RFD: Light-hearted, whimsical indie hipster music that seemed specifically manufactured for Apple commercials

So much music sounds like this now. It's kind of hard for me to put my finger on exactly the characteristics that instantly make me think "GODDAMN FUCKING APPLE COMMERCIAL." (Maybe it's not even just Apple commercials-- it might span brands.) It seems to vary a little bit, where some of it is what someone here derisively called "vest-and-hat" bands while some of it is grating whimsical naifs on pianos. I'm not sure there is a term for this style, or even that it is a cohesive style in the strictest sense, but there's something instantly recognizable about stuff that falls into this genre/category. Maybe a bit like C86 in that way. My questions:

- Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
- What are the defining characteristics?
- What is this genre called, or what might it be called (derisive answers ok)?
- What is it about this music that is so marketable? Is its marketability connected to certain societal trends and attitudes specific to this time?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OmbjjWVhko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvCBSSwgtg4

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_BXiLAmoEpMI/TP0_Kp1MvII/AAAAAAAAHn0/q8dIrrrIJ0k/s1600/31782_123782634314088_100000470566045_247802_486549_n.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItMHO02Vhms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elsh3J5lJ6g

oh my god don't get me started...the baby-voice-singing-a la-Cat Power/Feist makes me want to throw the TV out the window. And there's no stopping it. And the whole ukelele Geico thing...rage-inducing

OK before someone jumps all over me, not technically baby-voice, don't know how to describe it....twee?

leave cat power out of this.

i like in the lumineers video how the guy visually represents the alleviation of his loneliness by surrounding himself with a chrous line of women wearing the exact same outfit as him. that's like bieber-level narcissism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmSbXsFE3l8

every single tech ad now has this, it's so hard to stomach.

the tech companies, especially apple and google, have to work extra-hard to counteract the impression that they are evil empires.

yes this def. seems to be a watershed moment for other tech. companies FINALLY working out that twee sells

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_used_by_Apple_Inc.

so it basically started around 2007 w/ Feist/Imogen Heap/The Bird and the Bee/Yael Naïm? it seems like earlier Apple ads were heavier on classic rock/pop and obvious Top 40 picks (also more black people!)

God that Lenka song adheres so strictly to the blueprint it's freaky. That's the sound of money alright.

Feist seems pretty crucial here as a jumping-off point for these other acts, could be wrong about that but I suspect a lot of people who weren't paying attention to baby-voice twee indie before that went "oh wait, there's money in this."

(I really like "Mushaboom" for the record)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EUYTGBpBms

I was at a really hip bar that had like five songs by The Bird and the Bee on their playlist and the whole thing felt like a 2 hour ad for the bright orange iPod nano

Few years ago an indieish mate of mine told me how someone she knew who worked in advertising called her up & asked her to recommend some twee music to use in ads

idk this music at all but i have become aware of this inadvertent subgenre

it all sounds a bit like how i remember vampire weekend sounding (nb i probably listened to one song of theirs three years ago)? that sort of pellucid chimy indie, purged of all distortion or irregularity with extensive protooling

is this just the generic sound of "indie" becoming mainstream? Is there "mainstream indie" that doesn't have this irritating feel?

2010/06 WWDC Intra-session 6/7/09 7:50pm, 2011/06 WWDC Intra-session 6/6/11 1:52 p.m., 6/7/11 9:50 a.m., 4:03 p.m.

that wiki page is mortifying

That frigging Lenka song was used in Moneyball where they tried to pass it off as if it was an original written by Brad Pitt's daughter. It was the most surreal thing.

Anyway, Windows does this shit now, too. Ladies and gentlemen, Kishi Bashi:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBmtde_XNBs

chime-y major arpeggios

fuck a glockenspiel

And it permeates out into all related culture. Adventure Time, I'm looking at you.

glockenspiel
ukelele
mandolin
poorly mic'd piano

what other instruments am I missing here

brb checking magnetic fields album credits

tambourine?

handclaps

Hate this stuff. Sounds like it was made for very small children.

idk cat power v well but the music is definitely not twee! The name, sure.

or light-hearted. I mean, lol.

What are the defining characteristics?

"La, la, la, la (21x)"

Worst offender:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw20ssNMQlU

the thing is i love handclaps, tambourines, glockenspiels, poorly mic'd pianos, and toy instruments, but this context makes them terrible. i've had to check myself when recording at times because it was "too Apple commercial" or "too This American Life interlude-y".

I think that Prius commercial is perfect; it's a car for condescending turds with bad taste.

I was looking for that Prius one. Was seeing it in EVERY BREAK on Hulu and was about to kill someone.

this whole thing is out of control, there needs to be a massive massive rivethead revival to restore some balance.

juno

^^^ yes! There was a bunch of discussion of this trend in the Pomplamoose thread, and I blame Juno/Kimya Dawson for much of it.

A friend whose musical tastes I almost always agree with burned me a Kimya CD once, and I was like... um... thanks?

this one drives me nuts, a peppy update of the Mr Rogers theme for Target's entry to Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jb22vkh9g4

it seems like an entire genre based on Melanie's "Brand New Key" and low-rent Zooey Deschanels.

Rent-a-Deschanels.

someone mentioned that this stuff sounds like it was made for small kids. I think there's something there. Something about marketing the guilelessness of youth's innocence, naivete, and authenticity to, ironically, a world of cynicism and commercialization.

It's also marketing a kind of androgyny, a state of innocence which cuts across gender codes.

weird, I have some random ass person from a marketing firm following my Spotify library. I hope we'll start getting some commercials featuring Chrome

There however we part ways, because I don't pine for my fucking pre-adolescence or romanticize it, I like being a grown-up and the best parts of adolescence do not seem to be, for me, what they are for most of my fellow white indie dudes. Fuck "innocence" and fuck even thinking about its "loss" imo.

I would say that romanticizing pre-adolescence is just as good as romanticizing any of the other things rock music likes to romanticize.

Also that, when carried out by men, the point of this move is often to reject as forcefully as possible some kind of boring idea about what adult manhood is supposed to be like, and this doesn't seem like such a bad idea; I mean, there's a reason Tullycraft and Bratmobile have similar-sounding names and were often listened to by the same people. (Whether Tullycraft could sell iPods is a different question. Also note: I don't really like Tullycraft.)

I've seen producers physically respond to a newly overdubbed glockenspiel with wriggling glee.

well guys, it's been a good run, but it's time to go.

http://i.imgur.com/DSfxaEf.png

I would say that romanticizing pre-adolescence is just as good as romanticizing any of the other things rock music likes to romanticize.

this, in big bold caps

I would say that romanticizing pre-adolescence is just as good as romanticizing any of the other things rock music likes to romanticize.

this is the kind of question I can argue about all day but let me just say, I disagree

q: why? a: because it's reactionary, which is not a necessary condition of romanticization but is of this one

Also that, when carried out by men, the point of this move is often to reject as forcefully as possible some kind of boring idea about what adult manhood is supposed to be like, and this doesn't seem like such a bad idea

and the thing is, I agree strongly w/this. but when I hear the results of this move, I feel like I wanna say, while I agree with where you may be coming from,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13muFXkEuIU

Also that, when carried out by men, the point of this move is often to reject as forcefully as possible some kind of boring idea about what adult manhood is supposed to be like, and this doesn't seem like such a bad idea

this thread hasn't fallen into misogyny but I think the venom that you see the nu-twee aesthetic producing elsewhere often does, and what you say is a big part of that - it's completely fair to dislike the placidly regressive middle class twerps we're talking about here of course, but the wholesale-and-then-some dismissal of everything surrounding them can amount to dismissing what I think can still be an important critical position to be taking wrt macho bullshit ideas of social and cultural legitimacy and the like.

you are otm but it just makes me even more disappointed by the music in question. presented with the good idea of not being macho, they respond by rejecting adulthood.

^^^

"Also there's the democratisation of a kind of small-c creativity - not tortured genius lock yourself in a room and write a symphony creativity, but take a quirky picture of a pelican and Instagram it, or bake cupcakes, or yes, write a little song on a ukulele, that got big in the last 10-15 years.

I think part of the purpose of the song in these ads is to to flatter the listener, a sort of transferrance of quirk."

this x10000

thing is, i'm actually totally in favor of ppl feeling empowered to ~get creative~, it just bums me out that pap like this encourages "non-creative" people to try their hand at, say, music* while totally codifying the acceptable ways to do that.

*i know more than one person who did not grow up playing an instrument who has recently taken up the ukulele. they're cheap, they're easy (or so i'm told), and you can buy one on a lark and not feel guilty if it gathers dust

My mom has started playing ukelele but only cause the leader of the hula group she's in has asked her to.

the uke isn't a bad thing, neither is the glockenspiel, you can play great ukelele (I like Jake Shimabukuro a lot, ymmv but that breeze 70s instrumental AOR feel lives on in him imo and I dig that sound) and you can do all kinds of cool things with a glockenspiel. It sucks that you sort of have to take extra pains to make sure your context doesn't read as a One Of Those Bands deal but not super-hard I don't think.

as an aesthetic move, some sort of engagement with notion/symbols of childhood and adolescence can be v. productive. i'll rep for sara records or kindercore and certainly beat happening all day. (and darla records stuff like flowchart too! and helium!)

i mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3XCgb8vsE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmlG9BZKPyk

but the stuff on this thread is obv doing something very different than any of that was. and its not just "not drowning the melody in noise". its not the regressiveness but the lack of friction or movement maybe that gets to me. i'm sure there's a better way to articulate it.

what if hockey night in canada asked to use a song

maybe its music about not needing music, or not needing to make music.

so maybe it's just bobo music

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobos_in_Paradise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2-S96FcFbk

Light-hearted, whimsical indie hipster music icons that seem specifically manufactured for cell phone commercials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjZ0rXSXeBA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVERz5D1YEU

the lower level of this trend is even worse - like instead of big brands getting an actual song - loads of little shitty mortgage ads with a crappy ukelele soundtrack.

that iphone marimba clip is a great find, pretty neatly summing up this entire thread

Light-hearted, whimsical indie hipster music icons that seem specifically manufactured for cell phone commercials

that IS actually Wayne Coyne, isn't it...?

That clip sounds so much like Penguin Cafe Orchestra that it's uncomfortable. The problem is, I LIKE Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and this may be some roundabout homage to their song "Telephone and Rubber Band", which built around a phone busy signal. Nevertheless, I am sickened by these obnoxious hipster fucks!

that marimba clip is p. good and kiz seem to be working in a totally difft tradition than we're talking about here, although perhaps also suitable for tech ads (but not seemingly _manufactured_ for them!).

their youtube channel and website have any number of really enjoyable tracks.

(website being this: http://www.kizmusique.com/)

the new ryan hemsworth ep is great but i keep thinking of this thread. apple-trap.

https://soundcloud.com/ryanhemsworth/sets/a

I can't really get into that dude. A year back or so I was thinking often that trap-EDM or whatever you want to call it would be better if someone was bringing a more feminine vibe to counter the dudeishness but then someone did that and I'm like ehhhh. Maybe I should listen to this new stuff tho.

i feel like i should like these tracks more than i do, because i love chime-y melodies and it kinda sounds like old four tet with updated production, but nothing comes close to this: http://wedidit.bandcamp.com/track/the-happy-mask-shop

i guess they sound a little too contented with life, needs more giant choir drama.

does this belong here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKZxIrITsyo

i know one place it does belong, and that is with the rest of my tv that i threw out the window

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeVZi_GbaWM

cat power being in this thread is the single most baffling thing I have read here

http://whydopeoplesinglikethis.tumblr.com/

Time for that blog to be updated with Catey Shaw from the rolling worst music of 2014 thread.

(Hmm, guess I don't know how to link to other threads)

OMG the latest iPhone 5 commercial featuring the most inane (even for an Apple ad) song ever turns out to be Julie Doiron?!?

I think she has probably just smoked herself insane.

lyrics:

"I’m feeling hopefully feeling quite hopefully
with good people all around me I’m feeling hopefully

And the light shines bright all through the night and our dreams are making us nice stories
And my loves are well sleeping just right and I know know know now that we’re…
Living the life of dreams living the life of dreams…"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o84y-5-cO0

I don't blame Nick Drake for this. I do blame these fuckers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8YCSJpF4g4

Is the trend for ads using teeth-gratingly bad stripped down cover versions a separate thing, or all part of the same general malaise of tweeness?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSLOnR1s74o

Heard this at the gym (???) the other day and it reminded me that someone has to send a Terminator back in time to kill Ben Lee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTeZcHWHeW4

this genre of cloying crap that would fit perfectly in a tv commercial is called 'indie' now.

I never thought I'd get a chance to say this, but I actually really like this Ingrid Michaelson song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GBT37_yyzY

she is the WC Handy/Bill Monroe/Chuck Berry/James Brown/Kraftwerk of light-hearted, whimsical indie hipster music that seems specifically manufactured for Apple commercials. without 'The Way I Am' and "Be OK', there could be no Pomplamoose or She & Him.

I got into that song after hearing it at the grocery store a while back. I guess that made me think it was a bigger success than it actually was.

yeah, I've heard it a lot while shopping. I'm more surprised that 'The Way I Am' (which I despise) only got to #37 on Billboard. I could have sworn it was a major hit at the time.

I wouldn't really lump "Girls Chase Boys" in with the Apple commercials btw... different kind of pop, trying to catch some kind of observational gravitas and emotion. Within its world, there are things at stake. For comparison, check, I dunno, that awful Geico ad with the cheery lady singing about computers covered in bees. Whoever agreed to do the background whistling for that should be banned from the music industry on principle.

is this supposed to be mocking Robert Palmer, or is it just a coincidence?

what part of "(An Homage to Robert Palmer's 'Simply Irresistible')" fails to answer your question?

good song tho. nowhere near as horrid as pomplamoose and geico advert choon etc.

Ah, didn't click through so it didn't show me the title.

This seems completely consistent with 'Apple commercial' music to me. Maybe not necessarily Apple, per se, but definitely some tech bullshit