So, what bums me out is, although their original gimmick was kinda innovative, these guys are now being used as an example of how to "succeed" as an independent musician: resorting to corporate sponsorship.
It was one thing to rely on a loan shark-- I mean, a record label to reach a national audience. At least all they cared about was selling as many records as possible. With corporate sponsorship, however, you actually have to fit the corporate brand.
The failure here is that now, while anyone with talent can sell their music on the same store shelves as everyone else, it's actually more difficult to gain the resources to build a really large audience unless you are involved in some retarded, career limiting gimmick, or your music just doesn't actually have anything to say, and really, music that doesn't have anything to say is the worst music there is.
Love or hate Pomplamoose, the Hyundai ads aren't really an example of them changing to "fit the corporate brand" - I mean, it's the same shtick they've been doing, just with cars in it. Like, exactly the same. And I don't know if typical label deals were better...many many musicians have made a couple of albums and ended up in debt. Besides, these two were successful before the car ad. I can see thinking doing car ads is lame, but they didn't resort to it as the only pathway to success. I think it's more that these days there isn't the same stigma attached (usually). Usually you don't actually see the band whose music is in the commercial, so they've stepped it up a notch, which gets them more attention for it, good and bad.
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