Sellout: Definition Needed
Monday, May 11, 2009 at 12:01AM So the past few days I've been pondering the curious case of "selling out."
I've decided no one knows what the term means and therefore, the saying must be completely irrelevant.
When word broke that Slash was doing American Idol, everyone in Metal world shared a collective gasp and went into "sky is falling" mode. Oh my Glam! Could it be! An original Gunner doing a crap show like American Idol? Blasphemy.
The crap show, by the way, is about the highest rated program on television, so clearly Slash made a horrible decision. I mean, how dare he promote his new solo record on a platform that would reach 100 million people? What a moron.
Apparently it's worse if you actually watch Idol and are a music fan. I mean, clearly, if you do that = sell out. How dare Americans (and people all over the world for that matter) want some happy, music entertainment in the evening? How dare millions of people think (know) Adam Lambert can sing just as well as or better than Axl Rose? I mean, it would be far better for young Adam to toil in obscurity than be discovered on American Idol because that show is selling out.
Liking modern Metal is a sure sign of selling out - but only if those bands are on a major label and don't list Motley Crue as their first and main influence. It's ok to like Dirty Penny because they dream to be Motley but they are certainly not. It's ok to like Black Tide because Iron Maiden are their heroes. It's ok to like Freakshow because that band features members of classic Glam bands. Pay attention now: it is not ok to like Avenged Sevenfold or Slipknot because the lyrics are not 100% melodic. It is not ok to like bands that have beaten the digital age and sold enough units to go platinum. It is not ok to get in the pit and rock to one of these new bands because this support is somehow hurting Styx and Queensryche and therefore = sell out.
Let's see. I'm pretty sure if you shop at Hot Topic (or Torrid) you are a giant sell out because it's not ok to like band T-shirts that are not officially vintage. You also can't go to Hot Topic to buy Manic Panic for your hair, but it's ok if you find the dye at any other store. I cannot emphasize how much of a travesty it would be to support a chain that Fortune magazine called one of the best places in America to work. I mean, I know I would hate to have the title VP of Music for Hot Topic. Hell, if I ever landed that job I'd probably just slit my wrists. Talk about selling out.
See a theme here? I'm not sure selling out exists anymore. Does success = selling out? I don't think so. How can we begrudge anyone happiness or success? When I start writing for Rolling Stone, I hope I'm called a sell out. I'd wear that "insult" like a badge of honor.
Reader Comments (48)
Regarding your statement: “Well, judging from the post made about Nickelback and Daughtry it sure seemed evident to me that Joel is not hip to the true talent in this industry in 2009.”:
How hip are you to the true talent in the industry when you constantly put down Daughtry while heaping platitudes of praise on Adam Lambert – both products of American Idol, one of the biggest corporate manipulators by and for the music industry. You really think the fans control the outcome of that show? Can the irony of your statements be totally lost on you?
You keep talking about going back to 1985, ( a year, by the way, where Madonna, Wham, Dire Straights, Hall and Oates, and Duran Duran monopolized the charts and the airways), but you’re ignoring the fact that musical tastes are personal choices by individuals regardless of what the flavor of the week is. You keep trying to encourage “us” to get revenge on the labels for what they did to “us” in 1992. Nobody did anything to you, me, or anybody else as we all had the choice to listen to and like whatever we wanted. And that still applies today; that’s been said over and over and over again but it seems to be lost on you.
Look, the music scene changed in the early 90’s because metal had become oversaturated with bands that were cookie cutter versions of each other – it wasn’t the fans turning their backs on metal; it was the fans looking for something fresh and new and exciting for them at that moment in time. And you can’t blame the record companies for trying to sign every band in flannel that came down from Seattle any more than you can blame them for trying to sign every big haired band from LA or SF a couple years earlier.
Again – I was there. Were you? Here’s some shocking history: when I left T.Y.R. I joined a band that passed on a developmental deal with Geffen because they insisted that we write songs and copy the look of Danger Danger. When I was signed to Shrapnel Records we put together a band after a nationwide search for players that was modeled after Southgang. Hell, one of T.Y.R’s most popular songs, “Nice Girls”, was SPECIFICALLY written with the thought of “What would Davey Vain do?” (check it out on YouTube and tell me the intro to the solo doesn’t sound like something right out of a Jamie Scott solo, much less the hook of the chorus). Following a trend or jumping on a bandwagon? Nope; see I was part of the scene then and as such contributed to it.
Does that make me a sellout? Maybe it does because in the long run, almost 30 years later my songs got me a deal with Retrospect Records. And where does that put you? Your label has a couple hundred bands – many, many of them awesome bands – the vast majority of which could fit into a certain category or style of music. Seems to me that you’re doing much the same thing that the major labels today and yesterday did; You’re scooping up as many of the bands as you can that are in demand by a specific demographic and putting them out there wholesale. Yeah, you’re bringing music to the public that may never have seen even limited national exposure but you’re also pandering to a select population of the record buying public.
Sam, the concept of Retrospect Records – giving new life to music and bands from the heyday of glam/metal/whatever you want to call it - is awesome and I applaud your efforts. But before you alienate any more potential customers I’d suggest you step back a bit and realize that as head of a record label you have a responsibility to your artists at the very least to present yourself in a professional manner.
Lambert has a LOT more talent than Daughtry - that is VERY evident. Look at his past. I did.
And being a distributor for dozens of labels around the world I hear practically everything thats released so yeh I do know who the cream of the crop is. I don't just distribute Retrospect artists.
"You keep talking about going back to 1985, ( a year, by the way, where Madonna, Wham, Dire Straights, Hall and Oates, and Duran Duran monopolized the charts and the airways), but you’re ignoring the fact that musical tastes are personal choices by individuals regardless of what the flavor of the week is."
....helped along by Clearchannel and FM stations...
"You keep trying to encourage “us” to get revenge on the labels for what they did to “us” in 1992. Nobody did anything to you, me, or anybody else as we all had the choice to listen to and like whatever we wanted. And that still applies today; that’s been said over and over and over again but it seems to be lost on you."
And you're wrong. They fucked over a LOT of people and THEN made a mockery of what we did in the 80s. If you're ok with that Joel then fine. I'm not. I won't let them forget.
"Again – I was there. Were you?"
I was in England during that time so I saw it from a different perspective and was absolutely disgusted at how 'Hair Metal' was dismissed with the swipe of the hand. Well , I'm dismissing ClearChannel with the swipe of my hand and showing them that a label CAN exist that signs ONLY 80s bands.
"Does that make me a sellout?"
You are only a sellout if you accepted what they did to us and act like it never happened.
"Sam, the concept of Retrospect Records – giving new life to music and bands from the heyday of glam/metal/whatever you want to call it - is awesome and I applaud your efforts. But before you alienate any more potential customers I’d suggest you step back a bit and realize that as head of a record label you have a responsibility to your artists at the very least to present yourself in a professional manner. "
I'm a man with a mission and sometimes have to come across as harsh to prove my point. If that's deemed 'unprofessional' , then I'll have to take that risk.
Go ahead and just pick out the points you want to comment to, Sam. Obviously we're all just sheep that can't make informed choices for ourselves and we've forgotten just how badly ClearChannel, grunge, and all the record labels screwed us over in the early 90's. And obviously I have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about because I only lived through the era we're talking about and was actually on stages, in the clubs and recording studios creating the music and living the lifestyle while you were home in England, "gaining a different perspective on things". Good for you. What a fucking slap in the face.
You've insulted me, you've insulted total strangers, and you're justifying your unprofessionalism under the guise of having some divine mission. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.
Good to see it's stirred up a healthy dose of controversy and bickering
And YES Slash is a sell out
- Shows with Michael Jackson
- Shows with Fergie
- Shows and studio work with Vasco Rossi and Paulina Rubino
- countless interviews about how good he plays and how he stretches himself everytime in fact he is playing worse and worse and can't even come close to his playing when Axl was around
- making fun of himself in Guitar Hero making the "face" of the game with plastic guitar
- American Idol
If it is not selling out I don't know what is.