This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.
“Pressure” is one of the first Billy Joel songs I heard. I was an MTV kid, and the visual storytelling of the song’s video added a whole new dimension to the song for me. It made me like the music that much more. Fast forward a few years and now I’m at Giants Stadium hearing Billy Joel perform the song live. It’s my first concert, so already the moment was euphoric. But hearing the song in a concert setting just brought me back to my childhood days.
The song is like a time machine. It’s not my favorite Billy Joel song (that distinction probably goes to “Miami 2017”). But it’s probably the most nostalgic track for me. Lyrically, the song is pure pop perfection. “Now here you are with your faith – and Peter Pan advice.” But musically is where the song takes some risks, showing Billy’s underrated prog tendencies. The bridge alone proves it, as well as the iconic synthesizer hook that seems more comfortable in a Broadway show than on radio. It’s these small experimental risks that define the song.
“All your life is Channel 13. Sesame Street, What does it mean?”