Pop Music in Advertising

     

SOURCE: We Heart It

     The economic principle I’m exploring is “People generally respond to incentives in predictable ways” My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What role does product placement hold in music lyrics?”

     The article published in Mic Network Inc titled “Pop Music is More About Advertising Now Than Before - And Nobody Realizes It” demonstrates this economic principle by showing that advertising is extremely prominent in music through brand mentions in lyrics, artists are willing to include advertisements in their songs out of greed, and bribes are occasionally taken for the sake of an advertisement.

     First, in some songs, the lyrics will include the mention of a product. For most cases, a company is paying the artist to include their product in their lyrics. They believe that through this, the popularity of the song will correlate with the popularity of the product. An example of this can be seen through Chris Brown’s song “Forever”. The song’s lyrics,“prominently nods to the slogan of Wrigley's Double Mint gum in its chorus: "Double your pleasure / Double your fun and dance." Almost a year later, Wrigley's revealed that the song was actually part of a cleverly orchestrated branding move”. These lyrics were just another ad in a popular song.

     Second, artists are sometimes greedy enough to include a brand in their lyrics as an attempt to construct a deal with this brand. Their rationale is that they will “hopefully earn free products or sponsorships down the line”. This has happened in the past with Busta Rhymes with his song, “Pass the Courvoisier”. I personally think this is a really immoral thing to do, because an artist is taking an advantage of their position for the sake of money or free products.

     Third, offers and bribes are shown to artists in attempts to get them to include products in their lyrics. This goes to show how the world has become increasingly more corrupted by means of greed and wealth. It also means that other things outside of music are infiltrated by advertisements without the public knowing. If bribes are offered to artists, why not others. The article mentioned that one company, "blatantly offers to include product plugs in the lyrics of an upcoming album by boy band B2K.” The effects of advertisements have become widespread.