Last year, Pearl Jam caused a bit of a stir when they promoted their new album with a commercial for Target. Had the last anti-corporate bastion of rock finally sold out? The blogs were ablaze. (At least I assume they were. I didn’t hear about it until the other day.)

Of course for almost any other band, it would have been a non-issue. Over the past decade or two it has become increasingly acceptable for bands/artists to sell their songs for use in commercials. In fact, these days the right song in the right commercial is seen as a positive move for both band and brand… (How many iPods did Feist help sell? How many people bought Feist’s album after hearing her in the iPod commercial?)

Some say the big turning point was when the Stones sold “Start Me Up” to Microsoft in the 90s. Others point to Michael Jackson’s rewrite of “Billie Jean” for Pepsi in the 80s. Certainly, by the time Dylan himself appeared in a Victoria’s Secret commercial, the battle was all but lost. (Or won, depending on which side you were on.)

Still, there are some songs that we feel more comfortable about hearing in commercials than others. A couple of years ago, a writer in the Washington Post came up with an equation to calculate the degree of selling out. Check out the whole article here.

On a final note, did you know that the Rolling Stones recorded a Rice Crispies jingle in 1964? I had no idea. But apparently Brian Jones was paid all of 400 pounds to help come up with this little gem:

Now if all jingles rocked that hard, the world would definitely be a better place.