Hello Stereogum readers, and welcome to my humble blog zone. This is where I write about music – mostly of the electronic and rock and electronic/rock varieties – as it occurs in Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere. You got here because I posted some foggy ambivilences in regards to Target’s new indie rock ad campaign.
To be clear, I’m not trying to play punk-purist shot-caller (baller?) here, just pointing out something I stumbled on – scratch that, something that targeted me with lazer-sharp precision – and which seems to pack some kind of social relevance. In truth, a large part of me has no problem with this kind of campaign: if Target’s into it and the bands are into then that’s that, right? At least that’s what I told myself a year or so ago whilst playing a key role in a somewhat similar Nike campaign – so color me Fugazi? No.
But another part feels creeped out in a vaguely No Logo-ish kinda way. It’s one thing to place background music on a cartoon website, and another to create entire films dedicated to product-laden self-identification AND have real bands play in them (…right?). The difference is small but crucial, and probably has something to do with how convincing/realistic the “content” is, and the level of identification involved. I’m betting Jake and I have some of the same shirts, and I know we both like the Hold Steady. Or at least, I thought that was me…
So yeah: corporate culture, indie music, money, bands, Target. I’ll let you know when I figure it out.
In the meantime, those of you living in Portland should check out PDX POP NOW!, a free, all ages, local music fest I helped organize. It’s going down this weekend at Loveland, and it’s gonna be rad for reals. Oh, and yes, we’re corporate too. Damn.
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famousness • lifestyle marketing • stereogum • target
Lifestyle marketing is weird. I found this on Pitchfork today, nestled down in a flashy sidebar ad namedropping the Hold Steady, cute indie girl and almost imperceptible Target logo in tow. I clicked it, entering a cushy flash portal complete with fake desk and fake desk items. The eye candy settled and confusion set in: what is it? film trailer? tv show? …target? It seemed to want me to play these web videos (the podcast interview with the director calls them “webisodes”), so I did, and woah. It’s way creepy, like one of those super product placement heavy teen movies, but reversed. This time it’s more like “film placement” or something: the mock-casually arrayed back-to-school catalog and Bloc Party cell phone (it turns into a Target logo if you mouse over it!!!!) are the real stars here.
As for the story itself, it seems to revolve around our Seth-Cohen-lite indie rock hero and PCU-lite wacky friends trying to find a band to play some show at their college or something. I didn’t watch far enough but it’s looking like members of the bands Bloc Party, 22-20s (who is this?), British Sea Power, and the Hold Steady (again!) will be making appearances.
So here it is, indie rock in 2005: a culture placement in a Target movie. Damn.
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indie rock eating it's tail • lifestyle marketing • target • the hold steady • the OC
Checking Pitchfork today I found the following horrible horrible Neighborhoodie. You may recall this is the same company that makes those HAWTHORNE, WILLIAMSBURG, etc hooded sweatshirts found on every other page of every alt-weekly in every city in which the term “hipster” has geospecific meaning. Seems the market for uber-dorky ‘hood indentification clothing is drying up, and now they’re touting cute hip/indie catchphrases. Hence this:
fig 15: ?????
What are these people thinking? Why does this exist? Did anyone stop to think how completely absurd it is to be waxing nostalgic over a not-really-genre whose only real point of unity was a complete and total hatred of nostalgia – in 200freaking5?!?! If, as I understand it, the people who constituted this movement were reacting against punk’s slide into same-old-Rock, as typified by The Clash, then I can only imagine their distaste for any person who has ever said “punk’s not dead”, let alone worn this t-shirt. Of course, holding these people in such golden-age-ish high regard is probably some form of nostalgia in itself [turning finger toward self] but why would you buy this if you didn’t? And why would you buy it if you did? There are bigger questions to be asking, but right now I just want to shoot mental darts at this person and whatever the fuck they signify. And I guess I just did.
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figure X • get off my lawn • lifestyle marketing • neighborhoodies • post-punk
