Hit The Big Time

Obviously, if your song makes it on the radio, you've done something right. If you continue to make beautiful music, and end up with hit after hit, you're a musical genius, on your way to becoming an icon. So what happens to a person, whose career has been marked by success, and the road is paved in gold, and as I'm walking through the grocery store, there is canned music with someone else's voice singing their hit song? I'm sure their career is still considered a success, but has their stardom been tarnished a bit? As an artist, don't you have to agree to let your music be processed and canned, like Del Monte green beans, and played throughout the grocery store or mall? Is this considered a sellout? Many feel, when an artist lends his/her song to a TV commercial, that's as bad as child abuse. Diehard fans consider this a betrayal of their loyal fanship. The artist may just view it as another way to earn a paycheck. Or perhaps they're bound by a contract that rapes and pillages their music, and lends it to any commercial contract that will give them a nickel. The artist may have signed such a contract, thinking this was their lucky break, and the only way to get their music heard. My feeling is, apparently that particular song playing at HyVee today, has run its course of popularity, and its time to pasture it. (Sorry Chumba Wumba). I guess HyVee doesn't have access to current top 40, or the latest Indie rock. So if you find your rock n' roll career has slowly faded over the years, and you're tired of playing county fairs for $5 a head ticket price, and packing out the local bars where the fire marshall allows no more than 64 people, I would search out these stores playing the bastardized version of my song, and ask them for a gig. Maybe you can get the redemption price from double coupon day, instead of proceeds from ticket sales. I would also insist on a name tag, and a spot in their commercial.