The Bonding of a Band and a Brand: On Music Placement in Television Commercials from a Text Analytical Perspective

This article presents a four-part text analytical approach to the examination of music placement in television commercials. The approach is developed through a case analysis of a commercial for Apple's iPad featuring the song “There Goes My Love” by the Blue Van. The analysis illustrates how a seemingly “happy marriage” between a band and a brand can be characterized by a power imbalance that arguably manifests at the level of text structure.