I was at the Winnipeg Folk Fest last weekend to listen to and watch many of my favourite musicians such as The Weakerthans, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Calexico, and Geoff Berner. The Folk Festival was rainy, but great.
The Mainstage on Thursday night featured 3 of my favourite artists, including Geoff Berner as a "tweener". Though his set may only have been 15 minutes it still stirred up a lot of conversation a nervous laughter. Both the songs that he played I had heard already but for many people they were new. He kicked it off with the song that he claimed was the "Official Theme Song for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games". Before playing he told the audience of near 10,000 people that to fund for the Olympic Games, the government was cutting a lot of money from different government organizations. He said that an organization that got lots of money cut from it was the organization that investigated children's deaths. With that, he started the song, saying it was a sing-along. He wanted everyone to sing along with the chorus which was: "The dead, dead children were worth it! The dead, dead children were worth it!" That brought up many disgusted faces and nervous laughter as the lyrics held graphic depictions of what the cuts from the organization entailed. To listen to the song, click The Official Theme Song for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games (The Dead Children were Worth it).
Once this song was over, he pointed behind him, noticing that one of that nights biggest sponsors was Volkswagon, and that there was even a big Volkswagon logo plastered up behind him. He then stated that Volkswagon was sponsoring and agreed with every word that he said tonight. And with that he started another sing-along, this time called: "Maginot Line" which is a song about the French and the Germans in the 1st world war. When the line came in the song that talked about Hitler coming to call, Geoff Berner stopped and pointed again to the Volkswagon sign and reminded everyone that the Nazis were the ones who first made Volkswagon: "the peoples car." To listen to this song click: Maginot Line.
With that, the set was over and the nervous laughter died down to hear Michael Franti and Spearhead.
After the show, Geoff Berner said that this was an example of the clashes between protest singers and songwriters like himself and big advertising.
I think this is a good point and I congratulate Geoff Berner for his braveness.
4 comments:
I agree with you Isaac - I commend Berner for his courage. And frankly, artists, musicians or otherwise, are supposed to bring up issues and make us question things we take for granted in society. We've gotten to the point where the advertising is so ubiquitous that we don't even notice the giant VW sign on the stage until someone, like Berner, points it out AND points out the problems inherent with not only advertising itself, but the social complexity and impact of large corporations. And if you can't make comments like that at a folk fest, where else can you do it! :-)
Isaac , I agree as well although unlike Heidi I am so unknowledgeable that the VW sign would need to be explained to me.
twitch twitch lots of reading twitch cant stop twitch why so long twitch p.s. i agree with what u said?
My thoughts on corporate sponsorship have shifted a lot over the last few years. A while ago, Wilco had one of their songs used for a VW ad and many fans were angry about it. Wilco's 'official' response was something like, "We like VWs, some of us drive VWs. And we weren't sure the record would sell enough so we could use the money." One can argue whether they really thought the album would sell or not (though maybe they're referring to free downloading?) But I thought this was interesting for a couple of reasons:
- good point on owning the car. I, in fact, would love to own a VW. So it's okay for Wilco band members to drive VWs, but attaching the band's music to it takes it one step too far?
- at the same time, what are the angry fans' worries? that people will be swayed to buy VWs due to Wilco's coolness factor? That Wilco 'sold out' and therefore the fans' tastes are not so countercultural? I think a lot about the concept of 'selling out,' which about 20 years ago had to do with a band going to a major label -- and I don't think I believe that has a stigma anymore (though record companies are not necessarily treating artists better)
- also subtle way for them to note the impact of free downloading. I better start buying more music and NOT burning it from the public library
- and sponsorship of things like music festivals is key in ensuring those festivals can continue (keeping ticket prices down, as does their high numbers of volunteers), but also is a very easy sell to companies: lots of people, a 'feel good' event...so Berner's challenge really stands out. I agree that if you can't do it at a folk festival, where can you? But very few artists actually do challenge it.
Anyhow, just meandering thoughts. I do think that the question of corporate involvement in non-profits is very complicated. Non-profits are also socially complex and nothing that people organize ever seems to be totally 'clean'.
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