Music from the Gamecube commercial

Lots and lots of people have been asking the Answerbank... What's the music from the Gamecube commercial

Vince Pope

It's a track called Destination Unknown by Vince Pope. And before you ask, yes it's due to be released as a single some time soon. Beetroot Music - the company Vince founded to produce music for TV and commercials - hope it will be out in the next few weeks.

Who is Vince Pope
Vince, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, was in an indie-dance band called Ethereal a few years ago, but despite a record deal with EMI things didn't really happen for them. He's been far more successful working on commercials for the likes of Nike, Ericsson, Audi, Lego and BMW. His music also features on the current Honda campaign.

Why isn't the single in the shops already
It was never meant to be a single, but there has been an overwhelming public response - basically, thousands of people have been trying to track down the track!

Beetroot are in negotiation with a number of record companies but, as Tish from the company explains: "We just didn't understand quite how big the response would be. It's been huge!" Expect the single to be out before the ad campaign ends in July.

So this is a single lifted from an ad - not the other way round
Right. Not so many years ago, no credible contemporary artist would allow their music to appear in a commercial.

Music was either specially composed for an ad campaign or was lifted from the archives. For instance, Levi's always used old hits (I Heard It Through The Grapevine, C'mon Everybody etc). Then in the 80s and 90s a new Levi's campaign picked up new songs from unknown bands like Stiltskin and Babylon Zoo.

So commercials became 'cool' for musicians

They certainly started to see the upside! Then, in 1996, a major ad campaign for Rimmel used Alright by Supergrass. For pretty much the first time, here was a huge recent hit being used in a commercial.

Things moved on to a whole new level when Moby licensed any and every track from his CD Play, for use in just about any commercial that wanted it - someone counted over 470 seperate uses worldwide! Suddenly his music was everywhere (and he got rich from those deals long before Play became a worldwide hit).

And now

As Tish from Beetroot told us: "Now it's quite credible for the creatives [in the advertising agencies] to source a track that's up-and-coming. The brand's buying in to the credibility factor." And bands realise that with limited opportunities to get their new music onto TV and radio, having a track picked up for an ad campaign is a great way to reach a massive audience.

Even big names can get involved - have you noticed a certain Elvis Presley in the Nike commercial

And Destination Unknown is set to be a hit
Yes it is, judging by the interest on Theanswerbank and elsewhere! We're reaching full circle. Music written for commercials is reaching the top of the charts. Nintendo will be thrilled - and so will Vince Pope!

See also:

• Beetroot Music(external site)
• What can you tell me about music in TV commercials
• What's the music in the Nike adverts