Selling Out

I recently saw a clip on YouTube of The Black Keys talking about the idea of “selling out” in an interview with the CBC, which brought up some interesting points. Almost every artist, at one point or another, has been accused of selling out or becoming sellouts. Even The Beatles were accused of this when they switched drummers and changed their leather jackets for matching suits.

So what is selling out?

When you see a local band start to blow up, there’s a kind of ownership that their fans, who had been there essentially since day one, feel towards them. They had catered to those fans, and probably interacted with them on a personal basis. Perhaps they were spotted by an A&R person and then signed to a label, which meant that they probably have a team that started casting a wider net in order to gain a larger following. It goes without saying that some of their earlier fans would feel like they had been cast aside, and perhaps even betrayed as this band starts making moves to more mainstream success.

These kinds of relationships may seem real to fans, but they’re not. These one-sided relationships, called parasocial relationships, are most common with celebrities, where fans will feel as if they know their idols personally, while the recipients of their fandom are completely unaware of the other’s existence.

In a way, I understand fans’ anger and sense of loss as they see yet another well-kept secret going corporate and becoming lapdogs of The Man. But these artists are not selling out by signing for a major label. And they’re not selling out by licensing their music for use in commercials, TV shows, or movies.

This interview with The Black Keys brought up the inherent hypocrisy of fans and critics calling them sellouts for having their music used in commercials, while actors, athletes, models, and personalities are given carte blanche to promote a wide array of products. In the music world, how many rappers have clothing lines, investments, and endorsement deals? So why is it okay for those people be allowed to do this, but not bands like The Black Keys?

It’s one thing if an artist endorses a product that represents something they’ve always been against. If, for argument’s sake, Pearl Jam, a band that has spoken out for gun control over the years, allowed the NRA to license their music, you might have a valid point. (They’ve never done such a thing, mind you.) But instances like that are quite rare.

It seems to me that it never crossed the minds of these naysayers that interesting, often alternative, artists are being recruited because their fans are now the ones calling the shots. In other words, they’re the ones buying cars, saving for retirement, and shopping for insurance plans. They’re the key demo.

Of course these ads are trying to sell you something, and these companies are attempting to gain your confidence by using an artist you like. But that’s not selling out. Selling out is when you make the record you’re told to make instead of the one you want to make. It’s writing and recording music with the intention of gaining commercial success rather than recording the music that is more genuinely them.

Many of these artists come from humble beginnings and endured incredible hardships to make the music these fans love, let alone get to the point in their careers where they started to get calls from Hollywood and advertising agencies. The fact that there might be some money for them after all the floors they slept on and the countless miles they travelled in cramped cars while playing holes-in-the-wall on DIY tours, is frankly great. Getting a large paycheck from these companies is hardly a slight to their integrity.

There are two questions I want to ask these naysayers is this. Firstly, would you rather hear your favorite band in a commercial, or some generic background music? And secondly, why should these artists starve in order to gain your respect?

I thought so.

At the end of the day, credibility isn’t going to pay anyone’s rent, so I hope these artists get that bag, and get as much from these companies for all they’re worth. If anything, they might earn a whole new audience of potential fans by doing so. And isn’t that what it’s all about?