It's common to call Detroit the Motor City for, well, obvious reasons. Many people also refer to it as Motown, as it was (and still is) the home of Motown Records.
I can't begin to list all the songs that have automotive themes. We probably wouldn't even have had the Beach Boys if surfing and cars were never invented. So between Bruce Springsteen's "Racing In The Street" to Wilson Pickett's "Mustang Sally" (actually written by Sir Mack Rice...did you know that?), it's fair to say that cars inspire song writers.
But at auto shows like the NAIAS, song writers, it seems, inspire automotive marketing guys.
Music - often cranked to ear-bleed decibels - is used in just about every press conference we've been to. Some auto company spokespeople also manage to weave (intentionally or not) many music themes into their presentations.
For example, the musicians who composed the background beat for the
Ford Reflex, shall we say, "borrowed" a Tom Petty guitar riff from "You Wreck Me" during its press conference.
Do you think Ford will ask Duran Duran to endorse their new Reflex should the concept car see production? Or would they have to rename it "The Reflex" to be consistent with the actual song title on Duran Duran's album "Seven & The Ragged Tiger"…which sounds like another Geely car name (see "Geely: Come on get happy").
Ford finished one of its press conferences using a line from an old Carpenter's song, "We've Only Just Begun," possibly hoping that sales would climb to the "Top Of The World." This would obviously make them feel like a "Superstar" car company , but even they realize that "It's Going To Take Some Time."
I mean, it seemed like "Only Yesterday" when the Taurus was the number-one selling car in the U.S., and time will tell if its replacements, the Five Hundred and Fusion, will be the company's next "Ticket To Ride." (I'll stop now with the Carpenters thing.)
But with the state of GM and Ford these days, Motown is either going to be dipping into Springsteen's song book by humming a few bars from "Glory Days" or "Wreck On The Highway."
