Posted by FunkyDevil on 08/29/05 15:13

Because it personally benefitted him as an artist he kind of backtracks
on the illegal use of payola and says maybe it's okay , however it is
mostly an honest look at someone who was directly affected and
benefitted from the illegal act.


http://www.davidbyrne.com/journal/current.php

Search the page for the word "payola" in your browser when you get to
the page. It's a July 30 post so it's towards the middle of the page.


SOME QUOTES :



I wondered if every pop song that had moved me on the radio, from when
I was in my teens, had been paid for. Oh jeez! Therefore, other than a
few free-form stations around at that time I was being treated like a
Pavlovian dog - what I had believed were my subjective passions and
discoveries were actually the result of a concerted program to pound
certain tunes into my innocent brain. I had been totally manipulated!
What I thought were decisions and loves that were mine and mine alone
had been planted in my head by sleazy characters I could barely
imagine. Free will? Hah! My entire past was called into question. Who
am I? Am I not partly what I like? And if those things I like were not
completely of my own choosing, then what am I?

Obviously, this insight applied to our audiences as well. And now, with
the success of this single, to our own songs! I caught myself thinking
to myself, "they APPEAR to be loving this song, but little do they
know they've simply been manipulated to like it, just like I was
manipulated to like the stuff I like!"


...........................................

Knowing that the song was partly paid for throws all that ego boost
material out the window.

...........................................


When people would come up to me and say "boy is that a great song, I
LOVE that song!" I would be tempted to tell them, "no you don't,
you've just been saturated with it and manipulated like the rest of
us. You like it because your soul, your likes and dislikes, are up for
sale to the highest bidder."



END QUOTES :


http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/talking_heads/bio.jhtml

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