For a moment, I thought they were making a sly reference to the one episode where Dave Matthews guest starred and House played "I Don't Like Mondays" on the piano.


Then I realized it was Fox, and I was probably attributing too much credit.

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The NFL advertise using 'Every Day is Like Sunday.'

People, LISTEN.

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Didn't Ronald Reagan try to appropriate Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" ?

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Yes, he did. And more disturbingly, Bush I tried to use Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy" in 1992 until McFerrin came out and said "Uh, first off, the song is being sarcastic, and second, I'm a Democrat." See also: the use of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son" to sell Wrangler jeans -- well, the first stanza of Fortunate Son, at least ("Some folks were born made to wave the flag / Ooh, they're red, white, and blue")

I can't figure out which aspect of this kind of song-swiping is the most repugnant:

1. The fact that the people who do this are spreading the attitude that it's okay to take everything at face value, to focus on only the hook and not the rest of the subject matter,
2. The fact that they do this with the full intent on removing the original meaning of the song and grafting on their own interpretation for their own gain, or
3. The fact that they're attaching their own brand and product to the song so the next time you hear Led Zeppelin, you think "Hey! This song was in a Cadillac ad!"

It's all very insulting to a person who enjoys thinking for himself.

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Wouldn't that have required approval by CCR, though? Probably resulting in residual royalty payments to them?

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I personally enjoyed the dust-up over the McCain campaign using Heart's Barracuda against the band's loudly stated wishes. The campaign was all, "Hey, you're getting your royalty check, fuck off." So then Heart was like "We're signing those checks right over to the Obama campaign, go pound sand."

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In my opinion, number 1 is the most repugnant. You could argue that number 2 is also a by-product of mash-ups, but I like the creativity and new interpretations one can find there and I feel it's slightly hypocritical to have a double standard. I feel that number 3 is simply a neccessary evil to living in a society that has such a strong consumerist/marketing bent to it.

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Honestly I think you're giving them way too much credit with #2.

They don't actually listen to the lyrics.

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I prefer to think all of these examples exist for the amusement of me. Solipsistic? At least, they act as culturejammers for a select few. I ain't no military son.

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