Consumerism , Negativland and Pepsi

Coca Cola or Pepsi or Coke or Negativland

It's 3AM and because it's Saturday I don't really have to get up for a few hours. Yesterday I had to get up for work and I was really tired, but when you don't have to get up , you can be up during the night and do things like write blog posts. I'm sitting here with a bottle of Coke, well Diet Coke (though I have just noticed it only mentions the name Coca-Cola in very small writing on the label.

How times change, Cocaine was once an advertised ingredient in the drink, not they've replaced it with another "bad for you" ingredient , aspartame. The alternative of six teaspoonfuls of sugar in a can is not pleasant either.

This post comes after me eulogizing my excellent vegan breakfast at Wildflower, but hey, it's Saturday morning and it's an excuse to bring up 1997 album

This is a slight deviation from the formula but also the first time that an album taught me a lot about market manipulation and controlling the minds of the masses who buy products. The album was, I think legally challenged by Pepsi and possibly Coca Cola and there is a Wikipedia entry here that mentions the legal shenanigans.

It contains lots of samples including many famous people, digs at artists selling themselves to corporations, and includes some clever and witty songs, woven together into a coherent blast at market manipulation.

Drink It Up

The album takes aim at mainstream artists such as Michael Jackson and all who go over the top for corporate sponsorship. In the sixties, my Uncle said that no one would wear a T-Shirt that advertises a product unless it was free. The only logos that were acceptable to wear and display were the pocket stitching on your Levi jeans and maybe the small Lacoste Polo, but these days people are happy to pay an absolute fortune to become a walking advertising hoarding for Superdry and The North Face and a million other products. It shows how consumerism has taken over and is unchallenged and rampant. I do not subscribe to this at all.

But go down a high street. Everything has to be branded, Coffee has to be Costa or Starbucks, soda has to be Coke or Pepsi, food has to be McDonald's, Burger King or Subway, and your meals are delivered to your hope by gig economy riders for Just Eat and Uber plus a significant charge to the customer and a juicy profit for these intermediates who have wedged themselves into the market adding an extra level to take advantage of the market and its customers

Dispepsi is a resounding enlightenment in the musical form of how we are manipulated by marketeers and corporations. They make the consumer pay through the nose for not really providing a necessary service at all.

It's one of the albums that I still listen to end to end, and suggest that you do the same. It came back into mind after watching a TED talk that said that 90% of the media production was now owned by six companies who can make us think about whatever they want.

That is very frightening and Dispepsi predicted what they are doing now over 30 years ago. The album is very difficult to lay your hands on though Amazon have a few very expensive copies here.

Listen to the Youtube link here, if you want a copy, contact me, I will direct you.

Disney And Christopher Bell

Below is the TED talk by Christopher Bell that reminded me of this amazing, educational and subversive record, with its demonstration that Disney are anti-powerful female heroes. Listen then watch my friends.