Sell out is a word, which these days is dished out with a velocity more than that of hungry cheetah pursuing it’s prey. But who is really a sell-out? Is there any clear-cut definition of such a person by which he can be distinguished from his non-adhering counterparts? Most obvious to me, a sell-out would be a person who does not hesitate to change his musical direction for the sole purpose of making more greens. Nevertheless, that would be just stating the tacit wouldn’t it.
For a while now I have associated sell-outs with bands like Metallica who let it slip away just for just a larger roll. They didn’t care about their tradition, fans or their legacy. For me they were the prime example of the term. I mean I could imagine opening up a dictionary and finding a grinning Lars Ulrich picture under ‘sell-out’. But than I would meet the odd musically challenged clown who yapping about how Metallica have actually grown as a band the 90’s onwards and how the have become mature musicians. What a load of crap. Even, a peace-loving person like me cannot restrain from feeling the urge to smack some sense into these fools. But alas! we live in a world of fools. Just to get the record straight I heard their 90’s onwards albums a zillion times to test them out, and I didn’t find any musical growth. What I found was the sulking faces of millions of metal heads world over questioning whether the band was ever in it for the music. In short, sell-outs.
Speaking to many people connected with the underground scene about this there seems to be a real mixed conception of the term. The other day speaking to a young, relentlessly passionate musician I happened to mention to him about a Vayu gig I recently went for, telling him how I felt there were brilliant musicians. Just than he almost scorned at me asking me what good was this world of talent when it was all being pissed down the drain along with Mumbai’s rain. At first his sudden outburst startled me and I assumed, his fiery youthfulness and rebellious nature was driving him to an insensible argument. However, hearing him go on for a while it all started to make sense to me. He mockingly shouted out that he would rather be an average original artist than be an excellent cover artist, being a musician making a living of an imitation. Recreating another’s work for the rest of his life. I honestly never looked upon Vayu as a sell-out band. But, this teenage hippie was making me think otherwise with his sharp lashes against the band. So were they sell-outs?
Hearing the word muttered out sooner or later from almost everyone, whether a novice to the world of music or an wearing veteran I sometimes get the feeling most don’t understand the real context of the word and just fling out the word as an attempt to keep with the trend. Most overlook the principal of the term. For centuries, artist and musicians in particular have been considered to be above worldly pressures and being able to look beyond the outer surface, beyond the horizon. Their visions not limited like the myopic shortcomings of the layman. There were the century old torchbearers of the anti sell-out tag. Well as the times have changed so has the true definition of the sell-out tag become more and more blur. It has soon become a favorite curse against a band who doesn’t fit one’s musical likings rather than being used in the true sense of the word. I think it’s going to be a long while before it goes out of fashion whatever the context its used in.
Sell Out; to betray one’s cause or colleagues.
Comments
10 comments. Add your own comment below.
Rahul
Jul 21st, 2008 at 12:45 pm | #
Nice article !!!
Well .. i dont know abt the Vayu part … my definition of a sellout in our scene would be changing ones music completely for money … something like Vishal Dadhlani ….
Well … i dont think Vayu has had any drastic genre change !!!
Metalchick
Jul 21st, 2008 at 6:19 pm | #
Yup i would say the same about vayu, but it would be great to hear a vayu orginal thats as good as one of their covers..
Gaurav
Jul 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm | #
@Rahul - I don’t think you would be right to classify Vishal Dadlani as a “Sell Out”! Pentagram’s latest album has been among the very few good ones that have been released recently in India. And he plays and pays as much importance to Pentagram as he does to Vishal+Shekhar.
Also, if there was enough money to be made playing music (even as mainstream as Pentagram is) in India, do you really think musicians in India would be holding alternate jobs and not doing it full time? They are not doing it because they love working extra!
Going by that, would you classify a regular rock musician who is a software engineer or work in a call centre or do any other job as a “sellout” because he is not true to his music and is selling out for money?
Rahul
Jul 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm | #
@Gaurav - I dont know about the Vishal part. One moment the guy is into metal the next moment he does electronica then he takes a u turn for Bollywood! That doesnt sparkle with me man!
Fans want loyalty by artists towards their music!
A regular rock musician who is a software engineer or works in a call centre or does any other job isnt a “sellout” man! In fact those are the more dedicated kinds of artists! Fans appreciate artists who would do anything to his/her music alive! Do you think these artists enjoy working at these places? Its just a source of income to support him/herself! The music scene (barring bollywood) is good but it isnt great! Its impossible to make music without a job! Ask any metal artist, I bet he would give me a ‘hell yeah’.
Gaurav
Jul 22nd, 2008 at 9:22 pm | #
@Rahul - Well … If a musician decides to play one genre of music on one day and then another genre on another day, isn’t it his choice? So Vishal and Pentagram decide to play electronica because thats the genre they liked, whats wrong with that?
And why is it a U-turn for Bollywood? its something he wanted to do .. its *extremely* good money and it lets him compose and express himself creatively! coming up with popular mainstream music isn’t really as easy as it looks and I see nothing wrong with someone playing one genre of music over another.
How does he become a sell-out for doing what he likes doing? He has made enough of a name for himself in all genres of music he has done! that speaks quite a lot about the guy!
Rahul
Jul 22nd, 2008 at 9:43 pm | #
Well … thats your view.
I feel its better to own your genre. No doubt variety is good. Look at what Opeth and Testament have done. They have massive variety without changing their genre. Thats what fans like!
Vishal does what he likes, thats fine. But seriously, as an artist you got to have an inclination towards one field. He has done many genres but has he ruled any?
Vijay
Jul 26th, 2008 at 1:42 am | #
1) Pentagram along with Parikrama do the maximum no of shows and are the highest paid band, get largest audiences in the country.
2) Vishal-Shekhar are among the top 3 most succesfull music directors, critically and commercially - in Bollywood.
Thats close quite close to ruling I’d say.
Selling out is nothing to be defined. Its just someone’s opinion, which will always differ from person to person. Quite a pointless debate, that.
Lillydrums
Jul 26th, 2008 at 7:53 pm | #
Well to say an artist is a sell out simply because they do covers is a very stupid, historically limited and parochial point of view. Jazz, Blues and classical music are entirely based on people performing OTHER people’s music, witht he rare original coming by every now and then. The whole concept of artists performing only their own music and being compelled to come out with original recordings began only during the golden age of recorded music - i.e. 50’s onwards.Music primarily was - and honestly, still is - a live performing art. It doesn’t matter whose music you play. it’s HOW you play it. Would you call Miles Davis a sell out because he performed Louis Armstrong or even Michael Jackson? No. Because everytime he performed live, he added something new, something different to the music. Bands like the Who used to cover old and obscure blues and jazz classics, making for thundering performances and infact arousing interest in old and forgotten artists. Some people like to play what they want to. You can’t call them sell ours for that.
Luke I'm your Father
Jul 28th, 2008 at 1:26 am | #
Hey Lilydrums!!! I would like to add that sell-outs is a very objective term… what could be sell out to you, neednt neccesarily mean sell-out to me…. though for me a sell out is one who compromises on his tastes and preferences to make that extra buck or to become more popular…. if you ask any true blooded musician what they really want to do, they definately wouldn’t wanna compose covers… i mean imagine getting paid paying someone else’s music…. i mean if you change the covers around a bit then you can understand, but look at these poser bands that play at hrc/firangi paani …. they play the sng the way it is…. now where is the creativity if i may ask so????
Trust me, no musician ever thinks covering Lynard Skynnard is their benchmark and it should not be too that is why it is depressing to see the likes of Vayu who have so much talent to be playing a primarily cover set list!!!! They’ve been around for ever…. have 20 years of experience under their belt but all they(and any other cover band for that matter) have done is cover the same stuff over and over again!!!! People can argue that they find it fun and its hard to play some of their covers but i’m sorry , its way harder and more challenging to compose a good catchy riff , let alone a good catchy whole song…..
Why is our Rock scene so dull???I also blame some of the poser fans out there who’d rather listen to covers…. if i wanna hear covers , i’d much rather put on my ipod and listen to the originals….. believe me, if you’re a hardcore musician and have been around for awhile , you can cover any frikin song in the world if you want to so what are bands going to be judged on then??? how efectively they cover the song…. i’m sorry but thats just not music and just not creative enough… thats taking the easy way out!!! hence i’d label them sell-outs!!!
Howard
Nov 14th, 2008 at 4:33 pm | #
Sell outs exist… lets look at these examples…
Vayu… Are u kidding me… its not like they were a band that used to do originals and stopped cos they werent getting gigs. They have just always enjoyed and played sets of cover music. So they aren’t sell outs. You can call them unoriginal maybe…
Lillydrums point about covers…. (applause) I think ur spot on. Covers by artists with their own interpretation of the song… or picking up obscure songs and introducing them to people. I also think u probably live abroad. The Indian scene of covering bands is on its way out… and what ur talking about shouldnt be injected into our scene for another 10 yrs. Let people see our own music first before we show them our adaptations.
Question… If a guys claims to love your music, and you know for a FACT that he isnt gonna buy ur album (bearshare,kazzaa.,whatever…) AND he’s gonna think 20 times before he pays money to watch you play live… How do musicians survive? And would you call it selling out… or cashing in… If a band used some other way to pay for his album recording et all, besides using his own saved up change….?