Indie Songs That Have Been Ruined By Commercials

Look, we love Taco Bell, but the problem with playing a song while looking at delicious food is pretty obvious. Now, every time we listen to Passion Pit's "Take A Walk," we want Taco Bell. It's no longer a catchy pop song, it's a dinner bell. Jesus, now I want a taco.

Spend an hour in front of a television anywhere in the world and there's a 90% chance you'll hear The Temper Trap"s "Sweet Disposition"—probably more than once. Originally off the band's debut album Conditions, the song took on a life of its own after it was featured in 2009's (500) Days of Summer. It played when Tom took Summer to see his favorite spots in downtown LA, then [SPOILER!] again when the couple has a chance reunion on the train ride to a co-worker's wedding. The song was basically burned out before fans even left the theater. Following the movie's success, advertisers picked up on "Sweet Disposition" and introduced it to a broader audience in Nexus 10, Diet Coke, Chrysler, and Rhapsody commercials. As of October 2013, the song can be heard in more than 20 ads along with dozens of TV shows and films. Really, enough is enough.

As far as commercial exploitation of indie songs goes, Grizzly Bear knows a thing or two. The dreamy "Two Weeks" became dead on arrival when it was featured in a Volkswagen commercial that aired during the biggest advertising stage in the world: the 2010 Super Bowl. More than 100 million people watched that game, which means in the span of a minute the song became an instant household presence. And then rappers began sampling the song to death, including artists like K.Flay, G-Eazy, BrandUn DeShay, Childish Gambino, Chiddy Bang, and Das Racist. As quickly as you first heard the song, you wished it would disappear at the same speed.

True Story: Apple is the original indie song killer. Back when the tech giant first put iPods and iTunes on the market, they cleverly introduced a series of ads featuring a silhouette spastically dancing with their iPod in hand. (Like anyone can actually do that without getting tangled in those damn earphones, c'mon Apple.) But to further appeal to the music lover niche, all of these ads included a not-yet popular indie song and destroyed it. One of those songs, unfortunately, was Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?" But if you're gonna have a song to jam out to, it really should be this one. This ad spot would've remained harmless, but because Apple needed a global ad campaign to really sell the concept of the iPod, it played nonstop forever. In fact, we're sure it's still playing somewhere iPod sales might be low.

As one of the more lowkey indie acts of the early 2000s, it was kind of a big deal to turn on your TV and suddenly hear their first single "Bruises" in an Apple commercial. Not only was it an Apple commercial, it was for the 4th generation iPod Nano, one of the biggest selling Apple products of that year. So you know the ad was seen by millions. Pretty soon the song was everywhere; you could hear it playing in Apple stores across America and on every single MySpace page (back when everyone loved to have those auto-play songs on the top or bottom of their profile). And we kind of wish Chairlift had more time to ease into fame before we were ready to hit the mute button.

Likely the most covered song in indie history, "Such Great Heights" become one of many songs killed by indie film royalty Garden State. First, the film used The Postal Service's original version in its trailer which was featured in both theater previews and in commercial spots—predestined overkill. Then, in the actual movie we hear Iron & Wine's simplistic cover, which regularly gets confused for being the original. But the "Such Great Heights" madness reached its peak when Josh & Xander, the duo who directed the song's iconic music video, recreated scenes from that same video for Apple-Intel ad spots. Though the ad didn't use the song at all, its likeness to the song's video did all the talking. Luckily for fans tired of hearing the song, The Postal Service officially retired "Such Great Heights" in their final performance ever at Lollapalooza 2013.

When your song gets translated into "Simlish" for the Sims 3: World Adventures game, you know it's over. Just a month before that game's release, "Daylight" became the only indie pop-rock song to appear on the NBA Live 10 soundtrack and consequently got a "Troublemaker" remix by the legendary De La Soul featured on FIFA 10. To what, exactly, do Matt & Kim owe their favoritism in the gaming world? Bacardi and Comcast Xfinity commercials probably helped. Both ads are still airing in 2013 four years after the song's initial release, meaning this song's shelf life is long past.

"Home" started out as a quaint, sentimental folk tune that resonated with nearly everyone who heard it. But a song that captivating and charming doesn't stay untouched for long and soon advertisers swarmed the band's label Vagrant Records for licensing rights. First to snatch up the song was the NFL who used the song for a commercial promoting ticket sales. Though we're guessing overpriced tickets to see the Giants at MetLife Stadium probably wasn't the "home" Edward Sharpe had in mind. From there, "Home" flooded the commercial airwaves appearing in ads for everyone from Microsoft to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. That kind of excessive play is rarely good for an indie band's long-term success and credibility.

"Lisztomania's" name derives from the phenomenon that describes fans' reaction to 19th-century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt. Nowadays, this is what you see pre-teen girls do when there's mention of One Direction. For nearly 10 years, Phoenix managed to avoid any semblance of lisztomania, but the success of both this song and "1901" made the band an international mainstream commodity. Backed by blog hype and radio play, the song found a spot in a McDonald's commercial that featured only the "Lisztomania" melody. But it was recognizable enough to excite fans that this "little" indie song out of France had achieved worldwide attention, but also drive them crazy with boredom after hearing it on loop for over a year. Even when the band put out a new album in early 2013 after a four-year break, it still seemed like we needed more time to get over the listzomania.

When Glee covers your favorite indie song of the moment, you've just gotta accept that it's over. But Grouplove's "Tongue Tied" started out with overexposure when it was featured in an ad for Apple's iPod Touch which was played during the 2011 holiday season. The theme of that ad campaign was "share the fun," making the upbeat, playful "Tongue Tied" the perfect fit. Not long after that, Coca-Cola gave it another go with a British commercial themed "share a Coke"—an obvious nod to the Apple ad. When advertisers began shaping entire marketing campaigns around your song, just walk away.

Iceland is famous for talented indie bands who generate underground sleeper hits and Of Monsters and Men is no exception. Both YouTube commenters and critics agree that "Little Talks" sounds like a cross between Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' "Home" and the Lumineers' "Ho Hey." So it's no suprise it too made the jump to advertising with a Discover commercial. The "Little Talks" mania struck SNL in May this year just two months after the Discover ad started airing. Well, that ad's still in regular rotation on TV and radio stations are still playing the song, but Of Monsters and Men is either due for a sophomore album or another hit single that proves the band is more than just "Little Talks."

When you first heard "Young Folks," you knew it'd be stuck in your head for eternity. Perhaps inspired by Juelz Santana's "There It Go (The Whistle Song)," Peter Bjorn and John's uncanny abilty to turn a song marked by melodic whistling into a hit is something of a musical mystery. It worked when only indie fans were whistling—or humming for the whistle-challenged—along. But when AT&T used the song in an ad promoting its mobile music service and framed it with illustrations likened to the song's music video, it crossed a line. Curiously, Gossip Girl developed a strange infatution with the song as well. Not only did it feature the song in the show's pilot, it then revisited the song for its 100th episode. Although we're not mad at Kanye for also sampling the song on "Young Folks," off his 2007 mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing, please, no more whistling.

Modest Mouse had released three albums prior to "Float On" was ever created, but all it takes in the music business is one song to change an artist's career. Whether or not Isaac Brock wrote the song to intentionally acquire a mainstream fan base—it's noticably more upbeat than the band's earlier material—it worked. After "Float On" took off on the radio, covers of the song by Ben Lee and Goldspot appeared in John Tucker Must Die and The OC, respectively. Modest Mouse's original version also found its way onto an OnStar commercial. Somehow, some way, "Float On" even got a spot on American Idol during one of those awkward Ford promos. Now almost a decade later, and the song's still being used by mainstream artists. Lupe Fiasco samples the song in "The Show Goes On" and, more recently, Pink took elements of the song's guitar riff for "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)." That's a long life for an indie rock song.

It's hard to believe now, but Florence and the Machine got their start as just another unknown British indie band that received a life-changing lucky break. "Dog Days Are Over" got noticed by the makers of British teen cult fave Skins who used the song in an episode which then exploded online. Over in America, it got picked up for the Eat, Pray, Love trailer and was subsequently played to death. But the song's longevity is due in large part to the band's decision to re-release the song in 2010—a year after its original debut—with a high quality, spectacular music video. Glee then caught wind of the song, covered it, and suddenly the song took over everything, including the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize concert. While Florence and the Machine have "Dog Days Are Over" to thank for a lot of their fame, the song needs a decade-long hiatus before we hear it in another commercial.

"You gotta hear this one song; it'll change your life, I swear." Those few seconds of dialogue from Garden State catapulted The Shins' debut album Oh, Inverted World to indie classic status. The moment Zach Braff puts on Natalie Portman's headphones, sits back, and bathes in "New Slang," James Mercer and co. became indie deities. Fast forward just a year, and everyone was a Shins fan—including McDonald's, which featured "New Slang" in an ad that ran during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. Because a fast food chain can only maintain so much self-control when tempted with the line "New slang when you notice the stripes, the dirt in your fries." That ad ruined "New Slang" to the point where the commercial doesn't even exist online anymore (even YouTube and Vimeo can't take it anymore). But the Golden Arches weren't even the end of the song's overkill. "New Slang" became virtually inescapable with later features on Scrubs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and even The Sopranos.

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