Another television commercial's music has caught my attention, and this time I'm sure I've identified it correctly. Electronica group Fluke's "Atom Bomb" was used to push Chevrolet's fine line of cars and trucks. Primarily big trucks, and the Impala. Which is interesting, since the reason most people would recognize the song is its inclusion in the Playstation game Wipeout XL (and also the top-selling soundtrack). The interesting aspect is the contrast between the superfast, superlight flying vehicles of the video game and the stodgy, heavy pickups shown in the ad. In that respect, the Impala's also not small or nimble, ironically considering the name. Admittedly the editing makes the cars and trucks look fast, but the difference remains.
Why would they even use such a song? Not to say that it's not a good track for background music, but it's certainly nothing recent or particularly popular. I'm happy that somebody's throwing Fluke some money, as they haven't had a hit in a while (some would argue 'ever') and their last album was just a retread of previous tracks. Anyway, somebody once said that the best music to advertise cars is the music the audience liked around car driving age. Hence people of my generation were serenaded with Breeder, the Smiths and so on. Now adverts are being backed by younger, hipper artists, and the 'driving age' is no longer the legal auto driving age, but the video game driving age. Soon we'll be hearing pokemon music selling Kias, I suspect.
Just a theory, but it might work. Then again, Chevy's been repeating that commercial for a number of years, just updating the vehicles, if I remember right. Go figure.
