Market of the Senses

It's rare that I notice adverts on television, as the times I do watch the box, I tend to switch over to something else when the lifestyle choices are offered. Yesterday, however, for some reason I happened to be doing other things when I heard a familiar guitar riff.

It's not for me, or anyone, to tell Gang of Four whether they've 'sold out' or not, assuming they've had a choice in allowing Natural's Not In It for the new XBox360 toy. Nobody can comment until we've been in that position. Perhaps they need the money (Go4 being one of those 'more influential than successful' type of bands), or it was just too much wedge to turn down. A personal stance is all very well, but until you've been offered a large cheque for your work, it's hard to make a judgement call on somebody else. It's one thing slagging off millionaires lending their voices to adverts, quite another a bunch of musicians who never got much of a sniff of a hit single over the last 30 years.

And of course, guitarist Andy Gill has commented that the band's lyrics often mused on the inability to be "pure" or have "clean hands" in modern society, dismissing the stance of more righteous types such as the Pop Group and the Slits as "hand wringing bollocks". They were unashamed about singing to EMI rather then staying on an indie, though refused to compromise when requested to alter a lyric in At Home He's a Tourist to allow them to appear on Top of the Pops. If Messieurs Allen, Burnham, Gill and King see no problem with cashing their chips to help flog some gadgets, then that's their decision. After all, surely to 'sell out' means to compromise your own values, not those imposed on you by people you don't know.

What is confusing is why Microsoft chose this song, which starts with the words 'the problem of leisure/what to do for pleasure?', from an album that frequently questions whether popular culture can offer any real kind of satisfaction. Is one of Bill Gates' mates having a personal joke, or was it simply more a case of "This song rocks. It'll do"? Bit of a shame they didn't go with Love Like Anthrax...