Selling out

"Sold Out" redirects here. For other uses, see Sold Out (disambiguation) or Selling Out (disambiguation).

Selling out refers to the compromising of one's integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, 'success' or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. A person who does this, as opposed to following the original path s/he laid (or claimed to lay) out for him/herself, is labeled a sellout and regarded with disgust and immediate loss of respect. Selling out is seen as gaining success at the cost of credibility. Every person, from the entertainment industry, to political revolutionaries, to a Bohemian who suddenly switches to a socially conservative lifestyle, could be a sellout.

In various political movements, such as the communist and anarchist movements, a "sellout" is someone or some group who pretends to adhere to a sincerely pro-working class ideology, only to follow these claims up with actions that directly contradict them and that may even go so far as to actually or implicitly support capitalism.

In regard to theater shows, musicals, concerts and other performances, a sell out show is simply a show so popular that all tickets are sold out, and is generally considered as a milestone in terms of success.

Sellout Examples in Entertainment

Music

The phrase is frequently heard in the musical community, where it is used to imply that an artist has compromised their artistic integrity in order to gain radio airplay or obtain a recording contract, especially with a major label, such as when Chumbawamba signed to EMI after years of viciously attacking the organisation. Often, the label will force a particular record producer on the performer, insist on the inclusion of songs by commercial songwriters, or the label may even refuse to release an album, deeming it uncommercial.

The classic example of an artist being accused of "selling out" by their fans was Bob Dylan's well-documented "electrification". Dylan outraged folk music purists by, in their view, selling out their favourite music for rock and roll when he first played an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. One fan's exasperated cry of "Judas!" is immortalised on the album The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. Most modern critics, however, view Dylan's move to electric as part of a creative progression, and his 1965 and 1966 albums Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde are viewed as some of his better albums. Dylan was not accused of selling out when he later went to Nashville to record country and western music.

Phil Collins has also been regarded by many as a sell-out. Although he is widely known for his large catalog of enormously successful, commercial pop & dance hits he began his musical career playing highly anti-commercial, intricate, progressive rock in early Genesis and Brand X.

Nirvana made repeated references to the act of selling out (including, clearly ironically, thanking their audiences for "pretending we're still punks"). One popular T-shirt produced by the band features the slogan "Flower Sniffin', Kitty Pettin', Baby Kissin' Corporate Rock Whores". Frontman Kurt Cobain also proposed the titles Verse Chorus Verse (in reference to the formulaic structure fans had come to expect of their songs) and Radio Friendly Unit Shifters as possible titles for the album that eventually became In Utero . Cobain further lampooned ideas of Nirvana's new commercial appeal by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine wearing a T-shirt reading "Corporate Magazines Still Suck"^[1]. The first Nirvana item to be released following Cobain's death was the perhaps sarcastically titled VHS tape "Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!".

The Who Sell Out is an album by The Who with mock endorsement advertisements on the cover. The album pretends to represent a radio station that plays nothing but Who music, including mock commercials and radio-station promotions. The Who became very prolific at selling their work by the end of the 1990s, including "Love Reign O'er Me" for 7-Up, "Bargain" for Nissan, "Overture" for Claritin, "Happy Jack" for Hummer, "Baba O'Riley" for Hewlett Packard, and "I Can See for Miles" for Sylvania Silverstar headlights. More recently, their songs have been used as themes for all three CSI series.

Selling out is a controversial topic within both hip hop music and hip hop culture, with two wholly opposite views on the matter. Traditional "underground" hip hop artists and fans decry "selling out", and heavily criticise artists who change their style just to reach the top. The hip-hop community also considers a performer to be a "sell-out" when they shun hip-hop's traditional African-American and Latino communities and appear to be pandering to a mainstream (usually white) audience. For example, Kurtis Blow was considered a sell-out in the 1980s, MC Hammer was accused as being a sell-out during the 1990s, and many rappers during the 2000s.

Mainstream hip-hop music, on the other hand, is stereotyped as embracing materialism and a "bling-bling" mentality. Such visual representations of wealth are seen as status symbols and things to be aspired to, as opposed to the attitude of traditional "hip hop heads" and punk or metal artists. Mainstream artists such as Master P and P Diddy have achieved vast personal fortunes and business empires, and often revel in their affluence in their music.

Hip-hop's lyrical content has changed very much as well. New hip-hop is now much more popular and the artists are wealthier. Today the lyrics in hip-hop seem to reference more the wealth and "high life" of the rappers, where as in older hip-hop the lyrical content was more about "the ghetto" and were anti-establishment. Long time hip-hop fans express dissatisfaction with this change.

Mainstream hip hop music's fixation on bling bling and other material and luxury goods has led to much criticism from media pundits, musical critics, and the non-mainstream hip-hop community. They charge that the phenomenon promotes consumerism and materialism, and strengthens racist arguments that young African American men are incapable of higher or more virtuous or spiritual goals than material gain.

Ska band Reel Big Fish also released a song titled "Sell Out", which deals with the idea of a local musician "selling out".

Tool released a track titled "Hooker with a penis" on their album Ænima dealing with lead singer Maynard James Keenan's encounter with a fan that accused the band of "selling out" to which Maynard pointed out that all bands "sell out" to get a record as they're willing to do whatever it takes.

Movies

The term selling out is used in a similar sense when discussing the movie industry, in particular its directors.

George Lucas has often received heavy criticism from Star Wars fans about selling out. On a more general level, Lucas has also been criticised for the mass-marketing of Star Wars merchandise such as toys, cartoons, lunchboxes, etc.

In Wayne's World, Wayne breaks down the fourth wall, mentioning he would never sell out, in this case, to make his public access television show more successful. To humorously contradict himself, as he talks, he displays a product, with the corporate logo highly visible.

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson began his career directing b-grade cult horror films such as Dead Alive, Bad Taste, and Meet the Feebles. Jackson's skill as a director, his over-the-top use of violence, and non-commercial yet highly ambitious plots filmed on tiny budgets earned him a prominent place in the cult horror community. His two films following Meet the Feebles strayed from his extreme style, but it wasn't until he signed onto the Lord of the Rings trilogy that accusations of selling out arose; outside the horror community improved critical reception rather than just monetary success accompanied these movies.

Kevin Smith achieved a cult following with his low budget independent film Clerks, but has subsequently been labelled a sellout on numerous occasions, particularly by people who saw the cheaply-made style of Clerks as a mark of artistic integrity, rather than a financial decision. The accusations began with his second film, Mallrats, in which he made many changes to the screenplay to appease studio executives. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert recalled, in his review of the movie, acting as chairman for a discussion panel of independent filmmakers at the Cannes film festival. One of the filmmakers was Smith, and whilst the other filmmakers discussed measures they could take to avoid excessive studio interference with their work, Smith said that he would do anything to get the movie greenlit. At the time Ebert thought he was joking, but in his opinion with Mallrats, Smith did just that.

For his part, Smith has taken to applying the phrase to himself with self-deprecating enthusiasm, for example, saying in an interview, "I've been saying I sold out for years. When Miramax bought the first movie (Clerks), that was a sellout. And you know, we followed up with Mallrats. We sell so much damn merchandise on our Web site that it's kind of become a joke that I like to make money." Smith has also mocked this by wearing shirts that jokingly say "SELL-OUT" and "INDIE" on them, as seen in making of footage for Clerks 2.

Comedy

Although rare, stand-up comedians face criticism of selling out. Comedians who start out in comedy clubs might often use foul language and blue humor in their routines. A comic who alters his routine by "sugar-coating" his language and using less-offensive material to obtain mainstream success may be accused of selling out. Some might also argue that comedians who decide to enter the film industry with comedy movies are selling out, depending on the quality and content of their movies.

George Carlin has been accused of being a sell-out for appearing in television commercials for MCI's 10-10-220.[2][3][4] Carlin had previously spoke of his dislike for MCI's commercials in his album Back in Town. In his album You Are All Diseased, which contains rants against advertising and business, Carlin admits the dichotomy but makes no attempt to explain himself stating "You're just gonna have to figure that shit out for yourself." In interviews, Carlin revealed he appeared in the ads to help pay off a large tax debt to the IRS.[5][6]

In the dawn of Dave Chappelle's highly anticipated third season of Chappelle's Show and approached with a huge salary, Dave Chappelle fled his show, leading many to believe that he feared the moniker of being a "sell out". Sketches from his third season, confirmed this suspicion, when he portrayed himself in this position, showing how money had changed him.

Dane Cook, whose success largely attributed to word of mouth popularity, suddenly rose from obscurity to mega-stardom in the mid 00's, taking on and starring-in many movie projects, many of them mediocre. In 2007, he starred in, what many consider to be an overplayed commercial, commercials for MLB Actober. Some of his fanbase has since abandoned him, weary of his seemingly real comic persona being reproduced and scripted as an actor.

Criticism of the term

An artist may also be accused of selling out after changes in artistic direction. This conclusion is often due to the perception that the reason that artist changed artistic style or direction was simply due to potential material gain. This ignores other causes of natural artistic development, which may lead an artist in new directions from those that attracted their original fans. Artists' improvements in musical skill or taste may also account for the change.

Other times, artists resent the term on the grounds that the perceived desire for material gain is simply a result of the band seeking to expand its message. For example, when questioned about signing to a major label, Rage Against the Machine answered "We're not interested in preaching to just the converted. It's great to play abandoned squats run by anarchists, but it's also great to be able to reach people with a revolutionary message, people from Granada Hills to Stuttgart."[7]

Other bands (including those without politically-oriented messages) may also reject the term on the basis that not going mainstream or signing to a bigger label to prevent "selling out" limits a band's choice to address desire from wider audiences (regardless of whether there is any real artistic change) or arbitrarily hampers the artists' natural course of mainstream success with the assumption that mainstream success is necessarily opposite the artist's intentions. When confronted with the accusation of selling out in 2001, Mike Dirnt of Green Day claimed,

"If there's a formula to selling out, I think every band in the world would be doing it," he said. "The fact that you write good songs and you sell too many of them, if everybody in the world knew how to do that they'd do it. It's not something we chose to do.

"The fact was we got to a point that we were so big that tons of people were showing up at punk-rock clubs, and some clubs were even getting shut down because too many were showing up. We had to make a decision: either break up or remove ourselves from that element. And I'll be damned if I was going to flip fucking burgers. I do what I do best. Selling out is compromising your musical intention and I don't even know how to do that."[8]

External links

• The Art of Selling Out: Compromising the Music
• The Balancing Act Between Art and Commerce (article about musicians "Selling Out")
• 'Selling Out': The New Radicals and Natasha Bedingfield (article explaining why 'selling out' is so confusing)
• Paul McCartney? Is That You?: What he's doing in that Fidelity ad. (commentary)
• Tangled Up in Boobs: What's Bob Dylan doing in a Victoria's Secret ad? (commentary)
• The Problem With Music Legendary "producer," Steve Albini's take on "going major."

See also

• Commercialism
• Jumping the shark
• Recuperation (sociology)
• Rockism