And in those examples you don’t see any difference to:

>Maroon 5 is covering Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” as a tribute to Hyundai

Because that sentence hits hard in the smh.

A band covering a song for a Hyundai ad?

Michael Jackson did a parody of his own song Billie Jean for Pepsi ("You're the Pepsi generation")

Michael Jackson was a pop star. Selling out was never a sin in pop music.

Agreed, which is my point: the framing of the article (specifically the title) is about Lady Gaga, and she's a pop star. There's a lot of good points in there, cheapened by the framing.

One of Nancy Ajram's most popular songs was originally made as a Coca Cola ad soundtrack

Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" was used in a cruise ship ad in 2003. Not the 90's, but not exactly recent.

Nobody was doing ads exactly like that decades ago, but celebrity endorsements in some form have been a staple of advertising for at least a century.

The Medici Banking family paid Michelangelo to paint the Medici Chapel.

Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto was made to help the reputation of the scrovegni family who were big creditors.

This is as old as time.

Isn't it pretty normal for car commercials or soda commercials to get covers of songs made?

"I'd like to teach the world to sing" was covered as a tribute to coca cola in 1971, that's classic now.

I think plenty of bands back in the day would have done the same if someone paid them.

Bob Marley's original recording of "Jammin'" was used in a Budweiser commercial in 1996.