Does Signing with a Bigger Label = Selling Out?
Imagine it - you’re a political punk band…You’ve been at it for years with a huge underground following. People are starting to take notice, and pretty soon a bigger label comes along offering you a deal. It could mean more people hearing your music, more comfortable and longer tours, and maybe having half your fans flip out and call you a sell out.
The same thing happens in hard rock and metal too. The past year/year and a half saw both Mastodon and Lamb of God swtich over to major labels. They have a whole group of new fans all while a bunch of their fans from before grumble and complain on the net. Did they suddenly become totally different bands? Oh, but now too many people know about them and not just you… riiight. Is that why everyone is pissed?
Against Me! singer/guitarist Tom Gabel recently talked to Aversion.com about this very thing (they signed with Sire in 2005, after a long running underground career). Basically everything he says applies to any underground genre. It’s certainly worth a read.
August 13th, 2007 at 6:46pm
There were bands that i liked back before they became a major band and i still like them today. People call it selling out when you get a major label but that’s part of the business. You try to gather a bigger fan base, but still to truly sellout you have to change your heavy or edgy shit into something ridiculous and something that sounds like pop rock bullshit. Just because you switch to a bigger, better paying label doesn’t mean you’re selling out. It means you caught a break and got lucky. It means more people will hear great music(depending on which band got signed). I do hate when bands get signed that shouldn’t get signed, mainly emo, crybaby, complaining about their girlfriend broke up with them because their penis was too small bullshit.
August 13th, 2007 at 6:58pm
My personal judgment on a band signing to a major label always reflects the quality of the album that they release. Take a look at Blood Mountain, Mastodon’s Warner Brother’s debut: it blew really hard. They went from being a Prog Metal/Stoner band to a Rock band.
If a band wants to move to a bigger label to try and boost sales, then you can’t blame ‘em, just as long as they keep putting out high-quality records.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:12pm
I’d like to weigh in on this subject because I’m all too aware of this! I’ve been playing guitar for a long time and heard all this nonsense since I was young. I think that a lot of this has to do with peer following. When you are into a band and you follow their career while they are touring and have a big underground following, people seem to think that this is everything that a busy working band is striving for. Wake up! Every artist wants to pour their soul into everything they do and play, but EVERY artist also craves recognition and fame for their HARD work, and believe me, it’s f*cking hard work, alot of it for little or no money!! Tell me one performer who loves working their balls off for the chance at making no money and I’ll show you a liar!!! If you like to perform and you are good enough to have cultivated a large underground following, you DESERVE to make money, which signing with a large label will give you the opportunity to do. It doesn’t mean you are going to stop writing your own stuff and doing what you have done in the past to be successful, the label wants to make money too. But I think you have to be careful not to change who you are and what makes you successful. If you stay true to that formula that makes you and your band what you are, then you deserve to make as much money as you can!!! I’d love that opportunity, who the hell wouldn’t??
August 13th, 2007 at 7:43pm
While the label CAN have some influence on a band, don’t forget it was the band’s music that attracted the label in the first place. If the producer likes what the band is doing, chances are he won’t ask for much change.
Take Shadows Fall, for example. They’ve gone from self-produced (Matt’s Lifeless Records) to Century Media (a fairly big indie lable), only to move on the the giant Atlantic Records. And you know what
Their music just gets better and better! “The Threads of Life” is one of the best metal CDs to come out in half a decade! There was no sellout here…just recognition of a solid band’s talent!
August 13th, 2007 at 7:57pm
It ain’t selling out. It’s taking advantadge of an opportunity that’s came your way. All those people who say that the bands are sell outs would probably do the exact same thing.
It’s what every artist strives to do, get on a national label so they get their “equal chance” among the major acts.
August 13th, 2007 at 7:58pm
i argee with Mark
but look at bands like metallica and megadeth after there big hits Master of Puppets, and Count Down to Extinction, look at what they put out after that. The Black Album in my oppinune is not the best ablum and has only a few good songs on in and they contienue to put out stuff like that. I dont know if they switched lables while doing this, but i think they sold out, or tryied commercilizing their sound so it would sell. Im guessing you could consider the two to be the same or simular. Megadeth did the in the since the same thing Metallica did after Count Down. I dont think you should judge a bands work after they switch lables and call them sell outs, but if they completly cange their music to try to get a bigger audience, then thats when they would be sell outs like Metallica and Megadeth changed their music to hard rock rather than keeping it metal.
August 13th, 2007 at 11:24pm
big label = indie label with more money its not always a bad thing, lamb of god perfect example
August 13th, 2007 at 11:55pm
OK, I’ve never signed with a Major so, I don’t know what politics are involved there. I know that I would not want to change Whitedingo’s sound for some suits. Metallica, in my opinion, really DID sell out. I recall James and Lars interview on Rockline when the black album came out. They stated that they changed their formula to songwriting. I actually liked that album for the most part. Load was the album that turned me off to them completely after being a die-hard fan.
I don’t know what caused the complete overhaul but, oh well.
I’ll see what happens when we cross that bridge.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:25am
Sell-outs are the people who go on reality television shows to be lead singers for poser bands:)~
In my eyes if your a band that did it ground up under your own terms and with your own sound then getting a record deal is fair. Sure, a company will always tell ya what to wear and help “produce” your album, but its something most anyone would do to play to the masses. Gotta bend alittle I guess.
When you play clubs would you rather play to 20 people or 200? Yeah, so if you suddenly get a chance to play infront of 2000 or 20,000 and get your music heard by more “adoring fans” I think most anyone would do it. The only way your selling out is because theres no tickets left for sale!
But, there are a number of bands that over the years did some really stupid things to their careers. Mostly pissed off their original crowd. That can be considered “sell outs”. To me they are just has bens
I don’t look at any style of band as a sell-out for hitting it big or bigger than they had in the past. It usually opens doors for others like them.
JEFFreak/N.E.B.
August 14th, 2007 at 1:40am
No, bands struggle to get heard if they finally after dripping thier blood sweat and tears get picked up Xcellent,, just dont change to meet the modern standards,, stay true to YOUR music not the industries and your good, selling out is changing to make others happy, we as fans are happy,, thats why we support you. If they say change a little bit to get radio play,,, they are like a confused women and trying to mold you aint goin to happen
August 14th, 2007 at 2:35am
I hear a lot of this nonsense too. I listen to a band called Suicide Silence and when Hot Topic started selling their shirts, their fans had a bitch fit and I think that’s stupid. They think Hot Topic equals selling out, I said if that’s true, then Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Lamb Of God, Job For A Cowboy, and hundreds of other excellent bands sold out a long time ago.
Any musician’s ultimate goal is to be able to support himself(and in some cases, a family) on what he makes doing what he loves. I thought that was called “living your dream”, not selling out…
November 6th, 2007 at 4:31pm
Metallica sold out. Thats the best example, but it worked out for Metallica in the best monetary way. But Lamb of God? No. Slayer? No. Mastodon? Yes. Its the music and how it changes that affect the sell-out mantra. Not the label. In any workforce, the goal is to better oneself, not the others around you! I would love for my band to play in front of thousands. So stop bitching you sell out fuckers.