When You've Got A Problem, Think Silicones!

When You've Got A Problem, Think Silicones!
When You've Got A Question, Think Silicones!
Because you see
Silicones by GE
Are unquestionably
The answer!

The 50's and 60's brought about the strange entertainment/propaganda hybrid (enterganda? propatainment?) known as the corporate musical or industrial musical.

Wikipedia sez:

An industrial musical is a musical performed for the employees of a business, intended to create a feeling of being part of a team, and/or to educate and motivate the management and salespeople to improve sales and profit.

Industrial musicals are not resticted to corporations or to businesses involved in industry. They should not be confused with ...musicals produced by companies to be seen by the general public, for example, Disney's stage production of The Lion King.

Oh, I don't think there's any danger of that.

Parts One and Two of Recruit, Train and Motivate: The History of the Industrial Musical will give you some background.

Some of the more jaw-dropping "They really recorded that?!" gems include:

American Standard's "The Bathrooms Are Coming!" The aching ballad "My Bathroom" is available for download.

GE's Got To Investigate Silicones (okay, this one was actually a corporate film instead of a stage show, but it's in the same style) featured "The Answer". The mp3 can be found at I Eat Tapes. Check it out. It's a showstopper and a chart-topper.


The Name of the Game with Loretta Swit and David Hartman to hype up Listerine salesmen. (I know you're heartbroken, but sorry, I couldn't find any audio)

That hipster David Letterman also has a bunch of bizarre corporate jingleage over at the Late Night website.


Technorati tags: industrial musical, corporate musical, strange, music