A warm, weasley welcome to “Possums Every Hour:” The Newsletter. This week, we will be bringing you one (1) critically acclaimed piece of journalistic writing, five (5) things we consumed this week, and a few songs that tie it all together. Enjoy this edition, which explores the cultural impact of the iPod Silhouette Ad Campaign
The bathroom in the apartment I grew up in is about the size of a porta potty. Above the toilet there are three medicine cabinets with mirrored doors, effectively positioned so that if you open the two outer doors all the way, you can create an infinite mirror (as seen below). This small bathroom was my safe space—my equivalent of a private man cave where I could just throw back some brewskies solo-style. And it was here, at the age of 9, where I practiced my fist pumping skills listening to “Flathead” by the Fratellis on my iPod nano after seeing the latest Apple commercial.
As a silverback Gen Z-er, I can confidently say that a defining era of my upbringing was the iPod Silhouette Advertising Campaign. This series of commercials, characterized by black figures silhouetted against colorful neon backgrounds, ran from 2000 to 2011, aligning perfectly with my most formative early years. Each ad featured a solo figure grasping a white iPod with headphones dangling from their ears, dancing vigorously to a hip new track in their trendy tweed jackets and shadowy fedoras. The songs included in these commercials all shared one thing in common: their catchy pull, their mesmerizing and unmistakable likeableness. Classics like “Hey Mama” by the Black-Eyed Peas, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet, “1234” by Feist, “Technologic” by Daft Punk, “Feel Good inc.” by Gorillaz were all featured in iPod Silhouette ads.
And literally every one of these songs made it onto my first iPod nano playlist, which I aptly titled, “OOO I like this poop.” As a pre-teen growing up amidst the decline of rock radio and the peak of cable television, commercials were my primary forum for music discovery.
Apple commercials by design led to musical discovery. Off the back of the “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” ad, 3.5 million people bought a copy of Jet’s debut album. After the 2007 ad featuring “1234” by Feist aired, nearly half a million people googled, “What’s the song in the iPod commercial?” The silhouette ad for “Hey Mama” by the Black-Eyed Peas, who were relatively unknown at the time, propelled their 2003 album Elephunk up the charts and catapulted the group to stardom.
In an nytimes article titled, Is Apple the Oprah for Indie Bands?, journalist Jennifer Lee writes, “Apple has earned a reputation as a tastemaker, doing for bands what Oprah Winfrey has done for books.” When it comes to how Apple’s ad executives choose their indie acts, the process seems a bit like a black box. After their song “Bruises” was selected for an iPod nano commercial, Patrick Wembley of the band Chairlift said, “We don’t really know how they picked us. They contacted us out of the blue about three days before we were going to play in L.A.” Whatever this process was actually like, in working primarily with unknown, independent artists, Apple signaled that their brand was a part of some trendy counterculture movement. They beckoned ad viewers to ride the cool, vibey wave with them by buying an iPod—their tagline was quite literally, “Join the iPod Revolution.”
And you could imagine yourself joining the movement just by watching the ad itself: the shadowy characters, with few distinguishable features, functioned as blank canvases which anyone could insert themselves into. In practicing my fist pumps while listening to “Flatheads” by The Fratellis on my iPod nano, I was trying to be the iPod Silhouette girl. I was trying to join “the revolution.” Researcher Michael Shur at the University of St. Thomas wrote:
“Over time, the iPod ads began to formulate a theme which provides insight into Apple’s psychographic profile of a typical consumer. The dancing loner, stylish, lost in her own world, white earbuds tucked safely in, grooving against bursts of vivid color. These ads transmit a definite sense that there is a personality being promoted, a way of being as much as a thing to buy; a renegade leading the charge, marching to the beat of her own drummer.”
Reflecting on the person I’ve become in my early 20’s—a humanities-studying, collage-making, sourdough-baking, clog-wearing lassie—I wondered, am I anything more than a wanna-be iPod Silhouette girl? What if all of the Apple ads are entrenched in my subconscious like the 2008 Kooky Kid Cuisine Hot Dog Commercial that I find myself still constantly singing? Have I just been trying to fulfill the role of iPod Silhouette girl all my life? What kind of impact did these ads have on our generation as a whole?
Echoes of the iPod ads have reverberated everywhere. Following Apple’s lead, other corporate institutions have used alternative music in their T.V. commercials, using the edgy, counterculture “credibility” of indie bands to lend authenticity to their own brands. In fact, all of the biggest early 2000’s indie jams only became certifiably iconic after being featured in a commercial: Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” was used in a Volkswagen commercial, Phoenix’s “Lisztomania” in a McDonalds commercial, Matt & Kim’s “Daylight” got famous after being used in a Bacardi commercial.
The ad campaign’s impact can be seen in music media as well. Animal Collective’s “My Girls” music video turns the band into black silhouettes bobbing their heads in a psychedelic color field. In the “Hotline Bling” music video, Drake and various hot babes dance solo, silhouetted against glowing blocks of color. But most of all, I think that the iPod Silhouettes cultural influence is palpable in TikTok. Like iPod silhouettes, TikTok teens dance alone in their bedrooms to low-fi indie beats like “Chinese New Year” by SALES, chasing after the persona of “the dancing loner, stylish, lost in her own world.” And like the iPod Silhouettes, TikTok capitalizes on the easily impressionable music tastes of nascent Gen Z-er’s, cultivating a wave of new trendy indie songs that become big hits. What Apple did to the band Jet is not at all unlike what TikTok did to Doja Cat.
Will we ever break free from the chains of iPod silhouettes? I find myself visualizing the mobster film executive, Mr. Roque, sitting alone in his red-curtained room in Mulholland Drive, manipulating the whole film industry like lab rats in a cage.
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I imagine that this is essentially what the music industry is for “alternative” bands—ad executives making calls from their green-carpeted rooms about the destiny of indie musician’s careers and generational tastes at large. I have come to the conclusion that indie music as we know it was invented by Apple music and that it is entirely fraudulent.
-Emma
Possum Radio #5
This week, we’ve curated a selection of songs that we imagine might have been used in an iPod Silhouette Ad if the campaign were still going on today.
5 Things We Consumed This Week
Some of you might be devastated to discover that we are only sharing five (5) things that we consumed this week. Unfortunately, Marie was sucked into a giant snail egg during an experiment gone wrong at Georgetown Cupcakes earlier this week and we are still trying to find her. I (Emma) had to improvise.
1. This 2011 Stephen Colbert segment where Ezra Koenig and The Black Keys compete to see who was featured in more commercials, which I watched while conducting serious and in-depth research for my journalistic piece this week.
2. This 2006 Pitchfork review of the band Jet’s album Shine On, which contains no words– just a video called “Monkey peeing in his own mouth.” It received a 0.0 rating.
3. Pictures of a Pink Fairy Armadillo
4. The old Chef Boyardee commercial with a sentient can that rolls all the way to a little girl’s house. Good times.
5. Various videos of Al Pacino. I love him. Here he is in a Dunkin Donuts commercial, in which he changes his name to “Dunkaccino.” And here is a fan cam of a hot, young Al in Dog Day Afternoon.
And thank you to an anonymous fan for sending in some pictures they took on their nature camera this week.
If you have any thoughts on our weekly posts, please feel free to reach out to us. Maybe one day, you’ll be featured in the newsletter itself.