For advertisers and film-makers, using popular music as a soundtrack has long been shorthand for modernity. And thanks to vague or nonexistent lyrics, electronic music can mean almost anything to potential consumers.
Moby's fifth album was the first to license each track (Bodyrock, Honey, Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?) to an ad, film or TV show and what began out of necessity – the album stiffed on release – soon became strategy for others as Play climbed to No 1, eventually shifting almost 10m copies.
