist I know who's a had a brief taste of major label backing.

Can we really blame young artists for wanting to pick up a few bucks on the side? Do we have to parrot Bill Hicks (and, hey, I love Bill Hicks, but he wasn't always right) every time this kind of thing comes up?

I either forgot some hyphens or added an extra "a". Take your pick.

Thanks for the lesson, dad.

I don't give a shit about people selling out, but yeah, if she's going to trade on an anti-globo-capitalist chic, this is sort of stunningly hypocritical. Make all the money you want, but if you want to spout a bunch of pseudo post-colonial anticonsumerist revolution agit-prop in your lyrics and interviews, you better back that shit up and not take the easy way out.

Who pissed in your cornflakes? I'm just sick of the same old art-versus-commerce memes that surface in these kinds of discussions.

I don't give a shit about people selling out, but yeah, if she's going to trade on an anti-globo-capitalist chic, this is sort of stunningly hypocritical. Make all the money you want, but if you want to spout a bunch of pseudo post-colonial anticonsumerist revolution agit-prop in your lyrics and interviews, you better back that shit up and not take the easy way out.

Y'know, even proponents of pseudo post-colonial anticonsumerist revolution agit-prop need a vehicle to get around town in. Maybe she they comped her a sweet new ride. Maybe she wasn't making enough from touring or CD sales to maintain her current place of residence. Maybe she thought that licensing a track to a car ad might be a nicely subversive gesture, and a way to get her message out to people who wouldn't otherwise hear it. Maybe, just maybe, she's young and uncentred and hasn't quite worked out the correlation between her principles and her actions. Who the fuck knows? Go ask her, I'm not even a fan.

In LONDON? Yeah, you so need a car there.

For some reason I don't think M.I.A. is particularly concerned about appearing disingenuous.

dan totally totally otm here.

Isn't that what Moby thought? ;-)

(also not really a fan fwiw. The mixtape had some fairly incredible moments but I regretted burning it to CDR(!) after I found myself never ever wanting to listen to it barely a month later, and plain hating her incredible crappiness vocally).

I heard that about the Rolling Stones and Microsoft. I have a feeling every band that sells music to a commercial says that.

(trendsetters make things better? bitch, please.)

I always thought there was an implied comma there: "Trendsetters, make things better/ Don't sell out to product pushers."

It's one thing to say "lyrics are fictional," but really, do you listen to music and not think the singer believes a word of what he or she is saying? Or exhorting other people to do or not do?

I dunno. She's young, and she can evolve and change her mind about things. Like I said, I'm not looking to string her up. But it is weird. I'm not ready to say hypocritical, but weird. If a line like "Don't sell out to product pushers" also appears on her next album, that's hypocritical.

...and renting a song to Honda ain't the same as if it were to Coke or M.C.Donalds.

I don't think Roger Waters actually wanted to put the queers and Jews up against that wall.

I don't think Robert Smith actually shot an Arab in the desert.

I don't think Bjork had a bubblebath with God.

I don't think Christina Amphlett actually touches herself everytime she thinks about her significant other.

I don't think Karl Hyde actually andalusia red yellow red yellow black car (whatever that means).

I think it's weird that she would be so obviously contradictory... Yeah, it's her music, but what's her shtick going to be from here? And it's not like she's just stealing money from Honda. It's not like Honda isn't benefitting from its acquisition. They are going to last way longer than Maya.

What should be in commercials? All-original music, or none at all? I'm lost as to what the horrible thing is here.

Obviously, music first and all that (I like some of her stuff, mostly the production as the rapping gets tired quickly), but it's not like this stuff is totally irrelevant.

Don't you see? You're talking about M.I.A. as product here, as a marketable commodity. We have to "buy into" her having a persona? She's a person, and one that makes all kinds of wacky statements! Maya the person is responsible for explaining whatever the hell her "public persona" says in music, but that doesn't mean it has to all be true. I mean, do friends go up to her and call her M.I.A.? At the end of the day, she's a person who's expressing some of her feelings via music for which she's crafted this pretty colorful public appearance, but I would hope at the end of the day she eats some food and does whatever it is everyone does.

She's not Bono, you know.

Appropriation of rhetoric to make an artistic statement does not automatically equal endorsement of said rhetoric. Like Mike says, she's not Bono.

You don't think she needs to address this? Come on! I don't see why everyone is totally unwilling to talk about this.

Gavin, all sarcasm aside, this is a non-issue to the majority of people here. Once you've made an internationally distributed CD, and you're getting video & radio play, then you're part of Big Business (tm) whether you like it or not. End of story.

On a more personal note, the reason I've been so adamant about the art-versus-commerce debate is that it's all too easy for any one of us to say "Well, if it was *ME* being offered loads of money..." I mean, it's a situation that 99.9% of people will never find themselves in, and no one can tell me that they wouldn't seriously consider it.

I very earnestly hypothesized some reasons for M.I.A. going through with this ad, and, ultimately it's her decision - record company & management notwithstanding - how she handles her career. She may be taken to task for it in the press, and guess what? She may not have an erudite explanation at hand. She may just say "that's none of your goddamned business".

This would also apply to Sleater-Kinney, and any other artist you can name.

-- hstencil (hstenc!...), September 30th, 2005.

I don't think Karl Hyde actually andalusia red yellow red yellow black car (whatever that means).

Yeah, I know, but isn't there a difference between lyrics that say "I do (fill in the blank)" and "You should (or shouldn't) do fill in the blank)?"

I'm not on a witch hunt here; I'm really not. I'm not going to take a torch to my MIA CD; I'm not going to tell other people not to buy it (in fact, I've told more than a few people to buy it). And I buy your point, Dan, that it's one lyric on a whole album. (And it's not from the song used in the commercial, although would you feel differently if it were the same song? Why?) If it's not a problem for you (and most people on this board), OK. Ultimately, it's not a major problem for me either. I'm just surprised that some folks seem incredulous that anyone could think it was a problem.

"well, you know, McDonald's is pretty much the textbook definition of an evil corporation whose practices have made this world a worse place. Do we want to allow them to use our song to help sell their product?"

How is making a lame burger ad where you're "lovin' it" or doing some cheesy Wal-Mart commercial any worse than constantly going on MTV and acting like an idiot? And if you took McDonalds away you'd have millions of people unemployed and millions more looking for new places to get a cheap hot meal. But the fact that you took away jobs and have robbed many people of the only restaurant they can afford to go to is irrelevant to the fact that big business is evil and that the only thing keeping us all from being sold to the highest corporate bidder is the power of indie-rock or some long abandoned Pete Townshend concept album. If only the Long Ryders were here to explain this to the Shins or M.I.A. we could all be spared this conversation!

And why do people still get shocked when rock lyrics and political stances turn out to be little more than posturing sometimes? Did many of you expect her to turn down the life of a pop star to become a suicide bomber or something?

I think I agree with Lex (if he's saying what I think he's saying) in that I think the meaning of this song is pretty ambiguous. Taken at face value it is pretty fucking stupid whether she sells out to Honda or not. But she sounds so particularly apathetic on this song that I always thought it was sort of like a litany of third party ideas and expectations. As in, the lyric should read:

"Trendsetters make things better"/"Don't sell out to the product pushers"

(these two lines are vaguely contradictory anyway - trendsetters almost always are product pushers)

Of course the song doesn't entirely follow this logic, but M.I.A.'s lyrics are mostly so vague that it's probably not wise to expect too much clarity from them

(I do wish she'd stick to fantastical storytelling though a la "Amazon")

Well, one set is written in the first person and the other set is written in the second person.

Then Galang came in and we forgot all about it.

Dan,

How do you always party like it's your birthday?

I'm the same age as you and I think you are *crazy*.

The crunchy girl in the Civic hybrid commercial makes me CRAZY. I LOVE her.

Heineken wanted to use a MIA track on a big ad, and she originally said 'no' because she is a Muslim (yes, Tamils can be muslim you know)

Her label were not very happy and guess what? she changed her mind- great principles.

BUT

then Heineken got the fear because of the current political climate that they would take a lot of flak and ditched the track.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with taking the money, but ONLY if you are honest with yourself and your fans.