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(Some Blogger) Amusing The Cure's Robert Smith bemoans his artistic dilemma: whether to accept ridiculous amounts of money for permission to use "Lovecats" as soundtrack for cat food commercials   (madcomments.co.uk) divider line 46
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And-1 2009-02-21 03:56:11 PM  
If it means he doesn't ever have to record any new music or tour or appear on TV or radio again, then I say GO FOR IT!!

/skips the ads.

 
vegaswench [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 04:59:22 PM  
Nooooooo!!! Robert, dammit, it was bad enough that "Pictures of You" was sold out to that stupid printer company.

 
Bonkthat_Again [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 05:00:08 PM  
Why not take a share of that money and donate it to an animal charity? 10%....you're still a sell out. 70-90%... it's all good. 100% to a charity...those folks who worshiped you in their youth will re-up.

 
Atypical Person Reading Fark [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 05:30:15 PM  
Sell it while you can, Robert. Sell it while you still can.

 
Sliceablekitty [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 05:42:53 PM  
vegaswench: Nooooooo!!! Robert, dammit, it was bad enough that "Pictures of You" was sold out to that stupid printer company.

I thought that was hilarious.

 
lakteller30 2009-02-21 05:56:57 PM  
i didnt know who the cure was until i read that article and realized that the only way i will hear that song is on a commercial

 
J. W. Booth 2009-02-21 06:09:58 PM  
If/when they peform again the mixed crowd of married and divored people ass deep in their 30's won't mind. They'll be too busy telling the kids they forced to come with them how old they were and what grade they were in when this song came out.

 
Die Kunst Der Fuge 2009-02-21 06:10:17 PM  
I don't really see a problem with rock/pop musicians selling their music to advertising campaigns... it's not legitimate art. The vast majority of pop music is sentimental, catchy and occasionally entertaining mind candy that more or less accomplishes what it was written to do... persuade teenagers that the entertainer/musician has represented a sentiment that the teenager believes they have sincerely felt or more typically should feel... pop music typically amounts to vicarious living or a cheap reproduction of one's past experiences... basically an indulgence in vanity.

Face up folks, you can't polish turds but you can sell them to any sucker. America is proof solid of that.

 
KhanFusion 2009-02-21 06:14:56 PM  
Haven't there already been a ton of Cure songs in commercials already?

 
Entity79 [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 06:23:15 PM  
Here's an idea: Why not just do it and donate the proceeds to a charity?

 
egomann 2009-02-21 06:23:27 PM  
If Lou Reed can do it, anyone can do it. He let an SUV company use the instrumental from the song Heroin.

 
Entity79 [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 06:25:49 PM  
Bonkthat_Again: Why not take a share of that money and donate it to an animal charity? 10%....you're still a sell out. 70-90%... it's all good. 100% to a charity...those folks who worshiped you in their youth will re-up.

Damn you, came here to say that. :P

 
scrumpox 2009-02-21 06:54:40 PM  
This song, right? (pops)

 
CornFedIowan 2009-02-21 07:01:16 PM  
Lolcats don't have sound...

Oh, wait, "lovecats". Never mind.

 
Stay Cool Babylon 2009-02-21 07:02:29 PM  
For the life of me, I could never understand why people get upset when their favorite artists profit from their art - or as you call it, "selling out." Let me clue everyone into this fact:

It's their art. They can do with it as they please. Their obligation isn't to their fans any more than your obligation to the people who like you at work is more important than the one you have at home.

Is it because seeing your song in a commercial means that it's no longer unique to you and those who you deem to be similar to you? Ooooh, I bet that's it.

Nevermind, I understand now.

 
Glitchwerks 2009-02-21 07:07:33 PM  
scrumpox: This song, right? (pops)

I knew that would show up sooner or later. Go back to doing John B videos, Joel.

Or more Laibach. Everyone loves Laibach.

 
Lipspinach 2009-02-21 07:17:19 PM  
Glitchwerks: scrumpox: This song, right? (pops)

I knew that would show up sooner or later. Go back to doing John B videos, Joel.

Or more Laibach. Everyone loves Laibach.


What's not to love?

 
Valdes 2009-02-21 07:31:19 PM  
Dear Robert:

Your songs weren't that great to begin with. Sell out. No one really cares.


Dear Keith Richards: Selling "Brown Sugar" to a Kellogs commercial was indeed the most hilarious thing ever. Nothing like a song about cunnilingus/heroin and interracial sex to make me want a sugary breakfast snack.

Dear Mick Jagger: Thanks for writing the riff to Brown Sugar.

Dear everyone else: Mick Jagger actually wrote riff to Brown Sugar

 
mrEdude 2009-02-21 07:58:46 PM  
actually Love Cats was when I considered the Cure to have sold out the first time

so by all means....

 
Walkenstein 2009-02-21 08:07:13 PM  
Die Kunst Der Fuge: I don't really see a problem with rock/pop musicians selling their music to advertising campaigns... it's not legitimate art. The vast majority of pop music is sentimental, catchy and occasionally entertaining mind candy that more or less accomplishes what it was written to do... persuade teenagers that the entertainer/musician has represented a sentiment that the teenager believes they have sincerely felt or more typically should feel... pop music typically amounts to vicarious living or a cheap reproduction of one's past experiences... basically an indulgence in vanity.

Face up folks, you can't polish turds but you can sell them to any sucker. America is proof solid of that.


and I bet dollars to donuts that you mostly listen to industrial,darkwave,etc

and most fans of these genres limit their listening times and tastes to these genres and most of the bands continue to churn out soulless pappy crap that's played in foggy clubs on a saturday night to a room full of uninteresting and lame people

 
Dear Jerk 2009-02-21 08:28:36 PM  
This could be fun. Sponsors for Cure songs. I vote US Army for Killing An Arab.

 
Lord Snoopy's G.P.E.H. 2009-02-21 08:58:45 PM  
TGI Fridays, I'm In Love.

 
CatJumpJohn 2009-02-21 09:43:21 PM  
Just as long as he takes only baths--no showers.

/might actually be obscure
//anyone?

 
BigEd [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 10:19:47 PM  
Say what you will about Bob, but Let's Go To Bed got me laid with a girl way out of my league my senior year in HS.

 
GungFu 2009-02-21 10:29:01 PM  
Close to You - deodorant commercials
Boys Don't Cry - Jockstraps
The Caterpillar - Period Pads ( caterpillar/ butterfly symbolism)
Lullaby - Xanax

 
GungFu 2009-02-21 10:35:44 PM  
*close to Me

 
m0llusk [TotalFark] 2009-02-21 11:07:57 PM  
Disintegration: Apply Directly To Forehead

 
Lord Snoopy's G.P.E.H. 2009-02-22 12:26:03 AM  
Kotex Panty Liners: For Those Inbetween Days.

 
Duck_of_Doom 2009-02-22 12:28:29 AM  
Why not? The song sucks anyway.

 
Duck_of_Doom 2009-02-22 12:30:20 AM  
Fark: 10:15 Saturday Night

 
Die Kunst Der Fuge 2009-02-22 12:43:12 AM  
Walkenstein: Die Kunst Der Fuge: I don't really see a problem with rock/pop musicians selling their music to advertising campaigns... it's not legitimate art. The vast majority of pop music is sentimental, catchy and occasionally entertaining mind candy that more or less accomplishes what it was written to do... persuade teenagers that the entertainer/musician has represented a sentiment that the teenager believes they have sincerely felt or more typically should feel... pop music typically amounts to vicarious living or a cheap reproduction of one's past experiences... basically an indulgence in vanity.

Face up folks, you can't polish turds but you can sell them to any sucker. America is proof solid of that.

and I bet dollars to donuts that you mostly listen to industrial,darkwave,etc

and most fans of these genres limit their listening times and tastes to these genres and most of the bands continue to churn out soulless pappy crap that's played in foggy clubs on a saturday night to a room full of uninteresting and lame people


Dude, I don't even know what darkwave music is and I've never been into industrial/goth music... okay, I listened to nine inch nails when I was 16 and for a few years afterward but that was the extent. Besides, industrial music is pop music and whatever "darkwave" is as well. Douchebag.

 
El Freak [TotalFark] 2009-02-22 12:54:28 AM  
Die Kunst Der Fuge: I don't really see a problem with rock/pop musicians selling their music to advertising campaigns... it's not legitimate art. The vast majority of pop music is sentimental, catchy and occasionally entertaining mind candy that more or less accomplishes what it was written to do... persuade teenagers that the entertainer/musician has represented a sentiment that the teenager believes they have sincerely felt or more typically should feel... pop music typically amounts to vicarious living or a cheap reproduction of one's past experiences... basically an indulgence in vanity.

Face up folks, you can't polish turds but you can sell them to any sucker. America is proof solid of that.


Define "legitimate art".

 
Die Kunst Der Fuge 2009-02-22 01:09:20 AM  
El Freak: Define "legitimate art".

Admittedly, that's a long discussion. However art does require some intellectual effort to appreciate and understand... it's not commercialized nonsense created to pander to cheap sentiment. Is Andy Warhol an Artist? No, of course not... he was witty in a very nihilistic way though funny and entertaining nonetheless. Art is how humanity transcends our mundane and material existence... it is what provides ourselves with legitimacy to existence... the difference between ourselves and the rest of nature in which we exist.

Of course all that is inadequate but serves as a brief introduction to what might follow.

 
Duck_of_Doom 2009-02-22 01:34:39 AM  
Die Kunst Der Fuge: Admittedly, that's a long discussion. However art does require some intellectual effort to appreciate and understand... it's not commercialized nonsense created to pander to cheap sentiment. Is Andy Warhol an Artist? No, of course not... he was witty in a very nihilistic way though funny and entertaining nonetheless. Art is how humanity transcends our mundane and material existence... it is what provides ourselves with legitimacy to existence... the difference between ourselves and the rest of nature in which we exist.

Of course all that is inadequate but serves as a brief introduction to what might follow.


Good points. However, art is not purely intellectual, and the art that falls to that pretense is cold, sterile, and devoid of the ability to help us transcend. Art has to touch the mind as well as the heart.

For me personally, The Cure is able to answer that call. It doesn't pander to emotion, but plays with it and toys with it. For instance, "Plainsong" fills me with a melancholy wonder.

All in all, art is much like pornography(sfw), I know it when I see it.

 
Die Kunst Der Fuge 2009-02-22 02:02:25 AM  
Duck_of_Doom: Good points. However, art is not purely intellectual, and the art that falls to that pretense is cold, sterile, and devoid of the ability to help us transcend. Art has to touch the mind as well as the heart.

For me personally, The Cure is able to answer that call. It doesn't pander to emotion, but plays with it and toys with it. For instance, "Plainsong" fills me with a melancholy wonder.

All in all, art is much like pornography(sfw), I know it when I see it.


Of course art isn't purely intellectual... and I'm not out to insult The Cure here either though I wouldn't consider what they produce as art... it's entertainment and worthwhile entertainment at that... I'm not into them but they make their music for commercial purposes. We live in a differently structured society now than in the past... a commercial society which has forced a wedge between distinctive entertainment and art. Entertainment was once produced for a small audience at local taverns, bars, churches or community centers where as now it's a multinational industry... ripping entertainment away from its "folk" oriented roots. Often times art grew out of entertainment... bar songs, artisan creations made by craftsmen... Quality pop music expresses here and now emotions... Art expresses something eternal and lasting from the period it was created during... a short example... Joyce in Ulysses expressed the changing idea of a Hero from Odysseus (a warrior who relied on his wit) to Leopold Bloom who was basically a schmuck who just got by in his day to day life... the workingman hero so to speak... and expressed that in a story in Dublin modeled after The Odyssey... Bach in his compositions fused german bar songs into some of the most brilliantly composed music in history... on a technical and artistic level... Jazz musicians of the 20th Century took mundane musical pieces written by folks like Rogers and Hammerstein and created fascinating and moving pieces of music that represent the difficulty of a changing America in the 40's-60's... the emotional turmoil and rapid change in social norms at the time... that's art... granted I've used a negative definition of art but... this is just a silly internet forum... i'm willing to elaborate more.

 
geetus 2009-02-22 02:21:57 AM  
Robert Smith has two vaginas. Too bad he sings out of one of them.

 
inthrees 2009-02-22 04:14:24 AM  
Dear Robert:

TAKE THE MONEY, DOPEY! I won't think any less of you or your work. No, that's not a hidden jab.

Ok, your earlier work.

 
trainonthebrain 2009-02-22 11:28:08 AM  
Lord Snoopy's G.P.E.H.: Kotex Panty Liners: For Those Inbetween Days.

Winnar!

 
eviljimbo 2009-02-22 01:48:31 PM  
FUGGIT go for it robert

 
msw-mojo 2009-02-22 04:15:01 PM  
Absolutely bullshiat. As an artist you make music for others to hear. Period. If you don't, listen to it yourself in your bedroom. To say, "oh I make music, but it has to be heard in this manner and not associated with this subject" is simply the height of pretension, and in this case economically stupid.

 
ErikShocker 2009-02-22 07:04:36 PM  
egomann: If Lou Reed can do it, anyone can do it. He let an SUV company use the instrumental from the song Heroin.

Are you kidding? Holy shiat!

 
Taunter 2009-02-22 09:33:56 PM  
Die Kunst Der Fuge:

Face up folks, you can't polish turds but you can sell them to any sucker. America is proof solid of that.


Frankly, I'm feeling sorry for the fellow that came up with the idea of actually attempting to polish a turd...

 
KajakPro 2009-02-23 12:30:53 AM  
ErikShocker: egomann: If Lou Reed can do it, anyone can do it. He let an SUV company use the instrumental from the song Heroin.

Are you kidding? Holy shiat!


Same with Shane Macgowan and "Sunnyside of the Street" for the Escalade:
"So I saw that train
And I got on it
With a heartful of hate
And a lust for vomit
Now Im walking on the sunnyside of the street""

 
andynz81 2009-02-23 06:51:34 AM  
Take it! Takeittakeittakeit!!!!

 
CatJumpJohn 2009-02-23 09:02:48 AM  
msw-mojo: Absolutely bullshiat. As an artist you make music for others to hear. Period. If you don't, listen to it yourself in your bedroom. To say, "oh I make music, but it has to be heard in this manner and not associated with this subject" is simply the height of pretension, and in this case economically stupid.

As an artist you make music for people to listen to, but many would argue that you have a responsibility to protect music that means something to people, from being used in a way that demeans the song and lessens its value. So, while nobody gives a shiat that Aerosmith songs are in commercials (they're a pure rock band and people just listen to them to have fun), it would bother many people to see Leonhard Cohen playing a verse of Hallelujah to sell Ballpark Franks or Tom Waits selling Doritos.

There's no black and white rule when it comes to advertising with music. I get what you're saying, but I think your perspective is a bit skewed.

 
biyaaatci 2009-02-23 04:01:44 PM  
Die Kunst Der Fuge: Duck_of_Doom: Good points. However, art is not purely intellectual, and the art that falls to that pretense is cold, sterile, and devoid of the ability to help us transcend. Art has to touch the mind as well as the heart.

For me personally, The Cure is able to answer that call. It doesn't pander to emotion, but plays with it and toys with it. For instance, "Plainsong" fills me with a melancholy wonder.

All in all, art is much like pornography(sfw), I know it when I see it.

Of course art isn't purely intellectual... and I'm not out to insult The Cure here either though I wouldn't consider what they produce as art... it's entertainment and worthwhile entertainment at that... I'm not into them but they make their music for commercial purposes. We live in a differently structured society now than in the past... a commercial society which has forced a wedge between distinctive entertainment and art. Entertainment was once produced for a small audience at local taverns, bars, churches or community centers where as now it's a multinational industry... ripping entertainment away from its "folk" oriented roots. Often times art grew out of entertainment... bar songs, artisan creations made by craftsmen... Quality pop music expresses here and now emotions... Art expresses something eternal and lasting from the period it was created during... a short example... Joyce in Ulysses expressed the changing idea of a Hero from Odysseus (a warrior who relied on his wit) to Leopold Bloom who was basically a schmuck who just got by in his day to day life... the workingman hero so to speak... and expressed that in a story in Dublin modeled after The Odyssey... Bach in his compositions fused german bar songs into some of the most brilliantly composed music in history... on a technical and artistic level... Jazz musicians of the 20th Century took mundane musical pieces written by folks like Rogers and Hammerstein and created fascinating and moving pieces of music that represent the difficulty of a changing America in the 40's-60's... the emotional turmoil and rapid change in social norms at the time... that's art... granted I've used a negative definition of art but... this is just a silly internet forum... i'm willing to elaborate more.


I find it fascinating that you insult Andy Warhol, call all pop music "Entertainment" and use the pinicle of modernism in literature to "prove" this point. Your criticism is as vapid as that which you seek to minimize.

 
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