Is Squeak E. Clean the future of music?
Posted on March 11, 2009 - Filed Under culture |
When a copy of NASA’s The Spirit of the Apollo hit my desk a few weeks ago, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that interested. Sure it’s got Ol’ Dirty, Kanye and George Clinton, but it’s also got Tom Waits and Karen O. It’s a noble goal to bring music worlds together but sometimes certain ingredients just shouldn’t mix — like bananas and steak. (Remember Judgment Night? Look no further when looking to place blame for Limp Bizkit.) As it turns out, I’m more interested in the process behind this album and its commercial connotations than listening to it again. And perhaps you should be, too.
NASA is Squeak E Clean and DJ Zegon. The former being Sam Spiegel, also proprietor of Squeak E Clean Productions, a commercial music production shop that’s done everything from commercials with Michel Gondry and (Spiegel’s brother) Spike Jonze, to scoring EA’s Skate 2 video game and David O. Russell’s latest flick, Nailed. Spiegel uses the commercial work to fund his personal projects (NASA’s record was put out on Anti-) and relishes the idea of licensing tracks even before the album is done. In his ideal world, he’ll license a track from an upcoming album before it’s release to a brand and then integrate the two with events to promote them both. I spoke to Spiegel about this for Creativity and while it all sounds like a decent business plan, it does seem to toss more mud in the waters between art and commerce. Is this where things are headed in commercial music? After hearing Spiegel’s plans, some folks are quite concerned about this path, and rightly so. Where is the line between music-as-art and music-as-sales-tool? Are we destined for a Demolition Man future? While pondering these and other heady questions about the future (food in pill form? jet packs?), distract yourself with the sick animation in this video for the NASA track “Waydown.”
Comments
3 Responses to “Is Squeak E. Clean the future of music?”
Leave a Reply
The film is actually called “Nailed,” fyi. Might want to fix on Creativity too.
good catch, thanks…
What’s this craziness about food in pill form?
Cheers! — Roger D.