"Selling Out" Claims Are Out of Bounds

As a music fan, I'm heard the phrase "selling out" more times than I can count. For many music geeks, whenever their favorite underground/indie artist decides to sign to a major label, tops the Billboard 200 (as Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank did this year), lends their song to a car commercial or *gasps* releases an album at Starbucks (which Sonic Youth will be doing when their Hits Are for Squares comp is released later this year), it's essentially a sign of the apocalypse. In their minds, they are throwing their credibility out the window to join forces with the Dark Side. And I can never understand why.

Seriously, why must people hate and even loathe a band once they leave the underground and enter the mainstream? It's like they honestly think that, once a band hits the big time, they suddenly make music to fill their wallets, sell their souls to the corporate world and appeal to the masses, rather than for the art of music itself. But isn't the point of making music to make something that is relevant, appealing, and connects with people? And isn't that exactly what most "mainstream" bands have done? True, there are bands and artists out there who do make music just so people will buy their records and line their pockets (*cough* Fall Out Boy *cough*), but a great deal of bands out there are like Radiohead, Pearl Jam, The White Stripes, etc; they make the kind of music they want to make without compromising their musical integrity and vision, and it just so happens that their music connects with a lot of people and sells a lot of records as a result.

Last year I self-released an album with my band, Lifeless Riot, and one of these days (when time allows it), I'd love to start a promotional push and get my songs noticed by the music community. Will I try to get my music played on local radio stations and noticed by labels and A&R people in order for this to happen? Of course, because I want my music to be heard and have it connect to people, just like my favorite artists' music (like Neil Young, Pearl Jam, The Beatles) has connected with me. And in order to do that, bands have to get radio play, conduct interviews and appear on television shows in order to get exposure and get their music heard. It's a necessary evil. Now if a band continues to do the same old song and dance in order to guarantee that they will continue to sell records, or their intentionally experiment because they feel as if they have to by the press, then that's another matter. Otherwise most bands just want to make the kind of music that they want to make, and hopefully others out there will connect with it. I know I don't want to play dive-bars and clubs, sell 500 copies of an album and barely afford to eat and keep a roof over my head just to establish indie cred and develop some rabid cult following, and I'm sure that's the case with most artists, as well.

And really, trying to appease these music nerds and the music press is a lose-lose situation that isn't even worst dealing with. From what I've observed, if a band or artists makes a string of albums that sound anything alike (whether the quality is consistent or not), then these people will accuse them of repeating themselves, treading water stylistically, and running out of ideas or anything new to say. But then if an artist decides to experiment with their music, and their efforts fail in the eyes of these beholders, then they will lambaste them, claiming that they've fallen victim to self-indulgence and pretension, and that it pails in comparison to their best work (i.e. the album(s) that got them famous in the first place). Believe me, for every "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "Kid A," there's thousands of 'Metal Machine Music"s and "Music for the Elder"s. So it's best that artists just forget about pleasing anybody and just make their own music, and hope that someone out there will hear it.

And really, that's all that fans are; the people that hear the music. Artists, for the most part, don't use music like bait to intentionally find a fan base; fans are people who are attracted to the music that they hear. If an artist develops a following of people that latch onto their music and can connect with it, then that's great. But they don't owe you anything. They don't have to stay on an indie label, remain under the radar, or avoid the charts like the plague in order to keep people happy. In the end, it’s their music, and as long as they have good intentions, then no one can tell them what to do.

— Jason Shoff