Money vs. Music - would you "sell-out"?

[MetalManCPA]

OK - I've seen plenty of comments about how bands have sold-out, so I put this question to you:

If you have (or pretend to have) a band, and you were struggling playing the tiny venues, and practically went broke putting out that 1st CD which sold a few thousand copies, and a promoter got you and said:
OK, if we do this and that, change the look a little, and the sound needs a little tweeking, but you'll make it, what would you do?

The assumption here is that, if you make these changes, you actually will make a lot of money, but it now would be your "sound" tainted by the opinion of others, would you "sell-out"? Also, this is your life, not a hobby.

My answer: it's my profession, and it's about music and money. I would need food on the table. I think I would follow, of course attempting to interject as much as I can, reminding these people that it is my music.

 

[warsofwinter]

I would seriously have to think about , I meen some deep thoughts , I would follow it , and listen to the final copy of the album , If I liked it I would continue if not , then I would go back to were we started .

Your own music is never about other's opinion's , it's about yours , nobody can tell you what when and where to write , it's your style and what comes out of it , is you .

 

[Heliologue]

yeah, it really depends on what your promoter wants you to do.

if he wants a few small changes ("let's use some clean vocals in a few spots" or "let's tone down [insert your schtick here] a bit"), it's one thing. if he's asking you to cut out the guitar sound entirely and start doing burger king commercials, it's another thing altogether!

i would "sell-out" to a certain extent, on the theory that if i get rich enough, i could start doing what i wanted to do, musically.

 

[Russell]

Yeah, thats the way I think about it. I wouldn't sell out completely, just enought to get me some money, so the next album I could do wha I wanted, not what the public wanted

 

[Lina]

and then your fans would get mad for changing your sound.

 

[Soul Forlorn]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with Saturnix on this one. It would depend on to what extent I would have to change my music and/or image. If I were asked to sellout in the way Metallica did I'd say hell no. There's no way I could completely change my writing style anyway. I am what I am and can be no other. A few changes would be manageable but it would still have to be me.

 

[_Transparent_]

well its all about the circumstances, if you want to change then is it your music still? just because someone else said you need to change does it make a difference. it all depends on if your happy with what you've done music wise. if not then maybe youhave sold out, but then does it matter if you dont care?

 

[Russell]

Originally posted by Lina
and then your fans would get mad for changing your sound.

And I'd do the classsic rock star thing of telling them to go fuck themselves!

 

[Kabab_k]

I think if I'd really need the money I'll become a sell out. but at the same time keep my truth with a side project or something, which eventually after my corrent success will fall became my only main stuff. anyway, no money could make me to want all this mtv losers relate with my true feeling and thoughts.

 

[yourdeadgroom]

How about, changing your sound so you sell, but having a side project of the stuff you 'really' like?

What I'd like to do is go commercial, then follow that up with something brutal, weather it's stripped-down black metal, or really oppressive doom, just to throw everyone a major curve-ball

 

[Liquid Tension]

I would sell out after 4 or 5 full lenght discs and little cash to show for it. I'm sure that I'm one of the few who hope that Opeth makes a disc with only "clean" vocals being used. I have so many friends who would listen to it and who knows maybe they would give their earlier discs more of a chance.

Enjoy the moment......

 

[HoserHellspawn]

I don't think I actually could do it (well, this statement is moot in that I LITERALLY couldn't do it if I tried as my musical skills are rather minimalistic) - BUT! Artistically, I don't think I could do it. I've noticed this about myself in other artistic genres, if I'm not doing whatever it is that appeals to me artisically, I lose interest in whatever it is pretty quickly. I suppose I could if I had a seperate project, i.e. one that I make music for MY WAY that I actually really enjoy, and one I do kinda as a chore to make money with.

In this regard, I suppose I agree with yourdeadgroom. AND! Following his pretty much exact line of thought, here's an excerpt from my ramblings, which I wrote back in April:

"My Album

One day, I will record an album. I'll co-write the first track on the record with this guy named Max Martin - you've probably never heard of him, but he's the guy who writes all the big songs for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. So! This song will be the first track, and the name of the record, and the first single... you know, it'll be a poppy love song of some kind. I'll be on the cover and exterior art of the record with some (comparably subtle) scantly-clad women, while trying to look all cool with shades, slicked-back hair, and cheesy pseudo-homie/boy band-esque attire. The single will of course have an MTV video which will support this image, with dancers, fireworks, obnoxious American overproduction, etc. THEN! All of the other songs on the record will range from Satanic Black Metal, to highly weird dissonant ambient noise, to me saying "Guidance Mutton" over and over again into my computer's microphone with some cheesy Sound Forge-induced effects, all mixed up with really surreal anti-popular messages and dark inner album/liner notes art, which will probably make several unpopular social/theological comments, with scathing satire directed at popular music, entertainment, and political figures. Come to think of it, the liner notes may contain large chunks of my ramblings, as may some of the songs... yeah... that's a good idea... ANYWAYS! The single will come out first, and I'll make public appearances looking like a very nice, normal, all-american god-fearing boy. Who knows, I might even be able to, with a convincing enough acting and costuming job, come off as some low-rent teen idol. Then, when the album is released and all of the little pre-teenage girls and boys go and buy it and take it home and the first track ends and the second begins and Black Metal starts spewing forth from speakers all across North America, parents groups will start banning the record and setting up protests... it'll be so sweet. IN FACT! The first track will also be set down about 10 db's or so on the record, so everyone will have to turn their speakers up to compensate, then the second track will come in at really high volume... maybe I can blow apart some pretentious rich boys' pathetically overdone small-penis-compensating massively bass-heavy car stereo systems that way... heheheh... excellent. It'll sell right out on the first weekend then fall quickly into angry obscurity... but, after the proverbial dung hits the proverbial wind-moving set of rotating dull plastic blades, those few who understand what I'm trying to accomplish (probably mostly Ulver and young FZ fans) will love it, at least ideologically. Then, my second album would be a serious one... and really (as best as I am able) hopefully quite good, so reviewers will have to, against their collective wills, give it a good review."

Mwuahahahahaha!

 

[Kabab_k]

Originally posted by HoserHellspawn
here's an excerpt from my ramblings, which I wrote back in April:

"My Album

One day, I will record an album. I'll co-write the first track on the record with this guy named Max Martin - you've probably never heard of him, but he's the guy who writes all the big songs for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. So! This song will be the first track, and the name of the record, and the first single... you know, it'll be a poppy love song of some kind. I'll be on the cover and exterior art of the record with some (comparably subtle) scantly-clad women, while trying to look all cool with shades, slicked-back hair, and cheesy pseudo-homie/boy band-esque attire. The single will of course have an MTV video which will support this image, with dancers, fireworks, obnoxious American overproduction, etc. THEN! All of the other songs on the record will range from Satanic Black Metal, to highly weird dissonant ambient noise, to me saying "Guidance Mutton" over and over again into my computer's microphone with some cheesy Sound Forge-induced effects, all mixed up with really surreal anti-popular messages and dark inner album/liner notes art, which will probably make several unpopular social/theological comments, with scathing satire directed at popular music, entertainment, and political figures. Come to think of it, the liner notes may contain large chunks of my ramblings, as may some of the songs... yeah... that's a good idea... ANYWAYS! The single will come out first, and I'll make public appearances looking like a very nice, normal, all-american god-fearing boy. Who knows, I might even be able to, with a convincing enough acting and costuming job, come off as some low-rent teen idol. Then, when the album is released and all of the little pre-teenage girls and boys go and buy it and take it home and the first track ends and the second begins and Black Metal starts spewing forth from speakers all across North America, parents groups will start banning the record and setting up protests... it'll be so sweet. IN FACT! The first track will also be set down about 10 db's or so on the record, so everyone will have to turn their speakers up to compensate, then the second track will come in at really high volume... maybe I can blow apart some pretentious rich boys' pathetically overdone small-penis-compensating massively bass-heavy car stereo systems that way... heheheh... excellent. It'll sell right out on the first weekend then fall quickly into angry obscurity... but, after the proverbial dung hits the proverbial wind-moving set of rotating dull plastic blades, those few who understand what I'm trying to accomplish (probably mostly Ulver and young FZ fans) will love it, at least ideologically. Then, my second album would be a serious one... and really (as best as I am able) hopefully quite good, so reviewers will have to, against their collective wills, give it a good review."

Mwuahahahahaha!

FUCKING BRILLIANT !

 

[D Mullholand]

I have no intention to earn money with my music. Why sell out ? Music means too much for me. I played in a band for more than a year and left them because they were becoming intentionally trendy.

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NP: Septic Flesh - Ophidian Wheel