Hey Friend,

Sorry for the weird email you received earlier today!

My email service asked me to beta test a new tool. I think I can tell them it was a "FAIL."

Here's what the message should have said... :-)

- - - - - - - - -

Last week was a sad one for us 70s/80s kids. Any week that has a cultural icon take the “Stairway to Heaven" can be tough, but to lose two? 

First Eddie Money, then Ric Ocasek from The Cars.

From the early days of MTV, these guys were staples on the airwaves...

Eddie’s first album Eddie Money earned him two hits:

“Two Tickets to Paradise” 

“Baby Hold on to Me” 

Interestingly enough, it was also The Cars first album that landed Ric Ocasek these hit songs:

“Just What I Needed” 

“Good Times Roll”

Fortunate for us, these songs live on. They’re always a couple clicks away on our favorite streaming platform. 

It’s not the same as spinning a vinyl album or sliding a cassette or CD into the deck, but I’ll take what I can get. Consider it another “feature” of the microwave age...

I spent the entire week thinking about how accessible music is today - and how exposure is different for today's generation than it was in the 70s and 80s.

The music my parents grew up with was their music, not mine. It wasn’t on the radio, I didn’t spin their “old” albums, and frankly, musical styles were different. I spent a lot of time listening to AM radio and the popular hits of the day, then transitioning to FM radio as the format became more available.

But then we got MTV, which brought us music and video, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I was hooked. Even though I didn’t have cable TV at home, I’d go to a friend's house to get the daily fix.

It was a power combination, taking our love and fascination with television and feeding us with a constant stream of new, popular music. Bright colors, bold sounds, flashy artists…what WASN’T to love as a teenager?

Our parents hated it, but probably no more than how their parents hated their hip-gyrating Bebop, Rock & Roll, and long-hair hippy Psychedelic Rock of the 50s and 60s.

Times have changed…

Kids these days know our music. I suppose it's because we were the first generation to have music shift from being background “ambiance” to coming forward and grabbing our attention in its own right.

Now, as these songs are repurposed to sell goods and services, our kids get to know them as the Geico jingle, or the Capital One song. Check it out:

There’s a reason companies are buying the rights to use music from our youth...

Great songs tie into emotions, and these smart companies use that to tap into the emotional connection. This helps to build interest in their products.

Using subtle triggers, they get us to recall cherished memories. They hope these feelings will become linked to their products and entice us to buy them.

Think about it. As a teen/young adult, our minds obsessed over our bright futures and opportunity.

We were on a constant search for fun and for connection. And if we found that connection, it was deep and almost spiritual in how we held it. 

We tend to think back fondly on those events, remembering good times and friends. Even when things didn’t end up pleasant,  good memories can be strong triggers. 

It must be working for most of these companies because they keep using psychological triggers to grow market share. Don’t fix what ain’t broken, right?

And it’s working on our kids, too. They hear these songs which likely trigger memories of growing up, picking up on the music their parents were listening to.

Our music lives on. And that’s a good thing…

I just hope the good vibes we felt from it don’t get too diluted by Madison Avenue.

Our generation is probably safe, but the kids today will have a completely different view.