Most Egregious Song Sell Outs - A HSQB Project

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 4:22 pm

The Washington Post used SCIENCE! to create a formula determine the most terrible cases of artist sell out in history. Entitled the "Moby Formula", due to that artist's album Play and the fact that every song was used on a commercial, it's an attempt to mathematically evaluate just how terrible the decision to sell that song was. Since this is a point of cultural interest, I thought that we could further examine this issue and come up with a list of the most egregious cases of these in history.

walnutmjb10 · Post by **walnutmjb10** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:30 pm

Led Zeppelin- Rock and Roll

used on Cadillac commercials way too much

Stat Boy · Post by **Stat Boy** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:06 pm

Journey - Anyway You Want It

The Infanta · Post by **The Infanta** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:38 pm

All American Rejects - Move Along

The Romantics - What I Like About You

STPickrell · Post by **STPickrell** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:46 pm

What abt Janis Joplin's sister giving Mercedes permission to use 'Mercedes Benz' in a commercial?

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:29 pm

Guys, you have to put numbers into the formula and share you results

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:45 pm

STPickrell wrote:What abt Janis Joplin's sister giving Mercedes permission to use 'Mercedes Benz' in a commercial?

Ok, I'll give this a disconnect of 5 (Cadillac isn't that corporate), a sacredness of 7 (very important song, but about two steps away from Weird Al territory), 10 origins (Joplin is viewed as a key musician of the hippie movement), 8 for artistic reputation, a 7 for wealth and a 9 for time period. This gives us a Moby quotient of 39.98.

I'm also going to touch upon the use of The Beatles' Revolution for Nike. I'll give it a disconnect of 6, 10 on sacredness, 9 on origins, 10 for artistic reputation, 10 for wealth and 9 for time period. This scores a 59.89.

Ethnic history of the Vilnius region · Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:40 am

Honestly, I'd be more interested in knowing which bands have NOT sold out. Being in commercials is par for the course. But it is nice to quantify the selling out. Anyway, my submission is below.

Band: The Band
Song: The Weight
Commercial: Cingular Wireless (I think. It was some phone company)

Disconnect: 6 (The song has nothing to do with phones. But it could be worse, I guess)
Sacredness: 9 (The Weight is a hippie anthem and was featured in Easy Rider)
Artists' Origins: 10 (hippies)
Artists' Reputation: 9 (Their last show was a Scorcese movie)
Artists' Wealth: 7 (I guess)
Time Since Artists' Heyday: 8 (The 70s)

Moby Quotient: 68.63

BGSO · Post by **BGSO** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:55 pm

I don't feel like making up the values but how about eye of the tiger by survivor , to starbucks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tovjwToZ0y4

fizzball · Post by **fizzball** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 7:03 pm

Buzzcocks "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" in an AARP ad.

disconnect: 10 (does AARP really equate retirement with a phrase from Brave New World?)
sacredness:7
origins: 10
reputation:8
wealth: 2 (I had to keep ratcheting this down after seeing the Post give the Clash and Ramones 4 and 3)
time: 8
TOTAL: 103.97

Sex Pistols re-recording "Anarchy in the UK" for Guitar Hero III:
disconnect: 5
sacredness:6
origins:9
reputation:1
wealth:3
time:8

TOTAL: 33.50

The Atom Strikes! · Post by **The Atom Strikes!** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:13 pm

It seems to me that the level of sell-outness should increase if the artist him-or-herself actually appears in the add.