Music is my imaginary friend: Success Stories in Music Publishing Edition

So this week's episode of the Office, "Cafe Disco," was really good. And during the final dance party, this really catchy, really boppy song was playing. I'm always on the lookout for new music, so naturally, I was anxious to find out what the name of the song was and who sang it.

The Internet is, obviously, amazing, but it's the type of thing that's become so enmeshed in our lives that we don't even realize that 15 years ago, the way we engaged the culture was completely different. If you saw a commercial or a TV show with a song you liked back then, what recourse did you possibly have? You'd have to hope that you heard it on the radio, or else you'd never hear it again. Nowadays, you can get on the ol' tubes and, although it may take a little effort, you can find that song.

Now, as I said, there are varying degrees of effort. There are some shows out there that are more in tune with young people's desire to integrate their cultural experiences. Gossip Girl, which as everyone knows is the greatest show of our time, does a fabulous job, plugging its featured artists at the end of every episode, and putting character playlists featuring music from the show on the CW website. Say what you will about how trashy a show the Real World is, but they actually put a pop-up of the song name on the screen as a song is playing. Other shows are getting there, but it's still a struggle sometimes.

To wit, this past week's episode of the Office. It seems self-evident to me that if you have an episode about music and dancing, you'd post a playlist on your website. But oh well. Good thing we've got the good denizens of the Internet to fill in the blanks. All I had to do was type "what was the song from office cafe disco" and boom, one click and I had it.

All of this is to say, my buddy works for a music publishing company out in LA, and his job, just like other guys that work for other companies all over the world, is to get songs from his company's catalog onto all manner of TV shows and movies, for the exact reason that I'm describing to you in this post: maybe some schlub will hear a song, and buy it, and then maybe get the album, and then maybe go to a show. So, whoever represents the Blam, a band that I think hasn't been together for a few years, congratulations. You earned your check.

In any case, listen to "Various Disgraces."