The Illiterate

It appears that when David Guetta isn’t trying to bludgeon his listeners into submission with over-obvious dance tracks, he’s trying to take their money in another way: by selling product placement to the highest bidder. And not just in his own videos—he and his wife Cathy have formed a company with the ridiculous and obvious name of My Product Placement in order to match up advertisers with artists for prime visual real estate. This follows the founding last year of another company, My Love Affair, a branding agency designed to help performers form partnerships with companies and get their music into commercials, movies, and TV shows.

This sort of thing is going to happen, and has been happening, anyway, but it’s depressing to see an artist, even a hack like Guetta, not just taking advantage of the opportunities, but pursuing an active lead in turning pop music into just another profit center. I know, I know, it always has been, but not to everybody, and not as a matter of stated and accepted policy, at least not among the artists themselves. There’s something about the naked display of greed that’s unsettling, plus the obvious fact that it becomes harder than ever to trust the intentions of almost anyone making music. I’m always going to have that question lurking in the back of my mind: What are you trying to sell me now?