Sold Out

I listen to music. A lot of it is rock music typically on independent labels, and thus "indie rock". Within indie rock, there is an obsession with whether or not bands have "sold out". There are people that will literally stop listening to a band once they become popular or will vehemently insist that only the stuff they released BEFORE they were popular was good.

Like most children, all of my favourite bands growing up were bands on major labels that got played on the radio. I still like a few of these bands. I've never really seen the problem with music I like being commercially successful. I honestly get excited if a band or artist that I love starts getting mainstream press. Case in point:

I love the band Screaming Females. I discovered them just under a year ago and almost instantly bought all of their albums. They just released another album late last year called "Castle Talk". It's very good. Anyway, despite them being popular enough for me to hear about them on the internet they still play at bars, record stores and in people's basements. They're not even popular enough to be an indie buzzband that gets "Best New Music" on Pitchfork. Basically, if I wanted to have indie cred for liking a band they'd be a great candidate.

The thing is that their music is legitimately great, in my opinion. Not in the way that makes you want to cry or write poetry, but in the way that makes you nod your head and grin like an idiot when that awesome riff comes in right as the cymbal crashes and the singer is yelling something you can't understand while it's suddenly clear to you how amazing the bass line you've been hearing for the entire song is. That's how I feel about it anyway. I was excited to see that they were on Last Call with Carson Daly. Of course I don't watch that show. It's on at 1:30 AM and hosted by Carson Daly. But this is a band I want people to hear getting covered on a major US television network. It's shown coast to coast in at least two countries.

My point is, if you don't like a band you like getting mainstream attention you shouldn't even call yourself a music fan. If the band actually got worse after signing to a major label or having a hit single they were probably falling apart anyway. If they let money dictate stylistic changes they never had any artistic credibility. Most of the bands people make the "well their first album was good!" argument for were never good anyway (see: early-mid 2000s "emo" bands).

The only time I might consider a band "sell outs" is if they hate each other and then reunite to tour for a year and make a ton of money. I really can't blame them or hold it against them though. I like money too. Plus, if they're a band I like I'll be at the show.