We here at Nintendo Life like to think we're pretty knowledgeable when it comes to video games. Sure, there may be a few blind spots here and there, but we pretty much have all bases covered across our writing and video teams.
Music, though..? Popular music? Oh boy... That's another story entirely. This writer specifically has a taste for classic rock, heavy metal, and a bit of prog rock, so when it comes to artists that might be storming the UK Singles Charts, you might as well be speaking in a completely different language.
So when our esteemed editor posted a link to Nintendo UK's most recent Switch advert with an accompanying comment stating "I don't know who this is", truth be told, the rest of us were just as stumped.
It turns out, however, that it's Raye! You know Raye, come on now. She's a British singer/songwriter whose album My 21st Century Blues apparently won 'Album of the Year' at the 2024 BRIT Awards. That Raye!
Okay, we'll be honest, even with this context provided, we still weren't too clued up on Raye's career so far, but apparently she's a big enough deal for Nintendo to showcase her in their Switch promotional material. Now, if they'd recruited someone like Bruce Dickinson or Shirley Manson, we'd probably be more on the same page, but alas.
So if you want pop music recommendations, this ain't the place for it, folks! Nice advert, though.
What are your thoughts on Nintendo's latest Switch advert? Did you know who Raye is? Let us know in the comments down below.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 33
Nintendo's still investing in ads for a game that many of us had already bought seven years ago... and ten years ago.
I'm not even kidding anymore when I say that it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Nintendo goes GTA V on us and re-releases Mario Kart 8 yet again on its next console.
Ollie, my man. Classic rock, metal, and prog? We should swap notes.
Felt this way for a long time. Fully plugged into other aspects of popular culture. But music? You could be making up the names of popular artists and I wouldn't know any better.
Classic rock being mentioned today may mean something very different than when people said classic rock 20 years ago
My local classic rock station was playing boulevard of broken dreams like 10 years ago lol
Is her dog really named Yoshi though?
Raye's a phenomenal singer, anyone interested in blues or jazz should check out her cover of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ on YT, she has an incredible vocal range. Her Saturday Night Live performances have been mightily impressive too.
Sorry but have no idea who these people are, yes I am old, but dont care.
But to be fair why are they advertising MarioKart and Animal Crossing?
Why not Party Jamboree or some other NEW game
Why do most Switch ads push games that are several years old? I know these are targeted towards people who love Raye but don’t know what a Switch is, but if I were Nintendo’s UK advertising department, I would probably want to push this year’s holiday titles (Mario Party comes to mind, maybe Zelda and Mario & Luigi too, etc.) so it would appeal to a wider audience. Nearly everyone who has a Switch owns MK8DX, and a large chunk own Animal Crossing as well.
Also, yea, I dunno who Raye is either. I barely listen to what people call “real music”.
I'm the same way. Pop just dies nothing for me. And I could probably count on one hand the number of billboard hot 100 songs I've actually heard before.
I very often find myself musing over music trends! It's because when I was growing up, it was really rare to hear anything at all from the 50s, you'd get some 60s (mostly dedicated radio shows bar the real classics) and the major hits from the 70s.
Today though... you get the above as it was, but then you get absolutely loads of 80s. Loads of 90s. Loads and loads of 00s and 10s and loads of 20s too.
The more we move forward, the more popular music there is and the reality is we don't lose the old stuff anywhere near like we used to. The Beatles. Queen. Oasis. Chili Peppers. Madonna. Elton John. Fleetwood Mac. And so on and so on and so on. It's timeless.
Or is it though?! This I find interesting. At what point in the future will we stop listening to Queen?
And then consider radio stations... do they keep moving their music forward a decade to "move with their audience getting older" or do they just keep essentially watering down their playlists as more and more years pass and more and more songs get added...
It kinda makes your head hurt when you really stop and think about these things lol
It's not unique to music either...
2024 is the first year where I have played more retro games (defined as more than 20 years ago in this instance) than I have new games (defined as released in the past 5 years). I never really thought about this maybe happening one day, but it has for me. 2024 was the year.
The year of the backlog...!
@Axecon her dog really is called Yoshi, she’s been a Nintendo fan a long time and even follows this site on Twitter thanks to me 😂
I used to know plentiful names in the pop music of late 90s through early 2000s, the period where I spent a fair bit of time watching TV including music channels. These days, I mostly keep an ear out for Japanese music (mainly anisong/OST stuff at that), and most newer westerners crossing my radar do so courtesy of Disney OSTs or Elton John collabs.
I was in an Irish pub this weekend and this ad played on-screen. I asked my friend if he knew these people / if they were famous ... none of us knew. So thanks for this news. At least now I know she is a celebrity of sorts XD
Now, listening to today's pop music is not something I'm interested in. Plenty enough classic and videogame music to listen to already. Additionally ... paying for an mp3 file or a streaming sub is not something I would consider doing either.
The advertise just change character but overall is still the same idea
outside - room - living room
room - outside -living room
living room - room - outside
I devote myself to Taylor Swift xx
Is it worth using Raye in a Nintendo commercial?
Yes. She got them an article on the BBC about it. Nintendo is targeting a market all the other games companies are ignoring, beyond 15-40 year old men. And they have a much healthier business strategy because of it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrjrljx1dzo
Nice ad, didn't know Raye either - I just listen to music I like regardless of the genre etc. (although there's a lot of videogame music and Japanese songs among it for obvious reasons) and add new songs whenever I like them enough for me to eventually look for them -, but now I do know at least her name and something about her thanks to this ad, article and comment section!
Not sure why the article was mostly about the writer not knowing who she was. That's weird. She only cleaned up and won a record amount of BRITs in a single ceremony this year. Maybe switch the radio on every now and then!
It's great to see Nintendo use celebrities who really ARE Nintendo gamers for their ads. I'm not sure I ever believed Beyonce played a Nintendo DS, but I can tell you from first hand experience Raye plays the Switch all the time. I even have her added as a friend on mine.
@Smackosynthesis I'm more flexible on "classic rock" but "oldies" stop in 1970, haha.
It could be because most of today's music blows goats...
I thought this article was going to be about a Buzz-style trivia game at first, hah. There actually was one literally about pop music back in the day. Anyway Raye is great! Her dog being called Yoshi is really cute, I didn't know that.
I saw the advert last night, thought it was great and knew it was someone famous from music… but couldn’t name her at all.
Tbh heard of her wouldn't recognise her. Or a song she sang iam 39. Do listen to radio 1 but mainly dance and hip hop. On BBC sounds app. I think everybody bought a switch owns mario kart. ?Why I bought a switch cos this game brilliant online offline single player or multi player offline. I play it with my daughter's
Can you guess who I like… 😅
I think that most (but not all) current pop 'artists' are pretty interchangeable and forgettable anyway.
I don't like the way this article is worded, I know her for like 2/3 songs (escapism. in particular) but I can tell she has a lot of talent and deserves the success she's finally having, she's actually an independent artist (since no label wanted to publish her album) and leans a lot into jazz, it's not typical pop star stuff. Also someone said she actually really likes Nintendo, so why not having her for a spot!
@Davii0_ well I’m guessing she might be unfollowing the site now thanks to this article 🤣
@MrGawain thanks for the link. I didn’t really know who she was but this shows she’s a Nintendo fan and it was a smart move by Nintendo to use her for a marketing campaign. She talks about wanting a 1-UP mushroom tattooed on her arm. I think it’s fair to say that’s pretty hardcore!
And people said Nintendo Switch couldn’t handle Raye racing!
Or… tracing.
Or… something.
Doesn’t matter. The point is she smashed it. Just goes to show the power of music can overcome all technical limitations. Take that haters.
@AmplifyMJ
Michael Jackson., Aw...!
I love Raye. She even performed on SNL in the States, so she’s known a bit over here/across the pond as well. With that said, here’s the TLDR of your article…
This is precisely the type of cross-promotion there needs to be more of. You didn’t know who Raye was, but now you’ve been introduced. 😉
Aw, that's a really nice ad - I'll have to check out Raye too. I'm an aging millennial who's pretty out of touch with modern music, but her work sounds right up my alley!
Imagine Bruce Dickinson demoing the next PilotWings 4K Switch 2 tech demo. Or playing a Kid Icarus remaster right after performing Flight of Icarus. Or playing Wind Waker 4K after performing Rime... I'll stop.
@Davii0_ I'll bite. What's the story behind that?
@Thomystic met her many times and even played Mario kart with her, so when I tagged her in an article about a celeb Mario kart tournament she ended up following haha
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