Re: They Sold Out

[pk500]

Re: They Sold Out

"Selling out" to me is simple: It's a band that finds a commercially successful musical formula and strip-mines that formula for album after album, preferring to rake in big bucks instead of challenging themselves musically.

Examples: Metallica, Coldplay, Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls.

U2 has been a chameleon musically, especially in the last 15 years, yet it still has been a huge success commercially. Proves that integrity and cash can meld into one.

Bands can sell out and then return to their roots in good favor, in my opinion. Green Day is a classic example of this.

Green Day found its winning formula with "Dookie" and mined that for a decade, including such horribly sappy tunes as "Time of Your Life." But with "American Idiot," Green Day returned to making challenging music that matters.

Take care,
PK

[ubernoob]

Re: They Sold Out

Another definition of sellout to me is Blink 182... Their earlier items up through maybe Enema of the State is different.

[JRod]

Re: They Sold Out

I wouldn't put coldplay in that category just yet. I give them one more album to do something. Parachutes and to soem extent Rush of Blood were different enough. With XY you see them going down the same route. I still think they need one more album before being mentioned alongside Oasis and Mettalica.


U2 hasn't released a meaningful album in years. They have released good albums with radio friendly songs but nothing like Boy, Joshua Tree, or Actung.

I wish they would get back to that sound or meaningful music. How many times can you listen to Vertigo compared with New Year's Day or something like that?

[pk500]

Re: They Sold Out

Another definition of sellout to me is Blink 182... Their earlier items up through maybe Enema of the State is different.

It's pretty hard for a Green Day cover band to sell out. Blink 182 never had anything to sell.

Take care,
PK

[pk500]

Re: They Sold Out

I wouldn't put coldplay in that category just yet. I give them one more album to do something. Parachutes and to soem extent Rush of Blood were different enough. With XY you see them going down the same route. I still think they need one more album before being mentioned alongside Oasis and Mettalica.

I agree, John. Coldplay is teetering on the brink of sellout. You're right.

U2 hasn't released a meaningful album in years. They have released good albums with radio friendly songs but nothing like Boy, Joshua Tree, or Actung.

Beg to differ. "All That You Can't Leave Behind" was a very meaningful album. The band had come off a rocky period from 1993-99, with the dabblings with electronica resulting in the somewhat failed, somewhat flawed and shallow experiments of "Zooropa" and "Pop."

But "All You Can't Leave Behind" was a superb comeback, returning to more of the band's earlier sound. Plus the lyrics are among the most introspective and reality-based that Bono has written since "War." They weren't political like "War," but they were the words of a man who realizes he's past 40 and he's not invincible. As a 40-plus guy, that record resonated with me. A very meaningful record.

I didn't think as much of "How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb." It was more of an extension of "All You Can't Leave Behind" with a little more edge and Edge. More edgy sound, more guitar from The Edge.

Take care,
PK

[Nivek]

Re: They Sold Out

One of the biggest examples that came to my mind.

That first cd, "Disfunction" or whatever...is so different than everything else Staind has done.

That wasn't their first album, and ironically enough, they sold out on that record. "Tormented" was staind, everything else was watered down to sell records.

[Money99]

Re: They Sold Out

Good Example...another would be the Goo Goo Dolls, who were a punk band but then had a hit with one of their ballads that all sound the same...after that it was bye-bye punk, hello money.

I certainly can't blame them though, I'm sure living in a nice house and touring large venues beats living in a van and playing dives.

Me neither. If I was busting my hump playing in dead end bars for peanuts for a bunch of drunk kids with too many tattoos and earings I'd sell out the minute a contract was offered up.

And Sugar Ray and the Goo Goo Dolls are excellent examples. Sugar Ray was very hard and 'punk' but then they got big with a 'pop' tune and became millionares. And I still hear people (mostly girls) complain when they get back from a Goo Goo Dolls concerts; "Most of their music is so hard and metalic!".

Regarding Metallica, I remember when Black hit the stands. All the metal heads in my highschool LOVED it! That is until some of the 'preps', 'jocks' and 'nerds' started listening to it. As soon as it became commercially popular all the Metallica fans started screaming 'sell out!'. That's total bunk. Sure, their stuff afterwards was definately geared toward more top 40 type success, but "Black" certainly wasn't. "Enter Sandman" and "Sad But True" sound exactly like some of their earlier music like "Master of Puppets" or "Harvester of Sorrow". For whatever reason though, "Black" really took off.
And why do people care? These same metalheads in highschool were so mad that non-metal freaks liked it, they swore off the band. I don't get it. It's like they all believed they were in some secret society that made them better than anyone else. Like when someone says "I was listening to them way before anyone else!" Congrats! Nobody cares.

This life is short. If you can make a truck load of cash by 'selling out' then do it. Kid Rock once said that he laughs whenever he hears certain artists say they've never sold our or would never do so. He says every single artist today has sold out at one and time in their life. In most cases, you have to compromise to some degree to get your foot in the door. Good for those that do. I'm sure when Rolling Stone or some website blogger calls an artist a 'sellout' they cry themselves to sleep every night on top of a pile of supermodels sleeping on a titanic sized mattress stuffed with $100's.

[Jon22]

Re: They Sold Out

Metallica are sell outs. If you start something different and evolve to please the masses. But, I don't think you can be a sellout if you start as a sellout.

[CM1847]

Re: They Sold Out

To Blink 182's credit, their final album was actually decent music. Sure it was a after two albums that may be the definition of selling out, but at least they ended on a high note.

My personal defintion of selling out is when a band/artist writes songs with the intent of having them played on the radio. Some bands just want to make catchy as hell songs their whole career, whether they find succes in them or not.

There are literally hundreds of examples of bands that follow this story(just fill in the blanks):

_________(band name) started out as a small time group of friends, they released their debut album which received no publicity or airplay. On their ____(2nd/3rd/4th) album singer _____(name) came into the studio with the song _____(hit single) which shocked his bandmates as a big departure from their usual style. They recorded the song, it blew up in the summer of _____(year) and the band has made _______(1/2/3/4/5/6) albums based solely on that one hit song since, and have continued to receive national radio play.

Seriously, add in a part about a band member ODing and I just wrote about 20 episodes of Behind the Music.

Bands get tired to going unnoticed, they try something "different"(as in different to them, but standard to radio rock), their smalltime label sees it as a way to push their company and backs it bigtime so it blows up. People buy the album and hate pretty much every other song on the album except the one single. But the band has money so they go make a handful of albums based off of the one single, if they are lucky they find the formula again and the people who buy the next album are happy because it all sounds nice an poppy.

[sva91]

Re: They Sold Out

Metallica are sell outs. If you start something different and evolve to please the masses. But, I don't think you can be a sellout if you start as a sellout.

If you start something different and evolve to please the masses - That is my definition of sell out. Also changing your appearance to please the masses.

Big time sell out -Nelly furtado(not that i really liked her much to begin with)
Keepin it real- Radio Head/Thom Yorke

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: They Sold Out

If you start something different and evolve to please the masses -

What if a band evolves and pleases the masses, but it wasn't the driving force of the evolution? Take the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for example. Their newest album is a departure from their older material, but its evolution is more of a continuation of the last half of "Fever to Tell" than evolving, yet they've received more popular success than the previous album. Is that selling out?

[billmatic]

Re: They Sold Out

If you start something different and evolve to please the masses - That is my definition of sell out. Also changing your appearance to please the masses.

Big time sell out -Nelly furtado(not that i really liked her much to begin with)
Keepin it real- Radio Head/Thom Yorke

Outkast would fit that definition pretty well. Do you remember their first video (Player's Ball)? Dre was wearing a Braves jersey, playing poker, and riding in the back of a cadillac. Fast forward a few years and he has on pink feather pants and shoulder pads.

[PdiddyPop]

Re: They Sold Out

I'm probably in the minority here....but I just don't look at bands or singers as "sell outs." If I like their music, or songs that's all I really care about. Not what the masses think, or what the press says I should like. Everyone has different music tastes that's what makes music, and ourselves great. Someone might love Pop radio and the songs on it, and someone else might not. I just don't hate on anybody for doing what they want to do, and make a living. If it's garbage music to people, but not to me doesn't really phase me.....because I might not like what they listen to, but I won't give them the business or up the road for it. It's what makes them them.

[EWRMETS]

Re: They Sold Out

Radiohead!...just kidding.

[trobinson97]

Re: They Sold Out

Outkast would fit that definition pretty well. Do you remember their first video (Player's Ball)? Dre was wearing a Braves jersey, playing poker, and riding in the back of a cadillac. Fast forward a few years and he has on pink feather pants and shoulder pads.

Wait, so are you saying that Dre put on some shoulder pads and pink feather pants to please the masses?

If so, I'd have to disagree with that. I don't know Dre personally but what I can gather by listening to the music and watching the videos he wasn't changing to please anyone but himself. I was really feeling the whole Southern pimp theme Kast had when they first released. I was loving the the Afrocentric feel to Atliens. When Aquemini was released, both those things were gone, and every album they released advanced a little bit more. If anything, I'd say that Dre is the antithesis os sell out. It seems to me that he is very reluctant to keep doing the same old thing just because he knows it will sell. I haven't seen many who take more risks than he does.

*climbs down from Andre3000's nuts*