On selling out

A lot has been said about what it means to "sell out" as a musician. Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal wrote a particularly nice piece a while ago.

This is something that really gets me going whenever someone happens to bring it up. So I thought I'd sound off a little.

We've all got our favorite bands. Bands we love to listen to more than we should. Bands who we feel a connection with that, just maybe, is more than simply artist-to-fan. Of course we do. That's exactly what makes music so captivating: the emotional attachment we form with it.

Have you ever tried to explain what it is you like about a band to someone who isn't a fan? It's not so easy, is it? Every beat, bar, and measure that means so much to you, stripped of the context of your own attachment, suddenly seems hollow. It's impossible to MAKE someone else understand your favorite band. All you can do is ask them to listen. Either they feel the same way you do, or they don't. But even if they do, they still won't have the same understanding of the music that you do.

Each of us draws much of our identity from the things we love. Charlie Kaufman had a little to say about that. And because of this, we are very protective of our interests. We want them to be ours alone. We want to be individuals.

Imagine, for a minute, that your defining interest - the thing that really, truly pinpoints you as a person - is claimed by someone else. You explain to that person what it is about that thing - your favorite band - that makes them uniquely special to you. "Oh, I feel the same way," they say. "I totally get what you mean."

But that was YOUR band. How can someone else claim to "get" them the way you do?

There's only one answer: the band must have changed. Must have modified their style in some way so as to attract these other people. How else could they claim authorship of the identity that was yours alone? They must have changed their style, their entire take on music, to appeal to the masses. And maybe their style truly HAS changed.

Either way, it wasn't enough for them to connect with you. Don't you feel betrayed?

The entire concept of an artist betraying a fan flies in the face of what it means to be a listener, an observer: We are not in control. A band writes songs with the hope of connecting with an audience. Once they have established that audience, however, there is often the expectation that they will continue to please it - to fulfill its demands. A band that gets its start playing death metal should continue playing death metal, because that is what the fans expect. Deviation from those conventions will alienate the fan base. After all, where would they be without their fans?

The problem is, artistic direction and the preferences of a particular fan or group of fans do not coincide forever. These phases are only in alignment for a limited time. Either the fan moves on to other styles of music, or the artist does the same. Sooner or later, a rift is bound to open. Maybe it isn't a total separation. After all, don't you still enjoy listening to some of your favorite bands from when you were a child? But it's very unlikely that you AND your favorite band will remain in stasis. Would you even really want that?

It's only natural for artists to evolve. To grow as musicians. The punk rock band that started off poor and playing for college students will eventually, if they become popular enough, have the money to produce higher-quality recordings. If they practice enough, they'll develop the skills necessary to play tighter, more complex songs. And maybe that was what they wanted all along. Maybe their first two albums - your favorites - were light years away from what they were trying to achieve.

An honest musician does not let his fans take the driver's seat. We feel a connection to music because the musicians invested emotion in their songs. But if the emotion they present is not genuine - if they are merely puppeting what they believe is expected of them - the seams begin to show.

We need to form our connections not with bands, as one person to another, but with MUSIC. We are the observers, those who experience what has been created. Even if a band moves on, changes direction, and no longer writes the types of songs we originally fell in love with, nothing can take away those songs. If you truly believe the first four albums were better than anything that came after them, listen to those albums. After all, when you listen to an album, you probably skip the songs you don't care for as much. What reason is there not to treat a band's discography in the same manner?

"Sell-out" is an accusation flung by fans who feel threatened by what they perceive as the decreased "property value" of their fandom. Fans who truly respect their favorite artists realize that change is inevitable. There are other bands to listen to. There's no point in expecting any band to court your favor.

Some of my favorite bands have made albums I really can't stand. And some bands, I only listen to one of their albums. Nothing more. And that's fine.

And really - do you want to hear ten albums of the same exact thing?

...for some people, the answer is probably "yes."