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When great artists "sell out"

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  • 04-01-2011 6:09pm
    #1
    bigwormbundoran
    Registered Users Posts: 564 ✭✭✭


    No idea why but i got to thinking about when great artists "sell out" for a quick burst of commercial appeal or something along those lines, is it always easy to come back from or do their core original fans tend to become alienated.

    For instance Stevie Wonders, I Just Called to Say I Love You is, in my opinion, one of the worst songs ever mostly because of the back catalogue the man had going into the song but then he has very little of note after it. Could it have been that he saw his own career heading down and needed one last hurrah perhaps? I dont know, but God its terrible and it won a fúcking Oscar.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwOU3bnuU0k


    Whereas Queen who are my favourite band of all time bar none did the whole Flash Gordon soundtrack (sellout in my book) which was sheer muck yet got away with it and had some seriously brilliant stuff after it, this I would imagine is down to the tounge in cheek nature of the film itself so the shíteness was acceptable.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS4_Z84-rRE


    Theres also the non-musical musicians way of selling out, notably Flavour Flav, coming from one of the greatest and most influential rap groups of all time in Public Enemy decides twould be a good idea to have his own reality dating show on VH1 namely Flavour of Love, there is no way Chuck D could have possibly approved i would say, but Public Enemy were far from still being in their hey day at this stage so it never really had a chance to hurt them. I personnally love more or less everything Public Enemy have done but this really took this biscuit considering the types of messages they tended to convey.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYblg4i2HD8




    These are 3 which really hit home with me, perhaps this is more suited to ranting and raving, but I was just wondering if anyone else had any other musicians they love selling out so to speak?


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    #2
    HalloweenJack
    Registered Users Posts: 7,116 ✭✭✭HalloweenJack


    Metallica - Black album.

    The first three albums have a great, distinctive sound, the fourth was a bit different but still heavy and far from accessible. The Black album, while I like it, is definitely a diluted version of Metallica's early sound. Possibly influenced by the success of One, they went about making their sound more accessible. Shorter songs, no instrumentals, not as heavy. Its a good album but, imo, its a fair example of selling out.

    I love I Just Called... Its tacky but great.


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