Rock's Biggest Sellouts

Posted Fri Dec 5, 2008 4:44pm PST by Shawn Amos in GetBack

I was watching TV last night when a Viagra ad came on. Elvis Presley's tune "Viva Las Vegas" had been replaced with an Elvis impersonator singing "Viva Viagra." It hurt — and not because I'm in need of medication. It was almost as bad as that crappy Toyota ad with the bad cover version of the Fixx's "Saved By Zero."

I'll be the first to admit that it's tough being in the music biz. Songwriters, singers, and bands are all finding fewer and fewer ways to get their music heard. Big corporations have a virtual lockdown on outlets for new releases. Wanna get your CD in a record store? Talk to Wal-Mart. Wanna get played on the radio? Try getting the attention of Clear Channel.

You won't have much luck unless you're one of a handful of musicians who have superstar status. U2, Coldplay, Taylor Swift are allowed entry. Everyone else? We’ll see you busking at the subway station. I'll be sure to throw a few bucks in your case because I care.

For these reasons and so many more, you can't blame artists for taking every slim opportunity to get their songs — and themselves — heard. Getting played in a commercial or promoting a product is often the best way. I don't begrudge Feist, Propellerheads, Yael Naïm, or any hipster indie artist who's provided a soundtrack to the latest Apple commercial to any of the money that’s come their way. Get on all the iPods you can.

But there's a line to be drawn. It's the difference between needed exposure and greed. It's the distinction between looking for a break and forgetting to say good-bye. Some songs don't need to be played anymore. Anywhere. Some music and musicians are such a part of the air we breathe that NO ONE needs any reminders. More importantly, the writers and performers of these songs have enough money. They can't cry poverty, and they can't cry lack of exposure. There is no excuse. They are just serial sellouts, often with embarrassingly bad taste in the products they choose to hawk.

Here are the biggest sellouts in rock. Want proof? Click on the images, see the offending ads, then tell me I'm wrong.



http://new.music.yahoo.co...-sellouts/

banks said:

What's up with Yahoo! doing all these lists?

Yahoo is the LAST place I go to get the truth.

banks said:

its no different than clowns today thinking that selling a million ringtones is getting them "paid". If its your property do what you want with it, my bigger issue is the one the guy cites early on with the Fixx "saved by zero", the problem i have with that or whenever they get some hack to resing a song, its because the commercial and the label conspire together to get around the contract 100% and not to have to pay the writer of the song a dime, or in the "Fixx" case, almost not even a dime.

Though the Beatles are careful to appear pure nowadays, not selling their music to movies, commercials, TV or even iTunes (though maybe they relented recently) look back at their rise to fame.

They went from leather clad punks to sweet grinning boys with their faces on coffee mugs, t shirts, cartoons, plastic guitars...

Complete sellouts, though that made their transformation later in the decade all the more amazing.

Elvis (yes I know the criticism of his early stuff) was a great singer, and had soul and had an edge. He was en electric performer.

After the army, he became a self parody, did awful music & worse films for a good 10 years. It's tough to find any music of his between 1960 & 1969 that was not for some terrible film.

He redeemed himself artistically, but by that time the drugs had take hold, as had the cape & rhinestones. It was never the same.

Ozzy doesn't belong on that list

Anyone supporting the current acts we have today is a pretty big hypocrite to chastise others for selling out.

These jackasses are born sellouts. The sellout is all that matters to them.

Mars23 said:

you're right, that people like Britney & Beyonce are born sellouts.

When I think of a sellout, though, I think of someone who supposedly has or had integrity and ended up taking the paycheck, like Pete Townsend.

Bob Seger actually did it to help the Detroit auto industry, which employs many of his hometown people, so I definitely wouldn't include him for his Like a Rock campaign.

NDRU said:

I agree. I just find it funny to point these guys out as sellouts. At least they achieved something real. Ozzy and Seeger never had iTunes commercials to make them an instant star.

Mars23 said:

true, we kind of ignore the true sellouts in favor of a real artist who got a huge paycheck for their great song.

Any person who sells their art is a "sellout" by definition. The degree to which one sells out is another story.

namepeace said:

No, that is not how sellout is defined.....it is when you change your art or your message for money

ThirdandFinal said:

you know what? you're right.



So I guess the question is . . . who HASN'T sold out? who ISN'T selling out? And I really ask, because sometimes it's hard to tell.
[Edited 12/8/08 15:49pm]