Tajmall

COMMERCIAL PORPOISES
Sign up for an international beer company's mailing list for music and there's a brief questionaire portion where the question is posed: "What kind of music do you like?"
Options to choose from amount to: "Chill Out", "Fake Jazz", "Lame Lounge" , "Boring House", "Vaguely European Coolster Funk", "Smooth Condo Soundtracks", "TV-Commercial Wallpaper Unit Shifters" or other such-like genres in that ballpark.

Grunge, Spunky Monkey Punk, Windypop, Fey Agit Jangle, Kinky Xinyao in English and The Old Blues don’t figure as viable consumer-choice considerations in their marketing stats. This may be a good thing. It could means these styles are still cool and untouched by commerce. Heaven knows that The White Stripes artisitc integrity will be intact so long as they never figure in the background of soccer hightlights on TV; that "Happy Together" will only be a good song as long as it isn't used in a beer ad; that John Lee Hooker is only legendary provided his "Boom Boom" isn't used to promote a product... and so forth. Some might think that, and therefore can wield accusations of "Sell-out" in many a-place - John Lee Hooker included. Luckily, music transcends.

Speaking of which...
I saw some Commercial Porpoises on the bus to work this morning. They wore kipper ties. Followed by tuna. Flippers meant they had difficulty holding their briefcases.

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