I’ve never paid attention to the fact that motion picture copyright notices actually forbid editing the picture. I find that confusing. Does it really mean that if I edited, say, The Two Towers into a better version just to amuse myself, I could be sued for copyright infringement even if I never broadcast it?

Another thing: X-Men 2 had an extra notice at the beginning about how photographing the movie is a crime etc, but the noticeable thing about it was that it was sponsored by FACT, ”Federation Against Copyright Theft” or something. Quite a nerve they’ve had with the acronym.

The way pop (and classical) music is used in commercials is perplexing. First there’s the idea that playing a cool track on the background will lend credibility to whatever is being marketed, and second there’s the idea behind all brand making, ie. what’s important isn’t what the ad says, but that the customer remembers the name.

Both premises deserve closer inspection. Take the former one, and tell me if you can think of any single case in which the soundtrack improved your image of the product? Moby’s been used a lot lately, and Levi’s has long been a prolific (ab)user of pop tracks. But in fact it would seem that the one benefitting most is the musician. Admittedly Moby was huge even before his tracks were commissioned, but look at that hulking vegetarian now. And what about all the one hit wonders Levi’s has unleashed? I’m thinking of Stiltskin, Babylon Zoo, Flat Eric (or what the hell the name was), Pepe Deluxé… the list goes on and on.

The second presumption is even more problematic. Do the aforementioned thought exercise in reverse, and exclude Levi’s. What brands were all those great tracks selling? I fondly remember a car ad with Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, but I’ll be damned if I can remember the manufacturer’s name. Might have been Ford, but if I’m ever going to invest in a new Mondeo, their choice of music won’t be the reason.

The persistence of musical memories and their power is, at least in my case, unrivalled by visual ones. I bet any Finnish boy my age can still whistle MacGyver’s, or Knight Riders title tune, and while we also vaguely remember what the stars used to look like, the music is vastly better at evoking memories of those two crappy series.

The extent of this phenomenon dawned on me while listening to the excellent Diana Ross and Dusty Springfield collection CDs. I’d never realized that Springfield sang The Look of Love (remember, I’m musical idiot) but I remembered the tune, supposedly from a TV commercial. Also, I’ve got absolutely no clue whatsoever what that commercial might’ve been selling. The second nail to the coffin (watch out for falling metaphors) was hearing Reflections by Ross. The song seemed intimately familiar, and after a while I recalled that it had indeed been the theme song of a television series called China Beach. I’ve never seen a complete episode of that series.