Flipping through cable channels, often late at night, early in the morning or in the middle of the day, has yielded some highly entertaining paid programming over the years. From Vince and the ShamWow towel to Billy Mays and his miracle cleaning products; from Ron Popeil’s kitchen contraptions to George Foreman’s arsenal of grilling gadgets (sadly, I could go on), the litany of extended ads with their horrible hawking salesmen are ripe for ridicule. Still, for as long as I can remember, I’ve always enjoyed the Time Life music commercials. Thoroughly.
For at least two minutes and sometimes as many as thirty, some wrinkled and washed-up forgotten star tells viewers about time and life and the songs that accompanied those memorable times and lives. Whether it was the folk music that tempered the turbulent ‘60s or the jukebox jams at the ‘50s soda shop; whether it’s Country Superstars or AM Gold, the good folks at Time Life music are banking on you finding a connection to one of their many wonderful compilations and picking up the phone to make that first of four easy payments.
The commercials always appealed to me because I was a music lover with a short attention span. In the interest of brevity, the ads played snippets of as many songs as they could, trimming the fat and playing the catchiest part of the tune before moving on to another. Where else in TV-land could I go to hear the best ten seconds of a great old song followed by the best ten seconds of another great old song?
Though I never accepted the offer of six CDs or cassettes containing all my ‘favorite songs together at last in one collection,’ I still really liked watching and listening to the infomercials. I even went so far as to take notes on songs and artists so I could find their work later on.
If anything, the advertisements exposed me to some musicians who enjoyed a little time in the limelight before retreating into obscurity. Now, with few outlets for bygone music aside from some oldies radio stations, these commercials and the compilations they push might be one of the last remaining means of exposure for some of the songs that time forgot. I’m just glad that Time Life remembered.
For at least two minutes and sometimes as many as thirty, some wrinkled and washed-up forgotten star tells viewers about time and life and the songs that accompanied those memorable times and lives. Whether it was the folk music that tempered the turbulent ‘60s or the jukebox jams at the ‘50s soda shop; whether it’s Country Superstars or AM Gold, the good folks at Time Life music are banking on you finding a connection to one of their many wonderful compilations and picking up the phone to make that first of four easy payments.
The commercials always appealed to me because I was a music lover with a short attention span. In the interest of brevity, the ads played snippets of as many songs as they could, trimming the fat and playing the catchiest part of the tune before moving on to another. Where else in TV-land could I go to hear the best ten seconds of a great old song followed by the best ten seconds of another great old song?
Though I never accepted the offer of six CDs or cassettes containing all my ‘favorite songs together at last in one collection,’ I still really liked watching and listening to the infomercials. I even went so far as to take notes on songs and artists so I could find their work later on.
If anything, the advertisements exposed me to some musicians who enjoyed a little time in the limelight before retreating into obscurity. Now, with few outlets for bygone music aside from some oldies radio stations, these commercials and the compilations they push might be one of the last remaining means of exposure for some of the songs that time forgot. I’m just glad that Time Life remembered.
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