Neil Young, a singer-songwriter, musician, philanthropist, and activist, began his music career in the 1960s. When he first started making music, Young moved to Los Angeles to join Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, with whom he later formed Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Throughout his career, Young has released a number of important and well-received albums, including ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,’ ‘After The Gold Rush,’ ‘Rust Never Sleeps,’ and ‘Harvest.’
In the late 1980s, numerous celebrities worked with brands on television commercials. For example, David Bowie and Tina Turner appeared in a Pepsi commercial, Michael Jackson filmed his own soft drink commercial, Madonna donated her song ‘Like A Prayer’ to Pepsi for commercial use, Whitney Houston sang a Diet Coke jingle, and Eric Clapton appeared in a Michelob beer commercial. Neil Young wrote a song at the time aimed at Clapton and other artists who appeared in commercials, and the song’s music video parodied the trend.
Neil Young Parodied Eric Clapton’s Michelob Ad In His ‘This Note’s For You’ Music Video
On April 11, 1988, Neil Young released his 16th studio album, ‘This Note’s For You’. The album’s concept revolved around commercialism in the rock and roll scene, and its title was inspired by Budweiser’s ad campaign ‘This Bud’s for you.’ Neil Young’s music video for the title track parodied artists like Eric Clapton who used their music in advertisements.
MTV unofficially banned the music video because the song mentioned the brand names of some of their sponsors, and Michael Jackson’s attorneys threatened them. However, they named the video Best Video of the Year in 1989 and put it on heavy rotation after it became popular.
Following MTV’s ban, Neil Young’s manager stated that the video was only satirising, but it isn’t funny if MTV is so afraid of their sponsors. Young, on the other hand, was harshly critical of MTV, questioning whether the letter ‘M’ in MTV stands for music or money.
As reported by Rolling Stone, Neil Young’s manager Elliott Roberts stated:
“All this video does is make fun. But it’s no longer funny if MTV is so afraid of sponsor power that it refuses to air an ingenious satire.”
In contrast, Neil Young stated the following:
MTV, you spineless twerps. You refuse to play ‘This Note’s for You’ because you don’t want to offend your sponsors. Does the ‘M’ in MTV stand for music or money? “Long live rock and roll.”
Neil Young parodied 1980s advertisements in the music video for ‘This Note’s For You,’ which featured Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Spuds McKenzie lookalikes, including a series of Michelob ads featuring Eric Clapton, Genesis, and Steve Winwood.
1 comment
Tell like it is Neil