Calgary’s own Leslie Feist is coming home next weekend for the Junos and one hopes she wins the whole haul. Nominated in such prestigious categories as artist, album and single of the year, there’s no doubt that Feist has finally begun to break on through to the other side of music: mainstream success. There’s this one little nagging aspect of her popularity–how did it really come about? Is her success because of countless hours spent touring and playing shows or because of one commercial?
While Feist has worked many long and hard hours on the road, ultimately, her real success came with the famous iPod Nano commercial. Anyone who disagrees with this controversial statement only needs to look at some simple numbers.
Feist’s opening week numbers were quite solid. Her album peaked at number 16 on the Billboard charts in the U.S. selling 31,000 copies of the Reminder while reaching the number 2 slot in Canada by selling 18,000 copies. These are solid, unspectacular numbers for a lesser-known songstress from Canada. Then the iPod commercial hit television screens, selling the brand spankin’ new Nano to the tune of “1 2 3 4.” Suddenly the song blasted its way up the iTunes music store chart and people were buying the album en masse. By the end of 2007, Feist’s the Reminder was the most purchased album of the year on iTunes. By Jan. 2008 Feist had performed on Saturday Night Live, sold 515,000 albums in the U.S. alone and was gearing up to play at the Grammys.
Those who doubt this meteoric rise in fame wasn’t, at least in part, because of the iPod commercial are pretty misinformed. Because of one simple 30-second commercial, Leslie Feist reached meteoric fame.
There’s one wrinkle with this huge increase in fame. There is a rift created between the old school fans and the new school ones, as well as introducing the most-dreaded term in music: “selling out.” While it’s a huge financial boon to artists, as they often net more money than the sales of their album in stores, it also leads to a whiny pretentious fanbase that feels left out by the sudden influx of hangers-on and wannabes who saw a commercial.
There’s a strange and delicate balance when it comes to commercials. The money from commercial licensing for a struggling artist can be incredibly useful. What’s more, the publicity can help launch careers. Bands like the Dandy Warhols exploded in Europe because of a cell phone commercial. The publicity from the commercial translated to success for the band, selling out shows and headlining performances at music festivals that previously wouldn’t have given them the time of day. No longer were they playing shitty dive bars, but hotels with towels and bar soap! This was explored in the documentary DiG!, showing how a little commercial licensing can help spawn commercial success. Comparatively, older fans of the Dandies felt they had sold themselves out to reach success.
In so many ways, the opportunity to get music to a mainstream audience through television or film is the perfect stepping-stone to an artist’s career. People’s tastes are fickle. No one in their right mind spends hours upon hours combing over the latest music mags and indie rock rags trying to find the coolest new tunes to show off their skills. People like to listen to catchy pop music. It’s why the iPod commercials have been so successful: they use evocative, catchy music to hook in viewers and then sell the product with a feel-good message. It’s a deal with a velvet-lined devil–often the products being sold are frivolous, but the money and exposure is incredibly useful for the artist.
Would Feist be nominated for a Grammy or a Juno if she hadn’t been on a commercial? No. Most people on the street couldn’t name the albums she created beforehand (Monarch (Let Your Jewelled Head Down), Let it Die and the remix CD Open Season). It’s hard to get real publicity and paying your dues can be a long and hard-fought process. Unless a band’s entire aesthetic is based on rejecting commercialism, then it should be fine to fans for them to offer up their music for a commercial. Musicians need to eat too and commercials are a good opportunity for bands to put food on the table. It’s selfish for fans to whine and stamp their feet when an artist gains new fans, money and notoriety. Musicians want to make music for a living, and commercials allow them to do that. It’s an unfortunate reality, but that’s what it is.