So today, before I go to bed at 4am, I want to bring attention to one of my favourite bands... Maximum the Hormone. Hailing from Japan these Progressive Hardcore musicians bring the pain and so much more. New song, new video... LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! The video starts all cheery and pop-y. At first I thought it was a joke, 1 minute later... I'm starting to think it's not a joke and they've totally sold out (my definition and thoughts on selling out will be examined either at the end of this blog or in the next post). Phew, gladly a minute later back to true form, Ryo pukes on the old video and here comes Maximum the Hormone back in full force. It's nice to see these boys (and girl) back in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YV6IJLoBv4
Maximum the Hormone aren't your average band. Mix of punk and metal thus hardcore; add some progressive elements from all walks of life and you've got one heck of a band. If you took Queen gave them some Dillinger Escape Plan in their veins that would be this band. Well anyways check them out, I've been listening to them for 4 years now. Haven't been disappointed yet.
On a side note... Maximum the Hormone "sells out"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNLGLHyw7E
Ok, I have some energy left in me to deal with the topic of selling out. In the most broad sense of the word the above video is selling out. BUT if you constrict your artistry to that definition you'll never leave your parent's basement. At some point, one needs to make money; I'm sorry there's no such thing as a person with a utility preference for no money. Diminishing returns sure, but deriving utility from money is and will forever be a law.
No, doing commercials, selling your songs to promote a product, no that is not selling out. How can it be? U2 selling Ipod isn't selling out but American Idol contestants selling Ford trucks are? Really, taking that argument to the extreme, musicians who sell tickets for shows and who sell their CDs and MP3s for money are also sell outs. I'm sorry but being a musician is also a job. You need to make money. And in today's market there's no way a musician will make money from CD sales. All you morons who think that you're gonna take back the music industry from the hands of the whores in their suits are absolutely off your rockers. Do you really think that the suits are going to invest in "credible" artists when they themselves aren't making money? Think about it. In the history of modern recorded music, who has made the most money? Spice Girls, Justin Timberlake, Spears, Mariah, Celine... the list goes on. I'm sorry when the chips are down and I need to make money now to keep my job I'm gonna invest in Bieber any day of the week over Dylan. Dylan will rake in half a million to 1 million on average of his next CD. Bieber will pull in multi-million sales and a movie. Overhead costs aren't even an issue, the return on investment is so one sided. I'm sorry you're an idiot if you think record companies are going to give you what you want now that you have them by their wallets. No, they're just gonna manufacture the next Jonas Brother and make millions. That's what I would do. That is what a rational person would do.
Wow tangent... opps
anyways back to the main point. So what is selling out then?
Selling out is when you change your music to feed a niche market. When you write music that isn't you. That's selling out. Metallica's Black album was selling out, Metallica's Load and Reload were not sell outs. Load and Reload as sh*tty as they were, were experimentation. They were records necessary for Metallica to come back and write St. Anger which in turn allowed them to write Death Magnetic. Metallica's Black album had one purpose and one purpose only. To feed a niche market, to become bigger, and ultimately richer. Selling out is not always about money. No, real selling out is when artists compromise their music for something else other than for the art. That's why I have no problem with musician's using their music to sell products. As long as that song wasn't written to sell something, the song was real and hence not selling out.
As Newstead says: Hell ya we sold out, every f*ckin' seat!!!
