Selling Out

[defcon 1]

Why is it so bad? The only response's I have heard is something along the lines of: Giving into the mainstream society, becoming part of the corporate machine, and it?s nothing more than being an industry whore etc. I?m not much of a music buff, but I really want to know what?s so bad about selling out?

Here?s how I?m looking at this so far. If your music?s that good, you can make money from it. It?s also a good way to spread the word about music as well and acquire more fans. I would like to be talented but I'd prefer to be rich and talented. Renaissance artist did this as well and I don't see anyone complaining about them. Why should music any different?
I wouldn?t think of deleting all my Black Sabbath music just because one of their songs is in the Iron Man trailer. I even had one of my friends loved that theme music and I got to enlighten him on Black Sabbath?s work.

No one I?ve spoke to agrees with me, but I keep getting that same response that makes no sense to me. How does the opposing argument really work? You guys have any explanations or opinions?

 

[Spinwhiz]

For those people that say "it's not about the money, it's about the music", they are full of crap. You toss a mil in their lap instead of being poor and they'll dance like a monkey on a music box. Would I sell out if I had talent? Hell yes because you only live once and I'd rather live with a buttload of cash than on the streets.

 

[windfish]

Ah yes. Hipsterism can be confusing sometimes, and I suppose there are various degrees of "selling out". In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with your music making the big time. (as a music composition major, I do need to eat, so I would really like it if someone with lots of money paid to use my music). That's not selling out. SELLING OUT is when you let your artistic decisions be INFLUENCED by a record label/movie director/mainstream radio executive, (and this does happen).

Lots of bands and composers evolve and develop their musical styles all the time - that's not selling out, unless some record label executive said to them "You must produce a song that sounds like this, so that we can put it on the radio, and make ad revenue." Here's a nice example. Turn on the radio. Pick a station that's not NPR. Do you notice something? All the music sounds the same. That's because that music is safe - it pushes no boundaries, and does nothing interesting musically or lyrically (and I don't mean censoring). That's because radio executives notice what kind of music people can passively listen to and not change the channel - and radio executives are not musicians. After about an hour of ACTIVELY listening to one of these stations, you will probably want to drive off the road into a tree.
Now switch to NPR. (Mostly only relevant if you live in the US. If not, go for an indie station or a station that runs no ads.) Goodness me! This music is GOOD! This music is INTERESTING!

So, after a tangent - people that are saying the Black Sabbath sold out for letting their music be used in the trailer are misusing the term. Real selling out is when you sacrifice music that is good and original in exchange for music that is profitable.

An endless circle is created - mainstream MTV-style stuff is dictated by label execs, who produce bad music which gets all the air time, so nobody hears the good stuff unless the look for it, so the real good musicians which maintain their artistic integrity get ignored. This creates a culture of passive listening, which is satisfied by the dross produced when an artist sells out. Passive listeners will then miss all that is good about the really good music, because they won't be listening that hard, and instead go back to music that doesn't require their attention.

An interesting related story - If you're interested in a cool example of a musician being asked to sell out, see Shostakovich. Stalin wanted him to write a nationalistic symphony. Shostakovich didn't like writing stuff like that. But Stalin had the habit of killing people who didn't do what he said. So Shostakovich wrote a movement of his 5th symphony as a march...in 3/4 time. Stalin didn't really know anything about music, so he didn't get it. But most people back then actually listened, so they got the joke.

Haydn wrote music for a noble, but he wasn't selling out because he still wrote HIS music. The noble recognized Haydn as a master, and liked the music he wrote, and paid him for it.

Listen to Shostakovich 5. Or Flaming Lips. Or whatever. Just don't tune in to K-rock.

 

[Joe]

The term is less about a band getting rich; with the exception of nutty music fans, pretty much everyone wants to see good bands make money. Selling out in the rock world is usually in reference to a band changing its sound/abandoning its original fan-base solely to make more money. At that point what was an artistic expression became a monetary transaction. Good for the band, bad for the fans that got them rich in the first place.

 

[windfish]

Not all musicians are in it for the money. All generalizations are dangerous. Including this one.

For those people that say "it's not about the money, it's about the music", they are full of crap. You toss a mil in their lap instead of being poor and they'll dance like a monkey on a music box. Would I sell out if I had talent? Hell yes because you only live once and I'd rather live with a buttload of cash than on the streets.

Not everybody sells out. I happen to know composers who have stuck to their artistic integrity, and lost hefty commissions because of it, and they're not sorry. But thanks to people like you, the aforementioned trend will be continued by people with no artistic integrity.

 

[TheBluesader]

I think the bigger question here is also one that's pretty much unanswerable: what is art? If someone has "sold out," are they even producing art anymore, or is it just product? Is there a difference between the two, are they the same, and should anyone really care?

I know I do, but then again, no one will pay me for my art, so I'm all bitter and such.

 

[Knight Templar]

Its all about how its done. If a band lets coke use a song in a happy add, its not selling out. If that ban was emo however then it would be.

On selling out, is anybody else annoyed over that add on the escapist home page? Every time I go there my ear drums get blown out.

 

[Knight Templar]

Its all about how its done. If a band lets coke use a song in a happy add, its not selling out. If that ban was emo however then it would be.

On selling out, is anybody else annoyed over that add on the escapist home page? Every time I go there my ear drums get blown out.

Don't you use Firefox and Adblock?

Should be yes.

 

[The Franco]

The term is less about a band getting rich; with the exception of nutty music fans, pretty much everyone wants to see good bands make money. Selling out in the rock world is usually in reference to a band changing its sound/abandoning its original fan-base solely to make more money. At that point what was an artistic expression became a monetary transaction. Good for the band, bad for the fans that got them rich in the first place.

I wish I could have put it better, but damn you American public school system.