Something that’s gone on my entire music conscious life is the complaint that people’s favorite bands "sold out". This always kind of takes me aback. I’ve got no problem with artists trying to make money for writing music. Honestly, it amazes me that people will brand an artist negatively for success. I know once upon a time Green Day were just a bunch of kids hoping to get famous, but I can say confidently that albums like American Idiot fall right in line with some of my favorite albums released by a pop-punk band, which honestly they were from the get go. The biggest difference between Green Day in ’92 (that’s right kids, they’ve been playing music longer than ½ of you have been alive) and Green Day here in 2011? I can find their CDs in stores. If you walk into any music store now and ask where you can find “21st Century Breakdown” you’ll be guided to this nice little section full of Green Day CDs, including re-releases of their older albums like “Kerplunk” and their first major label album (blasphemy, apparently) “Dookie”
I’ve just never grasped the idea of wanting to keep a band you like a private thing. Don’t you want the band to be able to continue recording? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could listen to your favorite underground band and hear everything clearly, rather than having the mix sound like they left it in the hands of their drummer at 3am on Sunday after a weekend long bender? I love music, which is exactly why I want to share it with people, it’s always especially exciting to introduce a friend to an artist they haven’t heard before, but why would you deny them that satisfaction? I’ve been a fan of the band Dommin since receiving a friend request from their singer Kris Dommin on myspace several years ago. When I heard that they had signed with Roadrunner records, my first thought wasn’t that they’d sold out, not that they were going to lose their artistic integrity, I was ecstatic that they had made it. I would be able to see Dommin in concert on their next tour because they were finally able to tour nationally. I saw then, and see now absolutely no down side to their major label status. In case anyone is still beholden to the idea that Roadrunner is more like “the little label that could” than like the big labels they used to paint themselves as the cool alternative to, take a look at their artists page .
What gets to me, is that the people that complain about “sellouts” are also completely blind to bands that were all but manufactured for success. Paramore for example were all but put together by Atlantic records. In the end, who cares? They’re catchy, the music is pretty darn good (if not always eloquently written) and they are a major label construct. Paramore is signed to Peter Wentz's vanity label Fueled by Ramen because it would look better for them as an alternative rock than being signed to a major label like Atlantic. Their label had no bearing on me liking/not liking their music, how much would it have changed your perception of them if an album like “Riot” had been released without the minor label sticker? They got the same kind of promotion and the same kind of marketing and syndication that they would have gotten signed to Atlantic, Epic, Virgin, EMI, or Sony but they were able to keep the “alternative” feel all the way down to being signed to a little vanity label instead of a major label.
It’s just incredible to me that we as music fans get tied up to this stigma that if a band signs to a major label, they’re bad by default. the Offspring definitely "sold out" but then again, they went and did a lot of different things with their sound on the way, but in the end does it matter what label they’re on, or who else likes them?
The idea that obscurity correlates to quality is fucktarded, but quite a few people, especially metalheads, seem to think it has merit. There were a few terms I learned by visiting the metal chat rooms on Soulseek a few years ago. One was "mallcore", which was ostensibly a genre characterized by selling more than two albums in a band's entire career.
ReplyDeleteSo like I was just saying to you, (and if I may quote the commenter above me,) I think the reason "obscurity [tends to] correlate with quality" in people's minds, I think, is due to an idea of fans having and wanting to maintain a level of intimacy with a singer or band.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple pseudo-major bands I like that haven't quite made full blown mainstream status yet but are gaining steam. I was just at a party one such band hosted last weekend and I thought to myself,
"They've made so much promotional headway in the last year alone; in a short amount of time I probably won't get to see them for cheap/free or chat it up with them anymore between sets, or hang on a broken in couch while sipping a vodka-cran while getting into their songs and actually meeting other chill people who aren't interesting in screaming like crazed fangirls."
Let's face it, once you're at a venue like The Armory or SPAC or Bowery, it gets packed, there's loss of more immediate connection and although you can be happy that "your band" is being appreciated by larger masses of people, there could be a feeling of slight resentment, jealousy or arrogance toward those masses because they are jumping on your original bandwagon. I mean, once a band gets huge, all people want to do is get close to them. Autographs, meet and greets, private acoustic sets....it's a delicate balance that unfortunately can't keep both sides of the fan ship happy.
I agree with Kira on this one. It's about the intimacy one can have with a band. I always thought that some bands did sell-out, but that was based on a before and after observation of their music. For example, Metallica used to be one of my favorite bands; and suddenly, St. Anger was produced and played and it felt like they weren't even trying anymore. Then again, it probably had a lot to do with the visible lack of drinking they all had going on.
ReplyDeleteEither way, selling-out is kind of a flip-floppy thing when it comes to a musicians work. They should have a little sticker put on an album that states "sell-out CD" when the artist thinks they are selling-out. That way, we can all buy music appropriately.