Time and again, beloved songs have been trotted out to sell cars. Led Zeppelin for Cadillac, the Buzzcocks for Toyota, and the Ramones for Nissan. The Clash even popped up in a Jaguar commercial. Viewers with an attachment to a particular track might find themselves feeling betrayed, especially those Gen-X fans of underground music for whom liking music outside the mainstream was part and parcel of their young identities. But given that record sales aren?t what they used to be, who isn?t pleased that Pylon is seeing some money from that new Lexus ad"
To suggest that Iggy Pop must be held to the same rigorous staunch-indie standard as Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, a man who wouldn?t do interviews with publications that derived income from tobacco advertising, is wishful and ridiculous thinking. If Iggy doesn?t have the sheer successful breadth of his late collaborator, David Bowie, he?s a multimedia entertainer in the same mold, and nobody griped much when ?Starman? ran in an Audi Super Bowl ad earlier this year. Ingolstadt has dipped back into the erstwhile Ziggy Stardust?s well, this time fishing out the Pop-fronted Stooges? ?Search and Destroy,? the venomous, hair-raising lead track from the Bowie-produced Raw Power album. Iggy?s been selling his songs for years. He even recently appeared with John Varvatos in a Chrysler 300 spot, shot in front of Varvatos? Bowery store in Manhattan?a space that was once home to CBGB?s. This isn?t even the first commercial go ?round f...