Advertisers paid more than $4.5 million per 30 seconds of airtime during the Super Bowl last night so they like to know that their wares get people's attention. One way to do this is to examine what soundtracks get Shazamed, or searched using music identification service Shazam. Last night's most Shazamed moments came during the halftime show (more on that later) but outside of that it looked like New York songwriter Marc Scibilia induced the most curiosity with his rendition of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" featured during a Jeep commercial (from Billboard).
The spot featured shots of the company's vehicles traversing roads both urban and wild, not only across the United States (as is expected with the track) but also internationally, and it offered a message of caring for "our" land. Scibilia is apparently a true Guthrie sympathizer as he used his earnings from the commercial to buy a television so that he could watch the game and his appearance.
The second most popular song of the night was actually an original classic: Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle" that was featured in a Nissan ad.
A few of the selections in the Top 10 were truly bizarre however, such as The Verve's '90s hit "Bittersweet Symphony" at no. 6 (which was used to introduce the Seattle Seahawks, while the Patriots were introduced with the equally British track "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne). Oddly, at no. 7, people Shazamed John Legend's performance of "America The Beautiful" from the beginning of the game as well.
Once halftime is factored into the results, Katy Perry and Missy Elliott dominate the numbers. Many a viewer apparently had no idea what the name of "Firework" was, despite the less than ambiguous hook, resulting in it being the most searched song of the night. Elliott took spots nos. 2 and 3 with her "Lose Control" and "Get Ur Freak On" respectively.
Check out both lists here.
