Pop artists go commercial; advertisers are turning to pop tunes that will click in consumers' minds, while artists have learned that exposure and money far outweigh the stigma of `selling out.'

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 24, 2002 | by Donna DeMarco

"He is not a big fan of having his music used commercially," says Levitan, whose firm also manages artists such as Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris and Lynyrd Skynyrd. "John writes a lot from the heart, and he doesn't want the songs to be used to sell paper towels. When a lot of these artists are performing their songs on stage they don't want someone to have a flashback to a Burger King commercial."

However, many artists haven't ruled out the commercial side of the business. "Never say never" Ford says. "Timing is everything." The Doors originally were approached and declined to have their song "Break on Through" in the latest Cadillac commercials, Ford notes. However, the legendary rock band's surviving members haven't eliminated the idea of commercial use completely. The band is interested in having its music associated with high-tech companies, so Ford is pitching The Doors to Intel.

DONNA DEMARCO WRITES FOR Insight's SISTER DAILY, THE WASHINGTON TIMES.

Pop Professors Get New Respect

One of the trendier fields of study is American culture, and there's a cottage industry of professors springing up to teach it. Close to 1,600 people showed up at the recent annual meeting in Toronto of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association Conference to pool notes on their craft.

"Pop culture has this enormous impact on American life," says Robert Thompson, who directs the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. "Of all places, the university should concentrate on this much more than they do."

According to Thompson, studies of America's real heart and soul deserve the attention of more academics. "It used to be that if you were in the English department and were studying science fiction and mystery writing, you were looked down on by people who were studying Chaucer," he says. "Twenty years ago, it was very unusual for an English department to have a course in the history of television."

Now English professor Laura Gray-Rosendale uses TV shows such as the Gilmore Girls and movies such as Fight Club to introduce students to rhetorical analysis and argumentation at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. "We can't separate Aristotelian logic from our everyday situations," she says. "When we are talking about ads and how they are put together, we are talking about rhetorical appeals; how it appeals to our emotions, sense of logic and our character."

Even the German and Russian studies department at the University of Missouri-Columbia uses pop culture to its own ends. Assistant professor Brad Prager, for example, teaches a course on the history of German films. "A lot of Germans will go to Hollywood movies but not consider that art," he says. "The inflexibility of their university structures means they cannot get away from traditional scholarship."

It all has to do with capitalism, Prager continues. "Innovation is encouraged in American institutions in terms of what you can sell to students. It is a way you can do innovative and new work. But if students want courses on Star Trek, does that mean you should give courses in it and offer a B.A. in it? Actually, a well-taught course on Star Trek can be just as fascinating as a well-taught course on Goethe."