The journey to Wednesdays Apple event raises important questions: was the OneRepublic song really about Steve Jobs? And why Sweet Home Alabama?
The Apple event that saw the unveiling of the <a href=”https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/07/iphone-7-apple-launches-new-waterproof-smartphones-camera-airpods-headphones” data-link-name=”in” body link” class=”u-underline”>iPhone 7 and AirPods opened with a short film of CEO Tim Cook in a Carpool Karaoke session with Late Late Show host James Corden. It was just about as awkward as it sounds.
The video of Corden escorting Cook to the event in San Francisco, opens with the pair belting OneRepublics I Lived, which includes the lyric: Hope when the crowd screams out, theyre screaming your name.
Not to read too much into the choice, but is it a stretch to imagine this particular sentiment resonating with Cook, who is not and never will be Steve Jobs? I mean, hes literally about to take the stage at an Apple product launch, and just last year there was an entire film dedicated to scenes of crowds rapturously greeting Steve Jobs as he took the stage at product launches.
After the pair engage in some banter and messing about with Siri, the singer-songwriter-producer Pharrell Williams hops into the backseat, and the trio break into Lynyrd Skynyrds 1974 hit Sweet Home Alabama.
Cook hails from Mobile, Alabama, which might explain the song choice or could there be another element at work here? Lynyrd Skynrd wrote the song as a something between a response to and attack on Neil Young, who in recent years has become more and more devoted to the development of the Pono, a portable digital media and music player that Young would very much like you to believe is a competitor to Apples various products. Is Cook throwing shade?
The video is the most fun youll have watching an ageing CEO strain to appear good-natured all day, assuming that the remainder of your day doesnt somehow involve finding yourself in Elon Musks office as he realizes that someone has moved the blotter on his desk a quarter-inch to the left.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/07/apple-event-tim-cook-james-corden-carpool-karaoke