"The theme of the show is a return to glamour. Victoria's Secret is about sexy and the new sexy is glamorous for this season."
Which begs the question: Where did the glamour go in the first place? Was last year's fashion show less glamourous? And if this is the "new sexy" what was the old sexy? Perhaps comedian Janeane Garofalo said it best in an old comedy routine about runway shows:
"They have these runway shows and then they have a commentator going, 'A return to glamor this season. A pretty face is your best asset this season.' As opposed to last season. When ugly girls had a free ride. When back fat was all the rage."
For the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, the angels flew to Miami Beach Florida to walk the runway at the newly renovated Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel. The special featured footage from in and around the hotel, including an outdoor fireworks display for the fashion show's finale.
In addition to live performances from Usher and Jorge Moreno, the music for the show was produced by DJ Jeremy Healy, who has been the musical director for the annual televised Victoria's Secret fashion shows since 2001. As with the 2007 version of the show, this special featured less remixed music than in past shows. Healy offered remixes (in part by a live orchestra) of some runway tracks, including Kayne West's "Love Lockdown".
Here is the song list of music used in the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show:
Video game trailers and TV commercials for the new first person "free runner" game Mirror's Edge feature a unique theme song taken from the video game's soundtrack called "Still Alive". The ads feature brightly-colored rooftop gameplay from the perspective of the game's heroine character, Faith. (Hence the "Leap of Faith" title for the Mirror's Edge TV ad campaign.) The parkour style game was created by the EA owned Swedish video game developer Dice.
To coincide with the Mirror's Edge video game release, EA released a soundtrack album of the game's theme called Still Alive: The Remixes, featuring remixes of the game's title track by Armand Van Helden, Paul van Dyk, Benny Benassi, Junkie XL and Teddybears. Different remixes from the album have been featured in various commercials for the game.
The original track was written and produced by Arnthor Birgisson and Rami Yacoub, featuring Swedish pop star Lisa Miskovsky on vocals. From EA:
"When given the opportunity to work with Lisa, Rami and Arnthor, who are all avid gamers, we knew we had something very special on our hands," added Magnus Walterstad, Audio Director at DICE. "With 'Still Alive,' we created a Mirror's Edge theme song that is able to stand on its own two feet as well as accurately representing the emotional experience of playing the game."
"This is a terrific song from a tremendous new artist," said Terry McBride, CEO of EA label partners Nettwerk Music Group. "And every one of these remixers responded not only to the power of the track itself, but also to what this project will mean to the continued convergence of music and gaming. Our entire worldwide marketing team is committed to making this a landmark digital release."
The "piano pop" theme song compliments the unique look of the gameplay footage in the Mirror's Edge commercials, courtesy of the Swedish.
As a follow-up to the interview we did for this ABC News article -- Ad Music Brings in Big Exposure for Artists -- about TV commercials as a venue for new music artists like Yael Naim and Sara Bareilles:
"It's completely taken over as a first-hear venue for new artists," said Jon C. Allen, co-owner of AdTunes.com, a blog for music fans who are seeking out the names and titles of songs they hear on commercials.
Ad Tunes was born five years ago in the wake of a memorable Mitsubishi Eclipse ad, but Allen says music junkies continue to visit his site as more ads introduce fresh acts to the mainstream.
"When was the last time you heard new music on FM radio or MTV?" Allen asked. "That doesn't really happen anymore."
To expand on our point about MTV and new music: viewers do not tune into the channel to hear new music in videos since the network devotes little airtime to music videos. Those videos as a source of new music have been replaced by songs appearing within the soundtracks of MTV shows. Labels are no longer fighting to get their artists latest video onto the network -- they are devoting energy to getting songs into MTV reality shows. For example, in the new season of The Hills, the network runs captions with the name of the song and artist you are currently hearing -- similar to what was used in music videos. This type of exposure on The Hills soundtrack backing Lauren Conrad and the gang means much more to an artist's career than having their music video play at 3am. MTV has even embraced the idea of music in commercials through their own MTV Artist of the Week (recently featuring French-pop singer Yelle), which features new artists performing in the MTV commercial "bumpers" running over the credits between shows.
The NFL Super Bowl XLII (also known as "The Big Game") will kick-off this Sunday, which also means advertisers will be blowing out their ad budgets on Super Bowl commercials during the game on Fox.
This year's Superbowl ads promise to be "gentle and sweet", as opposed to TV commercials shown last year, which were labeled "crass and callous". The big spending (a record $2.7 million for 30 seconds) for spots during the broadcast also mean big risk to the bottom line for some businesses involved. Companies running spots during the game will include Pepsi (including one featuring Justin Timberlake), FedEx, and just in time for Valentine's Day, Victoria's Secret. You can also look for movie studios promoting film releases (including Semi-Pro and Iron Man) during the football game.
If you can't wait until the game on Sunday, Adland is posting plenty of "spoilers" about the ads, including clips from some of the 2008 Super Bowl commercials.
Visit these sites to see all of the Superbowl TV commericals online during and after the game: AOL, YouTube
Adtunes.com presents the Top Ad Music of 2007. Here is a selection of some the most memorable music trends in advertising from the past year.
10. Music at Retail
If 2006 was the year of music in cellphone commercials, then 2007 would be the year of ad music for clothing retailers. Big store chains have made use of popular music in TV commercials before, but this year saw a sharp increase. There was a time when you could only count on Gap commercials for catchy songs. Now every major retail company follows the song-centric TV commercial model: Old Navy, Sears, JCPenney, Macy's, Kohl's, Target, and even Wal-Mart have all featured music in TV spots. The trend was so strong this year that we saw what we believe to be a first: Two competing retailers ran TV commercials at the same time using music from the same band. This "double-vending" honor goes to the music duo The Weepies, who were featured in holiday commercials for JCPenney using the song "All That I Want" (iTunes) and Old Navy with remixed versions of "Stars" (iTunes). We have no idea why these two companies would allow this to happen, but there is probably a music licensing rep at Nettwerk Records smiling.
9. This is Sparta!
It's hard to forget King Leonidas and those sweaty Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae in the 300 movie trailer. The song from the stylized film trailer is "Just Like You Imagined" (iTunes) courtesy of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. Not limited to movie trailers, Reznor's music appears in a wide range of outlets -- everything from the video game Quake to Fox News.
8. Diamonds Are Forever
For over a year, readers have been "discussing" the Cat Power cover of "How Can I Tell You" in the DeBeer's diamond commercial. Some poor souls refuse to believe it is Cat Power singing -- often crediting Regina Spektor instead. It is certainly easy to confuse hipster female vocalists, but when Power's own label confirms she is singing in the ad, what is left to debate? This year DeBeers has a new "A Diamond is Forever" commercial featuring Landon Pigg and his song "Falling in Love at the Coffee Shop". Will the public still be talking about his diamond commercial a year from now? A victim of the Cat Spektor Effect?
6. Old Punks
It's official: Punk rock is dead. The Buzzcocks lent their song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" (iTunes) for an AARP commercial. A TV ad about birthday parties for the (formerly known as) American Association of Retired Persons seems to be an odd place to hear a pioneering band of the punk scene. "It is a bit ironic," according to Buzzcocks guitarist Steve Diggle. The commercial is part of the AARP's campaign to re-brand the organization as more than a group for senior citizens. "There is a lingering perception that AARP is a retiree organization," said AARP chief brand director Emilio Pardo.
5. Bear Attack
While there are plenty contenders (see our number one pick) for this year's Overseer Overexposed Award, the honor goes to the Swedish band Teddybears. The group is long overdue for a mention on our list -- is there anyone that has not heard the song "Cobrastyle" (iTunes) in a commercial, TV show, or movie during the past three years? The song continues to be an ad music supervisor staple since it first appeared on the band's 2005 album Fresh. More recently, the ubiquitous song has been heard in the NBC series Chuck and The Black Donnellys. It has also appeared in commercials for the TV series Bones and for the films Bee Movie and Harold and Kumar 2. Even an ad featuring firemen responding to a "hot girl" wearing Secret deodorant was given the Cobrastyle touch. You might have also heard the song at a football game. Other songs by the band have appeared in recent episodes of The Bionic Woman and Life.
4. Personal Appearances
Music artists have been spending a lot of time in television commercials lately. The top pitchwoman of the year would be pop star Beyoncé. She would like you to use an American Express credit card when you call on your Samsung cellphone to upgrade DirecTV to HD while wearing Emporio Armani Diamonds perfume and L'Oreal makeup. We found out Gwen Stefani is being followed by floating pictures from a HP printer -- probably drawn to her scent of "L" perfume. Fergie gets her Candie's at Kohl's. Guitarist Slash pops up to play the video game Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. Diane Krall, John Legend, and Elvis Costello discuss music while sitting in a Lexus. And for some reason, a bunny suit wearing John Mayer stalks Alicia Keys for MTV. Ad appearances aren't limited to well-known artists: Indie band Mates of State can be seen performing on-stage in an AT&T commercial.
3. Ends of the Earth
When the Discovery Channel began running commercials for the 11 part miniseries Planet Earth, several viewers took notice of the symphonic music in the ad, which led to an effort to identify the song. The score was eventually found to be a stock music track by APM Music, a production music company. Normally the search would end there. Production music companies do not release their licensed tracks to consumers, as their market is for radio, film, and television producers. But in the case of Planet Earth, consumer demand won out: APM Music took the unusual step of releasing the Planet Earth theme song to the public. "The Time Has Come (theme to Planet Earth)" by Tobias Marberger and Gabriel Shadid is available to download from iTunes. With increased consumer demand (and a little help from music sites like Adtunes), more companies in the advertising industry are waking up to the realization that there is an untapped market for their music.
2. Full Circle
As we mentioned before, this is the year of the retailer when it comes to TV commercial music. Another memorable case in point: The JCPenney Mother's Day commercial called "The Walk". Created by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the spot features a mother and daughter walking hand in hand as the daughter grows up. The cover song is "Only You" performed by Joshua Radin, originally by the group Yaz. The version of the song used in the JCPenney ad is a live track by Radin offered exclusively by iTunes as part of a Live Session EP. This effort to tap emotions via advertising is part of JCPenney's "Every day matters" campaign. It is hard to argue with the results when the right commercial with the right song can bring on thetears.
1. Bitter:Sweet Symphony
We could have easily given the Overseer Overexposed Award to the band Bitter:Sweet. Instead they earned the top spot on this year's list. Anyone who watches Grey's Anatomy and caught ads for the show is more than familiar with the song "Dirty Laundry" (iTunes), which appeared in countless promos across the ABC network. Perhaps you caught "Dirty Laundry" in the recent Victoria's Secret Pajama commercial. Or maybe you heard the band pre-loaded on your new Zune MP3 player that Santa left you. Although The Mating Game album was released in 2006, the band continues to make appearances in soundtracks, trailers and TV commercials, which you can track on their MySpace blog. Are these frequent appearances a case of music licensing "pulling a Moby" or more about survival? "This is truly the new radio for bands these days and we feel very lucky to be part of it. When we wrote these songs, the only thing we cared about was making music that WE actually wanted to listen to and we never thought about how other people would relate to it let alone advertisers." Regardless of where you first heard them, singer Shana Halligan and producer Kiran Shahani mix the right cocktail of trip-hop and jazz hooks for an infectious cinematic sound. Some may prefer the much higher profile Feist for their female indie-pop vocals in TV commercials fix, but we believe Bitter:Sweet deserves recognition as well.
