For bands, landing a song in a Super Bowl ad (or any other televised event) is a HUGE pay day; how 'Jackie' composer Mica Levi created a mesmerizing score for Pablo Larrain's psychological drama; Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck could have made a conventional documentary about James Baldwin, but instead he uses only Baldwin’s words to create his powerful film, “I Am Not Your Negro."
Super Bowl ads mean mega exposure for brands and bands
The Super Bowl features the highest-priced commercials for any televised event. In exchange for a 30-second spot featuring their product, advertisers this year had to shell out an average of $5 million.
That means the network and the NFL are sure to cash in big. The brands themselves are hoping for a return on investment too. But there are others who profit as well: the singers and bands whose songs are used in the ads.
Jordan Passman, CEO of Score A Score, says the licensing costs for these songs can range from the mid six-figures for an older classic to seven-figures for a new hit. And that's not even including the likely bump in sales or streaming for a song after the commercial airs.
Getting a song placed in some sort of visual media like a commercial, movie trailer or video game, Passman says, is what's known as getting a "sync license." And right now, "it's one of the healthiest parts of the music business."
Passman says the music used in this year's Super Bowl ads fall into three categories:
The Throwback Jam
This ad from Wendy's, featuring Foreigner's "Cold as Ice," is one example of using a"throwback jam." Passman says it's an on-the-nose attempt at comedy that could be a risk, but in this case pays off.
Today's Hits
This commercial for Nintendo is a clever bit of cross-media marketing. The day the ad came out coincided with the release of Imagine Dragons' new single, "Believer," which is featured in the ad.
Timeless Orchestra
These songs aren't necessarily famous, but they can lend a timeless, cinematic quality to an ad, like this one for Budweiser.
Composer Mica Levi on her Oscar-nominated score for 'Jackie'
In the new film “Jackie”, Natalie Portman plays iconic first lady Jackie Kennedy on the day her husband, President John F. Kennedy, is assassinated.
It’s a defining moment in American history, but also a deeply tragic moment in Jackie’s life.
Nailing that very specific tone is no easy feat. So director Pablo Larraín called on British composer Mica Levi to create a score to reflect Jackie’s grief and disorientation.
Levi is a classically trained musician, but is somewhat new to film composing. Known by her stage name Micachu, she’s been making experimental music and touring with her band, The Shapes, since 2008. She made a name for herself in film music first in 2015 with her eerie score for Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin."
John Horn recently caught up with Levi while she was in town. To start, we’ll hear the music cue that opens the film ”Jackie."
Click the play button above to hear the interview and music from the film!
Going straight to the source for a film about James Baldwin, 'I Am Not Your Negro'
The Oscar-nominated documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro,” is filmmaker Raoul Peck’s tribute to the life and work of writer James Baldwin.
Baldwin is regarded as one of the most influential African-American intellectuals of the 20th Century. Peck's documentary is unusual in that, instead of interviewing other people about his subject, the film uses only Baldwin’s words. They’re read by actor Samuel L. Jackson or taken from archival recordings of Baldwin himself.
The main source for the film is an unfinished manuscript called “Remember This House,” which Baldwin planned to expand into a book about three civil rights leaders who were assassinated in his lifetime:
Interview Highlights:
On the timeliness of the film's release:
That was the scary part of the whole process. I thought I was making a film that was to bring back this incredible writer that Baldwin was — probably one of the most important writers of this country. The more I was working on it, the more it became vital. It became an important piece of work. It was always, for me, How do I bring him into the forefront? That's why the film is raw. It's direct Baldwin. It's not about me as a filmmaker. It's you confronted with these words and these images. You cannot be an innocent person after watching it. He's putting it on the table for you and he's telling it to you, directly looking at you.
How the media and pop culture present a false image of America:
I knew that very early on. I learned through Baldwin and older authors to deconstruct the images I was seeing. I was born in Haiti. When I left Haiti I was eight. I went to the Congo where my father was working. The only images that I had were the images of Tarzan. That's what I thought Africa was. Of course, the first day I arrived there I thought I would see a lot of savages dancing on the tarmac. That's the strength of the Hollywood image and why we call it The Dream Factory.
I grew up learning how to deconstruct that machine and how to try and find myself, even though I could not see my face on the screen. I had to find a way to bring myself as a human being in those stories. Baldwin is perfect for that. He's one of the best film critics ever.
On Baldwin's interview with Kenneth Clark:
That was in a time of really hard civil rights unrest where [Clark] interviewed Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin. Those three men were really, at the time, the icons of black America. Although, Baldwin really saw himself more as a witness than as an actor or as a leader. But he was the most important black writer and intellectual of the time. He was in every magazine. He was invited on Dick Cavett to have almost 40 minutes to himself. At the time, there were only three TV channels in this country. That showed you the importance of his voice at the time. He says [what is] basically the profound meaning of the film: Don't let me as a black person solve that problem alone. It's not my problem. You invented it. I don't wake up in the morning and tell myself I am a negro. He turned the question to the white establishment. You invented the n----- and you have to ask yourself, why did you need to invent the n-----? That's an important question.
On language and using the N word:
I think this whole discussion about what is politically correct — sometimes you have to name the name. You can't hide it. Politeness is good if it's not hiding the truth. It's like if you were speaking about rape and not using the word rape a single time. It's part of the problem: Who dictates the rhetoric? How do you speak about something? The way Baldwin does it, it's a take-no-prisoners attitude. Let's speak honestly about what is at stake. When he said, I'm not your n-----, he's just sending that word back to whoever invented it.
Again, it's about who bears the weight of this. Baldwin, at one point, said in one of his essays, I did not invent the n-----. If you invented it, it's yours baby. Take it. I like that attitude. The title of the film is as well. I know people might feel uncomfortable with it, but it's just a word. I don't take that word as me. It doesn't define me. Why should I be upset about it? It's not my problem. It's your problem, whoever you are using that word. When I wake up in that morning, I am a human being. I am not just an angry black man. I am much more than that. That's the conversation that we need to have. We need to make sure that it's not a black conversation. It's about whoever used that word, whoever invented Jim Crow, whoever used slavery, whoever decimated the Native American. This is the real question. The real question is not us.