From what I understand, every retail/food brand no longer finds traditional marketing to be effective, and instead they have to pay 'super users' on the internet/in culture to convince people that their product is authentic/worth stuffing ur face with. Taco Bell seems to have launched a record label to sell to people who like both mp3s and tacos. From what I understand, Taco Bell is sorta like 'slop food', except u put it inside of a tortilla, on a crunchy shell. Then u put 'hot sauce' on it, and it taste 'good.' Anyways, Taco Bell 'announced' an 'innovative new project' where they are giving touring bands money to eat at Taco Bell. I don't really understand how/why this is worth it for a band, or maybe it just shows how bleak life on the road is, and you will take any free handouts possible.

Over the past month, we’ve been listening to all of the submissions to select our one hundred artists and we couldn’t be more happy with the quality of musicians that love Taco Bell. Every touring band can relate to eating on the road and Taco Bell has become essential to keep artists rocking while on tour. Taco Bell’s late-night menu offers a variety of items to conquer any band member’s appetite. Recognizing this, Taco Bell began Feed the Beat to fuel bands with $500 in Taco Bell Bucks per band so they can focus on their true passion: music.

$500? For real? Know that is like $3000 in Taco Bell currency, but still. Not sure if this is really worth it. Feel like a buzzband member should make at least $10k for lending their name to a brand. Wonder if there are any 'strings attached', like u have to tweet 10 links, twitpic taco pix every week, and play a live set inside of a Taco Bell somewhere in the Midwest. Here is a list of the bands that 'sold out' just to eat tacos. I think basically all of them blow hard, so it is just funny that they all decided a $500 Taco Bell gift certificate was 'worth it':

2AM Club A Rocket To The Moon Adam Haworth Stephens After The Burial Allstar Weekend American Bang American Fangs Anamanaguchi Anarbor Andrew W.K. Artist Vs Poet Atom Smash Atreyu Bad City Bad Rabbits Best Coast blessthefall Boys Like Girls Breathe Carolina Cady Groves Chiddy Bang Chiodos Christian TV Chuck Ragan Circa Survive Cobra Starship Colour Revolt Cults Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr Dead Confederate Dr. Dog Emmure Everest Every Avenue Every Time I Die Fake Problems Four Year Strong He Is We Hellyeah Hey Monday Hot Chelle Rae In This Moment Iron Thrones It Boys! Jukebox the Ghost Knights of The Abyss Les Savy Fav Let Me Run Let’s Get It Look Mexico Maps & Atlases Mariachi El Bronx Math the Band Mayday Parade Memphis High Miniature Tigers Neon Trees Never Shout Never New Found Glory New Politics Passion Pit Phosphorescent Pigeon John Plug in Stereo PMtoday Polaris at Noon Portugal. The Man Revocation Runner Runner Shinobi Ninja Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers Stick To Your Guns Suckers T. Mills Tennis System Tera Melos Terrible Things The Acacia Strain The Almost The Black Angels The Cab The Chariot The Downtown Fiction The Gay Blades The Girlfriend Season The Hood Internet The Ready Set The Summer Set The Swellers The Sword The Wonder Years This Will Destroy You Tokyo Police Club Travie McCoy Unearth Underoath VersaEmerge War of Ages Wavves We The Kings

Gonna go see a few of these bands and just throw $500 worth of Taco Bell at them, screaming "WAS IT WORTH IT? WAS IT REALLY WORTH IT YALL? TACO TACO YO QUIERO TACO BELL TACO SUNDAYS .69 .79 .99!" I wonder if they are going to make all of these bands tweet tons of pix of them eating Taco Bell on the road. Wonder if there is any sort of real 'service' that Taco Bell is offering them besides giving them an amount of food that is actually valued at like $20. Feeling sad about this 'record label.' Makes me wonder if Mountain Dew paid their ppl in soda pop. Do u think these bands will have to do embarrassing advertising / advertorials? Maybe they will make them do commercials/viral video shorts where they talk with a Mexican accent. Yo Quiero Buzzbands, yall

R u gonna start shopping at Taco Bell? Is this progressive marketing that will get u buzzing abt their brand? Was a $500 gift certificate rlly worth it? Is Taco Bell 'slop food' 4 poor ppl? Will Best Coast + WAVVES just 'get danked' and spend their combined $1000 in less than 3 days? Did Taco Bell revolutionize the Mexican food industry? Does Taco Bell taste 'just like' real Mexican food? Is Taco Bell 'California style' or 'Tex Mex' Mexi food? What is Taco Bell's most innovative / alt product? Should I just eat a bunch of double decker tacos while I listen 2 buzzbands? Should McDonalds launch a 'rival' record label, giving buzzbands free McDonalds for a month, and we can monitor their health every day and film a documentary called 'SUPER BUZZ ME'?