I don’t know if I’m getting more and more sensitive to getting older. Well, that’s a lie. I AM getting sensitive to it. One of the things that struck me as a sign of the impending Apocalypse was the use of music in commercials. You know that moment when you have a realization that ‘Oh, My God! I know that song! I love that song!’ and then it dawns on you that you love the music because it was played during your youth. That’s what I’m talking about. What’s worse is when the music becomes bastardized.

I’m not talking about such blasphemy as when Nike ran a commercial using the Beatles’ “Revolution”. Does anyone remember that uproar? After Michael Jackson bought the rights to the Beatles’ music he went and whored them out. I’m talking about something less sinister. For example, Kraft used EMF’s “Unbelievable” for their new product “Kraft Cheese Crumbles”. They took a song that helped to define part of my generation’s existence during high school/college and rewrote it. Instead of saying ‘…you’re unbelievable…’ the chorus is now ‘…it’s CRUMBLElievable…’

I could cry.

Some kids today probably don’t even know who EMF is or stands for (Ecstasy, Mother Fucker). What can you do? Do you blame the artist for selling the rights to their music? I mean, the Rolling Stones allowed Microsoft to use “Start Me Up” to the tune of $8M. (as an aside – are people really going to want to see the Rolling Stones during the half-time show of the Super Bowl? I’ve got one word for you: UGH).

When I heard Devo’s “Whip It” used for Swiffers, I felt really weird.