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Writing a paper for school and I figured I'd just get stupid flamewars in the music section, so what better place to ask than here?

The topic has to be something that is of major impact in modern music, and I figured the whole "selling out" thing has a large impact on most teens and I need opinions on this matter. If any of you don't know what it means, it involves changing your music style entirely just to get more fans and therefore more money. A lot of bands do it, but most of them do it very sneakily and aren't as often called on it as they used to be.

As an example, before their "American Idiot" album, everyone thought Green Day had sold out. They seem to have redeemed theirselves after this album, which is cool, and they ended up gaining even MORE fans that way. A very nice job, Green Day. Another band that is currently supposedly selling out is Fallout Boy, they had a very normal-paced music style and now they're making some slightly faster music, but they claim it's just what they want to do. They are currently releasing both medium and fast paced songs on their albums, and this has caused them to lose quite a few fans... But as long as they're doing what they want, I suppose it's okay. On the other hand, you can never tell if they're being truthful in the music business.

I'm basing this essay around TOOL's song "Hooker with a p***s" which has a very misleading title. xD Here are some of the lyrics:


I met a boy wearing Vans, 501s, and a
Dope Beastie t, n****e rings, and
New tattoos that claimed that he
Was OGT,
Back in '92,
From the first EP

And in between
Sips of Coke
He told me that
He thought
We were sellin' out,
Layin' down,
Suckin' up
To the man

Well now I've got some
Advice for you, little buddy
Before you point the finger
You should know that
I'm the man,

And if I'm the man,
Then you're the man, and
He's the man as well so you can
Point that ********' finger up your a**

All you know about me is what I've sold you,
Dumb ******** sold out long before you ever even heard my name


I think in some ways this song is true, some musicians do a LOT of very bad things including backstabbing and bribing to get into the music biz, so in a way they do sell themself out just to get an album sold.

DISCUSS?

The title seems misleading, but it's actually still appropriate if you think about it. xp
Artists are too worried about getting signed and selling records, they often forget about the music.

That begs the question, who's the artist's employer?
Is it the fans or is it the music?
Financially, one would say that it's the people who buy your records that you have to try to please.
But artistically, one would say that one must be true to one's art.

In the end, I rarely care about selling out or whatever.
I listen to what I like. Period.
But then I'm no teenager. xp

An artist won't last releasing the same thing over and over again.
There's only so many times the same formula will work.