Are you ready for extreme bluegrass? Here’s a question: Why don’t the good people at Mountain Dew use the classic bluegrass song “Mountain Dew” in an ad campaign? Well, possibly for two reasons. Outside of Béla Fleck, bluegrass is a tinny, repetitive genre of music that’s more popular with a small, devoted audience of the redneck elderly than with snowboarders. And besides, the “Mountain Dew” that the Stanley Brothers and Grandpa Jones sing about is moonshine, not soda. But it’s far from an open-and-shut case. Older country material (of which bluegrass is a relative) has been used in ads before—Pepsi used Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and Burger King has Hootie crooning about chicken sandwiches to the tune of “Big Rock Candy Mountain.” As for the moonshine quibble, you could edit out any troublesome lines—or better yet, tie them into the brand’s history. On its Web site, Mountain Dew readily acknowledges its connection to whiskey, noting that the drink was originally a mixer. (The site also bravely mentions that early Mountain Dew labels featured “a hillbilly shooting at a revenuer fleeing an outhouse with a pig sitting in the corner.”) The song lyrics even offer a snappy tagline: “Them that refuse it are few.” This writer might even force some down out of sheer gratitude. —Posted by David Kiefaber

June 1, 2005 in Kiefaber | Permalink

Comments

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Redneck elderly? Funny, but no.

Ever heard of Yonder Mtn. String Band?

Posted by: David Burn | Jun 2, 2005 10:54:52 AM

Yeah, where have you been? Certainly not Brooklyn where tons of hipsters show up to Bluegrass shows of bands made up of young hipsters playing banjos and classic Bluegrass tunes. With the laming and dumbing down of music, many young people in their twenties and thirties are tuning into folk, bluegrass and alt-country for respite - finding enjoyment in great music that tells great stories and sounds even better live. Old Crow Medicine Show was just on LA's hot Indie station Indie 101...call ins from all kinds of people were huge saying how much they loved him. And let's not forget the popularity of Oh Brother Where Art Thou - with young and old. I'm embarassed by your stereotype.

Posted by: Jodi Kanger | Jun 3, 2005 1:45:22 PM

Thanks for the comments. I should mention that the area where I live is rich in bluegrass, and I tend to be the youngest person in the crowd by at least 40 years when I attend bluegrass gigs. And I don't think I'm being terribly inaccurate in my generalization of the typical bluegrass audience. But if kids are playing/listening to old time folk music again, that's great news. Hopefully more will do so as time goes on, it really is great stuff. I'm happy to be somewhat wrong about saying that my generation shuns that music.

Posted by: David Kiefaber | Jun 3, 2005 2:01:07 PM

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