Selling Out

Can people ever really sell out?

First, a definition. Selling out to most people is an accusation that claims an artist has sacrificed his/her/their integrity for profits, i.e. creating for profit, not for meaning.

I know personally, I accused Green Day of doing so when they made American Idiot, mainly because they commercialised their sound so much, or so I thought. Maybe I just thought it was de facto more commercial because it was more popular.But are the two the same thing?

No-one can ever be sure what will sell, so it therefore becomes very hard to not only predict what things will make profit, but also to create something reasonably good within those commercial guidelines. So to set-out to sell-out in the first place would be very hard. This poses a problem as to how can people create for profit, when knowing the trends is a gamble in itself.

Bands, for instance are often accused of selling out if they move to a major label; I remember someone in a band that had recently 'sold out' to Warner Bros saying that they'd rather sign a deal with a company that would get their music to more people, get them playing more shows and give them more facility to realise their creative vision in a professional way than 'keep it real' by recording rough demos funded by two broke guys in a flat who can get them shows at all the 'hip' venues playing to twenty people tops. Enough said.

The Mona Lisa is one of the most valuable paintings in the world, if not the most valuable. So therefore, Da Vinci could have been said to have sold out (man) by painting it. Is it really his fault that he made something that lots of people like? If an artist sells their piece for untold millions, are they selling out? Or are their creative visions merely coinciding with public interest?

Let EMI think about what's going to sell, and let the artist worry about their creation.

My conclusion? I don't think you can sell out, I just think that this is a label affixed to successful artists by fans who are scared that their little underground secret is going overground. It's possessive. It's also stupid.

Just some rhetorical questions to ponder on the subject, let me know your thoughts.