Poll: If You Were In A Band, Would You Sell-Out?
 

Let's say you were in an underground band that's being courted by a big corporate label. If you signed with them you'll be promised fame, fortune, and a fleet of supermodels. Instead of playing hole-in-the-wall clubs, you'll be playing stadiums. All you have to do is change your sound to more commercial viable pop music. Sign away your artistic integrity and all this could be yours..

would you sign?

Hell yes

Then I'll release all my proper stuff on some obscure label under an alias.

I might ''sell out'', but I would be an absolute bitch to my record company. It wouldn't be such a compromise for me considering I like a lot of commercially successful pop.

I was going to say precisely this. With new found fortunes I'd be free to finance my own creative explorations without interference after a couple of years banging out commercial ****.

I've never tried drugs or any shit like that, but I've always wanted to be rich. So yeah, sell out - why not.

However I'd realise that money and fame is overrated and take heroin and then shoot my brains out. *I SO wouldn't copy someone.. :shycouch:*

I don't actually think there's an exact formula to selling out.. just a bit of luck for the most part, maybe changing your style so it's a little bit more 'middle of the road'. Make sure your singles are just that, singles.

I'd do it. I'd throw down enough albums to live comfortably for the rest of my life, and use whatever surplus I have to start a record store/company. And that's it. I wouldn't dabble in my own fashion line, I wouldn't start advertising hot dogs. I'd basically retire. And if I felt like putting things out with substance again, I've got my own damn record company to do it. :P

but do you honestly think anybody would take you seriously as an artist if you and your band had been pumping out generic guitar pop for years?

So what's the quickest ways of selling out...

Record a single for exclusive use in an ad campaign.
Release your album in about 10 different formats with different *bonus* songs.
Record an R&B album in a bid to show how eclectic you are.
Record a single with a really catchy chorus & just repeat that 100 times during the song.
Release 7 singles from your album.
Have a tour sponsored by Coke.
Appear on kids TV shows.
Make comments such as 'We felt our music should be accessible to anybody, and if people don't like it that's up to them'
Totally ignore your entire discography at live shows other than the one that sold a lot.

Well I wouldn't be asking of anything from the public. Personally, if Chad Kroeger broke up Nickelback and put out OK Computer I would take his music seriously (as a person he'll always be a world class twat, though). Or, like Urban said, release it under a pseudonym

That's what you do AFTER you sell out

That could be the response to a music critic on the release of the album :p:

well sorta but only if it was something i would agree with for example i WOULD NOT want any of my songs in an army recuitment commercial, but if NOH8 asked me i'd say ok

...is exactly what I was gonna say.

I'd just get under the skin of the industry with a few hits before using the money and backing of the label to just do whatever the hell I wanted in the studio, like Talk Talk and FSOL did for example.

After the recording of their shit mainstream album that denies/ignores their roots, they've already sold their soul to the devil.. that statement tries to justify the selling of their soul. Great statement, you just know what it means immediately.

This.

If I were a famous musician, I'd probably be a gigantic twat and only lend my songs to nonprofits or organizations I agree with ethically.

People can have duel careers.

Personally I can't stand the Foo Fighters because they're the epitome of bland & commercial.

Yet I'll happily listen to anything Dave Grohl does outside of that band because I rate his talent.

I kinds of agree. I like a couple Foo Fighters songs but I'm not really a fan overall. Probot was fucking amazing though, and his drumming for Killing Joke and Queens of the Stone Age was fantastic.

if the intent of my band was to keep playing gigs for dollars you're damned straight we'd sign that contract, then we'd bend over and assume the goatse pose.

I am in a band, but the goal of our band is not to earn a living. All of us already have careers and jobs that we foresee ourselves continuing into the future. We rarely play gigs for dollars, we play a lot of free gigs or gigs that get us enough money to buy a beer in dingy little quirky places around the city. We play for fun pretty much, not for money or a career. So I'm not really sure what we'd do if that situation arose, or how that situation could even arise given our attitude.

That being said, I picked Yeah I would..but i'd probably get depressed and start a drug habit, because the kind of **** I just rattled off is probably something said by a lot of amateur/independent bands before they sell out to the man.

Forgive me for derailing the thread slightly, but did FSOL do this? I've only heard one of their albums, which was excellent but not commercial in any way. What were they like to begin with?

This. Probably wouldn't need to be famous to have a drug habit though :laughing:

Well, commercial by acid house standards anyway. Stakker Humanoid and Papua New Guinea were both their early hits. They weren't exactly the Basshunter of the late 80s/early 90s or anything, but both those tunes got them the attention and backing they needed to push on in new directions with a decent amount of exposure.

i gotta say i really don't like the way the 'No' option is laid out. it still revolves around the idea of playing music as a vehicle to commercial success and financial independence - after all what else does 'making it' imply?

my 'band' was basically a weekly therapy session where my friends and i managed to overcome our demons or at least establish a modicum of control over them. i can say with absolute certainty that if any A&R person would have approached us two of us would have honestly laughed in their face at the idea of being paid to scrape the poop from our souls and being very clear that it is exactly what they would be getting for their money.

2 & 4 and 1 & 3 are the same options.

Is that you, Beyoncé?

I guess I'd probably go with no, but I don't really like the reasons given...

I make music because it's an outlet for me. And I don't mean writing deep and meaningful poetic songs to a beautiful piano melody. I mean getting together with a couple of friends, having some beers and bashing the shit out of my piano for a couple of hours. Yeah, we write our own stuff, but it's not likely to be heard by anyone other than whoever is walking past our house at the time.

With gigs, as much as I like doing them it's not something I'd carve a career out of. I went through a phase a few years ago where doing gigs was my sole source of income and it was horrible. I wasn't enjoying them anymore because I HAD to do them, not cos I wanted to. Now me, my brother and a mate just organise a gig when we can be arsed, make little or no money from them and we're pretty happy with that.

I'd probably start off shunning the idea of selling-out, but then eventually when I got big enough I would. Round myself up some cash, become hated by every last of my once-respecting fans and buy myself a nice island in the south of Spain. Ooh, life shall be good.

I will never, ever make a perfume though. That defines selling-out for me. And while I wont have a scent to my name, I will still have a little self-respect.

I voted for the one that said hookers.
Because it said hookers.
Yea, the options are kind of asinine.

You have fun with your hookers then :laughing:

Hookers are awesome.
I'm all for supporting a working girl.

Thats a nice way to put it Dali. You're all heart... :D

Yea I totally do it for them...

Hence the sarcastic dots, or whatever theyre called.

I think those are called "after the fact dots".
;)

The fact being that you're all heart? :laughing:

The fact that you edited your post after you read mine. ;)

<-- Mod

I did that because you didnt quite get the desired sarcastic effect, so I had to edit it and put dots there so I wouldnt have to explain I was being sarcastic and look like a prat! See, theres a lot of thought going into those three damn dots :)

Ah, is that why you have blue writing?

I see. I was just giving you a hard time, btw. :)

And yes, anyone with a blue name is a moderator.

Sell out is a stupid word. Any artist who is willing to sell their work as a product, weither it's a big label or a small one, is selling out so to speak, as in compromising their personal expression for profit gains, EVERY recording artist that has ever existed has done this the day they got a contract, no matter the kind of label. And if you are gonna sell your music for profit you might as well make a damn good profit.

What reason is there not to join a big label these days?

Record companies are more liberal than they used to be and they dont really try to compromise your sound and creativity anymore (unless you are one of those crappy radio rock bands that only care about money to begin with), you have more technology at your disposal so you can do things that you'd have extreme difficulty doing on a small sh*tty label and oh yeah, your music would reach more people than just pretentious hipster kids who care more about the idea of being on a small label than making quality music.

Sometimes "selling out" has another meaning and an even dumber one, and that's making more accessible music. I don't want ANYONE to tell me I should be restricted to doing a certain kind of thing for the rest of my career, I wouldn't tolerate it even from fans. If my band decided one day to make a pure pop record, not because we wanted more money but because god forbid we actually like pop music, then that's something we would do.

Besides, what artist wouldn't want to make enough money so they can start their OWN label and be their own boss?

Same here, I wouldn't be comfortable with it under any circumstances though, commercials always ruin songs for me because I hate commercials.

I thought The Colour and the Shape was a fantastic album but I agree overall, they got really bland and boring after that and I can't stand to hear Learn to Fly or Times Like These on the radio anymore.