The Washington Post’s website has good news for hipsters everywhere. After all these years of crying “sell out!” everytime a band – particularly an obscure, culty, indie band – lends a song to a TV commercial, music purists can now quantify exactly how much their act of choice has strayed from the path of righteousness.
It’s all thanks to the Moby Quotient calculator, named for the electronic artist (arguably) most famous for lending his songs for commercial endeavors (and subsequently making us all sick of them, and him). This simple, yet brilliant online calculator uses an equation that measures the disconnect between the product and rock’n’roll’s principles, the sacredness of the song, the origins of the band Are they a notoriously anti-establishment punk group? Or are they a boy band created by a reality show?), the artist’s artistic reputation, how much the artist needs the money, and how long it’s been since the artist’s heydey. This is, of course, all subjective, since readers rate the bands themselves and there’s no way to determine exactly how sacred John Lennon’s “Imagine” is, or how underground Imogen Heap is considered.
Rocket scientists have nothing on these mathematical geniuses.
But it sure is fun– and that’s just for someone like me, who didn’t lose any sleep when Green Day made it to MTV (According to my calculations, the Stones get a 72.37 for selling “Monkey Man” to Victoria’s Secret, compared to indie favorites The Postal Service’s 410.15 for selling “Great Heights” and quintessential commercial act Fallout Boy's 13.54 for selling “Thanks for the Memories” to Circuit City.) Imagine the hours of enjoyment this could give those indie kids who still wish you’d never heard of Modest Mouse!
Visit the site yourself to see how others weigh in on real and potential band/song/product combinations.
(Thanks to Mark Hurst at www.goodexperience.comfor the tip.)
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Comments (2)
I wonder why he put lambda in the denominator? I think a rich artist selling out should increase mu, not decrease it. If Paul McCartney sells a song, I hold it against him more because he doesn't even need the money. If Caribou sells a song... well, they're probably not rolling in cash, so I'll cut them a break.
Also, the approximate value of pi is incorrect in the last digit.
Posted by no one in particular | November 8, 2007 06:01 PM
Okay. Maybe the rocket scientists do win, then. But just barely.
Posted by Molly Freedenberg | November 9, 2007 05:02 PM