A Quick Blurb about "sellouts" ......
"What the [Censored] does SELL OUT mean?
As fans were always complaining about bands, often with good reason. But sometimes being in a band must really suck - the minute you start to get succesful, people start branding you a "sell out".
How stupid is that? As though the reason you start a band is to play dives all of your life and have only a handful of people hear your songs.
I hate this notion that if a lot of people like something it automatically becomes devalued - this is surely the notion of the anal music fan: the relationship you have with a band that only you and a few others like is closer (in your mind at least) than it is with the same band as they become successful.
Get over it. Like you wouldn't change places with them in a minute. Stacks of cash, gigging every night, free booze, free drugs, free pussy.
WHERE THE [Censored] DO I SIGN UP!
If that's what comes with being a sellout, I'm in!
Or would you rather be, "no lets turn this major record deal down and keep playing The Shithole for the next ten years, only putting out records on minor distriubtors - but at least the people who really love music will think we're cool."
Bull[Censored] Surely being a contrived "indie" band who deliberately do things not to be labelled a "sellout" are just as fake as those we deem to have become shallow?
It just pisses me off when the minute a band tries something a little different, out come the "seelout" tags - "you're following trends" and all that crap. Well, no-one's putting a gun toyour head and making you buy it. [Censored] off and forget about the band if you don't like it, don't try and ruin it for those that still do.
and the other side of the coin is that those bands who don't evolve, who just put out similar sounding records for their whole careers get branded with the "past it" stick - they become seen as parodies of themsleves, sounding the same at 40 as they did at 20. And no-one ever gives two [Censored]s about their new record (AC/DC?).
So it's lose lose. If you stay the same and get big, then you're over the hill, past it and creatively stunted; and if you try ANYTHING different, then this COULD ONLY POSSIBLY BE TO SELL MORE RECORDS, not because you might actually feel inspired, or want to change. No of course not.
So, is it possible to sell 10 million records and not be a "sellout"? can' think of many bands who have sold that many records after the 70's and still amanged to be deemed credible, can you?
I suppose CVH was one of the last to be both big and deemed true to themsleves....
Rant over."
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