I’ve been meaning to link to this New York magazine article since it came out a few months ago. It’s a long read, but it’s very worthwhile. It’s fundamentally about the notions of freedom and privacy online, but I think it also says a lot about why MySpace and YouTube are as popular as they are and where digital media is headed in the years ahead.

Takeaway for marketers: The digital generation wants you to be as transparent to them as they are to the world.

As a fan of Elvis Costello since back in the day when he was on Stiff, I have to say there’s just something disturbing about seeing him (yes, seeing him, not just hearing one of his songs) in a commercial for Lexus. Something about it just rings bogus. And I drive a Lexus (a 1999 model in need of tires, but that’s another story for another time).

“Beethoven, he wrote a few toe-tappers,” Costello says in a swoon about the Lexus sound system. “When you close your eyes you can see the whole orchestra in front of you.”

Which seems to make the Lexus a great choice, as long as you stay in the driveway. Or perhaps the garage, listening to Costello’s “5ive Gears In Reverse” from Get Happy:

But if your patience is exhausted and you still cannot decide
You’re sitting in the garage contemplating suicide
And you have no motivation you can’t even catch your breath
All of this acceleration is driving you to death

Maybe that’s what he meant by seeing the whole orchestra.

The Beatles and Nike. Bob Seger and Chevy. Now Elvis and Lexus. Well, it’s not like this is anything new: Rock has always been commercial. Even the Stones lent their music to this spot for Rice Krispies back in ’64, when they were still badass.

Still, there’s something that just doesn’t feel right about it. “I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea” at the end of “Entourage”? Great. Hawking cars? Ehhhh, not so much.

One of these days we’ll probably see Pink Floyd’s “Money” used for T.D. Waterhouse and The Clash’s “London Calling” for British Airways.

Blecch.

“Many people believe that support is something that you give to someone you feel sorry for or that it means propping up someone who would fail unless you were there to give him a boost. But that’s not the way I see it. Support is the boost you can give someone who can help himself but who needs a partner to open a window or push aside a roadblock.”
—Dave Thomas

This clip on YouTube, which boasts 1.3 million views as I write this, is worth 3:40 of your time. There’s something invigorating and hopeful about nonagenarians singing “I hope I die before I get old” with such glee, then busting up their instruments like The Who.

This post from Kevin Rose over on the Digg blog is remarkable. This one from Jay Adelson is important reading, too.

In a nutshell: Stories on Digg were posted that included a key to hack protected content on HD-DVDs. Digg removed the stories. Geekerati outrage ensued. And now: Stories with the information will no longer be removed. Writes Kevin:

“You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.”

Talk about the users owning the brand: At Digg, the community not only dictates the content, they dictate the direction of the company response in the face of a major legal challenge. This is Business 2.0 in action, and I’m not referring to the magazine.

MAY 2 UPDATE: Here’s a Financial Times article about all this.