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Pop for pop: Is the music used to market soft drinks ever any good?

 

Gillian Orr
Tuesday 21 May 2013 19:17 BST
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'Grown Woman' is not bad for a soft drink commercial soundtrack
'Grown Woman' is not bad for a soft drink commercial soundtrack

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We’ve already heard a snippet of Beyoncé’s track “Grown Woman”, which was teased in her Pepsi commercial last month, but now the whole song has leaked online (although those who made it to her Mrs Carter tour would have heard it performed in full).

The most striking thing about the tune is that, for something featured on one of the soft drink’s ads, it’s not that bad. In the past, Pepsi has been responsible for some truly terrible crimes against music. Remember when Beyoncé was joined by Britney, Pink and Enrique Iglesias in a gladiator arena to murder Queen’s “We Will Rock You”? No? Thought not.

Or how about when the Spice Girls instructed you to “Move Over” (“generation next yeah” while they pranced around with the Pepsi symbol painted on the palms of their hands?

Then there was Janet Jackson’s “Ask For More”, which encouraged you to throw yourself into a relationship but was really just a thinly disguised metaphor for, well, drinking more Pepsi (“So pour yourself right into me/Too much is never enough”).

But Bey seems to have broken the trend with the Timbaland-produced girl power anthem. Still no sign of the album, though.

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