There were only two new entries into the Adbreakanthems chartwatch table in April. Call it synchronicity or just plain co-incidence but one was also our Sync Of The Month!
Fern Kinney’s warm and intimate disco ballad Together We Are Beautiful was undoubtedly regarded by the musical tastemakers and scenesetters of the day as, well, a little on the anodyne side when it rose all the way to Number One in the UK charts in March 1980.
It certainly didn’t have the edge or the cool quotient of singles like The Pretenders’ Brass In Pocket, Blondie’s Atomic and The Jam’s Going Underground which preceded – and succeeded – it at the top of the charts in the early part of that year.
But time can make one helluva difference to our perceptions of pop music and, 33 years later, the combination of Kinney’s unadorned delivery and the simplest of backing tracks renders the track endearing to say the least.
Hats off to EDF and AMV BBDO for digging it out for us again as the soundbed for what is a distinctive campaign. The extent to which it may have resonated with the music buying public is as yet unknown. At time of writing Together We Are Beautiful had registered enough sales to feature in the Top 20 of the independent charts for weeks 16 and 17 but had yet to puncture the Top 75.
The other new entry was by those US indie rocking flavour of the month men Imagine Dragons who had three separate tracks from their album Night Visions bobbing about in the Official Top 75 during April. The one that concerns us here is Radioactive which shot into the Top 20 after being featured in the trailer to Trion’s blockbusting Defiance computer game.
This is the highly acclaimed shoot ‘em up most likely to appeal to sci-fi fans and art-house movie buffs alike with a story line which matches the action for imagination and excitement. A bit like the young Nevada band themselves really.
Otherwise it’s been farewell to Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere after a six week stay on the back of the three.co.uk Pony campaign and goodbye Ellie Goulding whose Explosions began its 12 week career included in a ITV Drama trailer back in January. Something tells us she’ll be back sooner or later.
Which just leaves The Lumineers’ increasingly epic Ho Hey which must be well on its way to being the most successful sync ever in terms of chart longevity. Adbreakanthems’ the syncsurvey first tracked it in an E.On power spot October last year and some 28 weeks later it’s still locked into the Top 30 with no signs of slipping away any time soon.
This is the stuff of which sync legends are made!
