What is worse then being branded a poor
musician? Being branded a sellout. The implication is that you have in some way
sacrificed or compromised your art in exchange for money and fame. Green Day
famously received this criticism from the punk community in the 90s and though
not everyone accepted their response, they legitimately shot it down by saying
they never wanted to be a punk band.
Basically they explained that they were in it for the money and fame from the
beginning. However this approach to music may sit with you, you can’t fault
them for their honesty. The punk community’s treatment of the subject has
always being extremely volatile. In the early sixties when Lou Reed and the
Velvet Underground (who were godfathers of punk and indie rock) played their
first concert, the drummer quit after finding out they were paid seventy five
dollars for the gig. It's not a new issue. In fact the Kinks made it a focal point for the latter part of their career, as referenced in the title of this entry.
There’s no question that being called a ‘sellout’ is a
serious accusation, but is it really as serious a transgression as the
negativity it connotes? Though it’s technically a matter of opinion, the
correct opinion is ‘no’. There are of course some extreme cases when artist
change there image or style in accordance with trends but these people never
had integrity to begin with and therefore aren’t compromising anything.
The bottom line is this: what change can you bring about
from your friend’s basement or the coffee shop on your college campus? Is there
any integrity or creative freedom working at a Wal-Mart or a gas station? Bob
Marley was pull an entire genre equated with a very specific culture into the
mainstream and cultivated millions upon millions of followers in the process.
He did this by compromising and working with a major producer and ‘popifying’
his music to make it appealing to more listeners. The point is that the good
you can do for yourself, your music, your ideas, and whatever genre you’re
passionate about far outweighs whatever shreds of your principles you give up
by meeting the mainstream halfway. To read more about this debate through the lens of Bob Marley, click the link below:
No comments:
Post a Comment