MIA's Honda Advert!

Woebot

Well-known member
This via the mighty Wayne on Wax:

http://wayneandwax.blogspot.com/2005/10/what-would-noam-do.html
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/onthedownload/2005/09/galang-galang-galang.html

I imagine some people will have some sport with this. But not me because it's entirely consistent with what I've believed MIA to be all along (yunnuh God Bless her, serious...)

Y'see, as some people have remarked (Jace Clayon somewhere in here i think) If Ludacris was to do this, sell his tune to advertise a hummer, no-one would blink an eyelid.

All I think people's reactions to it underline is the kind of "artist" MIA really is. She *AINT* the "real thing" is *NO SUBSTITUTE* for "the real thing" (exagerated use of parantheses, everyone knows what i'm saying here!) she *IS* an artful bohemian construction, and artful bohemian constructions arent supposed to do this kind of thing. Ironically, only "the real thing" is supposed to sell out!

What about the thorny conundrum? Does the fact that she sold out make her the real thing after all? Well if she hadn't apologised publicly thus:

"Sorry to kill the party . . . Two days ago, I had a fight with a friend because I sold 'Galang' to Honda . . . Sometimes I think I shouldn't have done it. Maybe you guys don't give a shit . . . But I hope I still have your support . . . I'm a first generation immigrant, how else am I gonna make money so I can get it the people who need it? . . . This is still my song. It doesn't belong to Honda."

Maybe yes!

So if you love MIA and one of the people who earlier this year was engaged in what blissblogger neatly described as "that bizarre net-spectacle of folks who disdain the concept of authenticity engaged in frantic authentication", and you're confused as to your reaction to all this bizniss, it's because your judgement failed you and you're a sucker for a catchy track.
 
Last edited:

francesco

Minerva Estassi
The publicity dept at Honda have bad taste in music!

Yeah she is the real thing: a really boring brat who claim to be a musician.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
1. I like Galang whether sold to Honda or not and whether MIA is "authentic" or not. I didn't buy it though. (So far as I am aware it does not feature either the Roots Radics or Jammys on production, so it does not fulfil my carefully constructed purchasing criteria.)

2. If she had sold Galang to advertise a Hummer, that would be a home run credibility wise. People PAY to advertise Hummers. I'm not saying it's right, but that's the way it is. A Honda is not a Hummer -- though I'd rather drive, say, an NSX than an unreliable armoured personnel carrier.

3. I do not believe she is using the advertising money to support "the people who need it". I am not aware of any significant and concerted attempt on MIA's part to undertake charitable work.

4. I do believe that MIA needs the money because her records aren't selling. If selling the tune to Honda is how she'll make a living then that's afair enough.

5. I learnt from the interview in OMM that MIA was apparently a highly successful gangster's moll in LA. I found this strained credibility, or at least my credulousness, but who knows, maybe she was. As it is it just seems to confirm the charges of Walter Mitty-dom that have been levelled at MIA.
 

mms

sometimes
talking of people selling product on the back of trends - do you remember that documentary about puma trying to get support and latch on to dancehall and it all going horribly wrong?
Various issues involving exploitation and homophobia etc
I got an invite thru my good pal to go to some puma party to advertise their new shoe last night- thry've gone all old school and rootsy now. On the lineup was roy ayres, mc shan and dj cash money, duggie fresh, roots manuva and rodney p and - bruza - who did about 10 really awful minutes with his pal triple threat with the whole of aftershock in the background and logan i think on decks . bless him but he went down like a lead balloon, the sound was bad tho -but in comparison to the entertainer and performer vibe of the others he looked messy.
Did you know that mc shan wrote all Canadian white mc snow's lyrics btw - he made 60% off it and is really well off apparently.
 

joeschmo

Well-known member
I think if you'd just drop the terms "real thing" and "authenticity" altogether, and instead say what you actually mean when you use those terms--anything from "working class" to "young men with limited education, no financial resources, and troubled upbringings" would be preferable--it would make everything a lot clearer.
 
D

droid

Guest
You can watch the ad here

This seems like good news all round. MIA's music is tailor made for car ads/idents on MTV/Nathan Barleyesque TV shows, plus her insipid moaning is much more palatable in 30 second bursts...
 
Last edited by a moderator:

boosted

Active member
Gotta say .. as soon as I hear that mousy voice on any media I immediately turn the channel, hit the skip button, fast foward, click away ... whatever I can do to make it stop! If anything, Honda has reinforced my reaction time to the channel button on the remote with that ad. Meh!

apparrently Hondas are now selling like hot cakes to the mud hut people

I fuqin love that! Hahah :cool:
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
mms said:
talking of people selling product on the back of trends - do you remember that documentary about puma trying to get support and latch on to dancehall and it all going horribly wrong?
The organiser of that is a FOAF. She didn't come across that well on telly. I'm given to understand that it was all well-intentioned.
mms said:
bruza - who did about 10 really awful minutes with his pal triple threat with the whole of aftershock in the background and logan i think on decks . bless him but he went down like a lead balloon
Logan! What's the story fella! :)
 

dsp13

GAMEBWOY
i liked her tunes before and I like them now... as I've mentioned before I don't bother reading interviews with her though... or many other people these days. So she's joined the ranks of aphex twin, lfo, mr oizo, and a zillion other talented people who sold their art to the media machine... does it change the way the music sounds? I find the whole sell-out argument a little tired... C.R.E.A.M... dolla dolla bill 'yall.
 

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
2stepfan said:
2. If she had sold Galang to advertise a Hummer, that would be a home run credibility wise. People PAY to advertise Hummers. I'm not saying it's right, but that's the way it is.

Huh? Care to name any examples? I seriously doubt Yagya paid for the 'honor'.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Breaking it Down.

the tired and cliche dichotomy of "selling out" vs. "keeping it real" was set up during the sixties, by a bunch of poseurs at a time when rebellion became trendy and fashionable, and is as irrelevent today as ever.

artists have always needed their patrons, without exception, since the dawn of civilization.

while there certainly are criteria with which we can discern quality (see Against Subjectivity), "authenticity" is a construct largely based on out-moded sets of assumptions of High Modernism and an obsolete value system which privileges ego driven patriachy.

and why is music always singled out as the creative activity which should be scrutinized under the bullshit "authenticity" magnifying glass?

I don't hear people crying "sell out" when Damian Hurst is sponsored by wealthy institutions?

and I for one, and I suspect many of the others here, do visual work for corporate clients (who do you make your 3-D models for, Matt? your cat?), and if that is OK, so is MIA licensing her tune to Honda.
 

hint

party record with a siren
2stepfan said:
4. I do believe that MIA needs the money because her records aren't selling. If selling the tune to Honda is how she'll make a living then that's afair enough.

She's sold 70,000 in America
 

zhao

there are no accidents
infinite thought said:
yeah, what's that about?

hard not to think there's a bit of misogyny at work in this whole MIA-hate thing...

I think it's something to do with brown people. as in South Asians. so it appears (sorry in advance if I'm wrong) it's not just misogyny we're dealing with here...

and you upholders of "Authenticity" and everything good and true about humanity, please respond to my earlier post...
 
confucius said:
I think it's something to do with brown people. as in South Asians. so it appears (sorry in advance if I'm wrong) it's not just misogyny we're dealing with here...

yeah, what I meant was it seems like there's <i>also</i> a bit of good ol' fashioned lady-disliking going on ...just the whole virulence of the antagonism towards her...

I also assumed the 'mud hut people' thing couldn't be as dubious as it sounded...is it?
 
Top