Nostalgia

So, I'm going to date myself here...not only date myself, but seem silly while I'm at it. Why? Because I'm too young to really be able to reminisce, especially about something that's less than a decade old. Also, because the average kid who loves Limp Bizkit & 50 Cent will have no clue what I'm talking about.

HP has this new add for their digital photography. The ad is actually pretty cool since they take video and make sort of a collage out of various clips...basically making it seem like parts of the scene are photos in the world. It's hard to describe and unforutantely I can't find a free site which has the video, but if you watch TV, you'll prolly end up seeing it soon. You can always join AdCritic and find a lot of other ads as well.

Anyways, so here's the nostaglia part...the soundtrack to the ad is The Cure's "Pictures of You". Along with half of my high school, Robert Smith and his band mates were near gods in the 80's and 90's. The bass lines and Robert's voice just set the mood of teen angst at the time. It's definitely nice to hear songs from my younger days on TV, even if the song doesn't necessarily fit.

On the face of it, Pictures of You is perfect for this HP ad since the hook is "Looking so long at these pictures of you..." But if you listen to the whole song, it's more about not being connected to the one you love and never having anything more than the pictures to hold on to. I'm sure HP doesn't want to relay that kind of message to viewers, so they've smartly just included the hook and no other lyrics. Most companies that use pop songs do this, so it's not surprising at all...just funny when you know the whole song and know what's it talking about.

There's always the thing about "selling out" and why a band would pimp themselves to earn a few bucks. Well, if the band does it infrequently I don't think it's so bad. Besides, the Cure was never about the "Underground"; they were one of the most popular bands of the 80's and early 90's in certain groups so I don't think they ever felt like they needed to keep from getting too commercialized. At the same time, they were never your average pop band...they kept to their music regardless of how well it fit into the mainstream. It ended up fitting into the mainstream of rock, but never really hit the pop sensation level. Regardless, Pictures of You from the Disintegration album came at the height of The Cure's run at the top of New Wave/Alternative Rock so if there was to be any song of there's used for a TV ad, it's not surprising it's this song. The hook is pretty straight forward and, most importantly (and relevant for The Cure), the song is not soooo depressing.

Anyways, here's to songs we love being re-hashed for strictly commercial purposes.