The question of whether a band is “selling out” has always brought forth a whole host of other questions with it, whether they be philosophical, sociological or musical in nature. However, they were always secondary. There was a day where the only question was, “Did they sign to a major label?” The rest of the queries were only after-thoughts comparatively.

But with all of the changes in the music industry, things seem to have become a lot more complicated in that regard. Deciding if a band has sold out these days often requires navigating a flow chart of Goldbergian complexity to gain any sort of consensus.

However, that’s not the point that former Sleater-Kinney frontwoman Carrie Brownstein is trying to make in her latest article for NPR. Her contention is that, yes, bands can sell out. And yes, it’s pretty easy to tell when they do. The real crux of the issue for Brownstein — and I think she hits the nail on the head — is that it doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

I’ll spare you my spiel on how the internet has preyed upon the general public’s misguided assumption that dualism is a tenable philosophical position to hold by destroying the need for physicality in social settings (like a music scene), essentially killing the traditional concept of community.

This not only distills music down to nothing more than 1s and 0s transmitted through wires, it also severs the social and philosophical signifiers that people had identified with for generations before. This means that music is just organized sound. It has no place in binding communities and reinforcing how people identify themselves. OK, so I gave you a little bit of the spiel. But Brownstein hits on it in a less boring way:

As exciting, democratizing and demystifying as a more global and decentralized music industry is, this bottomless sonic stew also means that we’ve largely divorced artists from place, history and physicality.

She goes on to say:

When we don’t buy full albums anyway, when we don’t care about album sequence (which is all about intention) or look at the band’s artwork or the label they’re on (again, all intentional decisions), and when all of the songs we want are free-floating in the ether untethered, then advertisements aren’t a source or means of “selling out.” Instead, they’re the new radio.

So, is it possible for a musician or band to sell out anymore? Probably. I think the bigger question is, why do we no longer care?

2 Responses to “Can Bands Still Sell Out? Carrie Brownstein Thinks So”

1. On 11/12/09 11:17 AM, Don Gaines said:

   

   oooh i really kinda wanna here the spiel sean. nonetheless, great article. i’m gonna go read her’s over at NPR and i agree with a lot of what you say here. i think this also has confused genres. no one understands the difference in emo, pop punk, hardcore, indie or anything anymore. dang ol internets done confused the hell out of everyone.

2. On 11/12/09 12:03 PM, Jay DiNitto said:

   

   I mostly ignore most “selling-out” descriptors when it’s applied to a point in an artist’s discography. It’s just a catch-all term (Brownstein barely defines it) to grant a artificially ethical bent to someone’s idea that some band doesn’t create music they don’t happen to like anymore — as if preferring or supporting the band’s major label release (or whatever the career equivalent is nowadays) is suggesting moral reprehensibility.

   Really, though, I think if fans were more honest or plain-spoken they would would say that some people they don’t like are now liking the same music they do. The artist is guilty by one-way association because of a view of people and culture that’s birthed from the affluent West’s extension of adolescence a decade or so into legal adulthood.

   But I don’t expect musicians as a demographic to not forcefit anything into socio-political framework. They’ve been conditioned to view everything with that lens since the 60’s. It’s done so much to short circuit an artist’s thought process that I think it’s sufficient philosophical grounds to oppose Vietnam, ex post facto, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Leave a comment