[Deorum]

I often label people who use the term 'sellout' as people who lack much independent though. They hear someone say a band "sold out" or see the band moving in a different direction, for whatever reason, and assume it's a bad thing and that somehow the musicians have done something completely unacceptable. These are the same people who honestly believe that "the man is trying to keep them down." They cling to the past, refusing to accept the inevitable because they don't want things to change (such as the people I mentioned in The Simpsons thread who clung to the show, maintaining that it was still funny as ever long past its prime). They don't understand economics. They don't understand that people's tastes change. They don't understand how things work in the real world. They just want everything to remain static.

People like this would use the argument: "it's not supposed to be about the money. It's supposed to be about the music." But if a band has found a way to make music that a lot of people like, so what if they do that? Who are you to say that they don't enjoy that type of music themselves? Why does it matter if they are making a lot of money off of it? If you want to work at McDonnald's all day and have a band with which you can make music that only a select few like (and I would argue that a lot who claim they like it really don't - all part of the 'clinging' I mentioned earlier, a refusal to admit they don't like something simply because they want to like the music that their friends like ever so badly) fine, but don't judge somebody else as unacceptable simply because he or she chooses a different path.

Finally, why does it matter even if they don't enjoy the music they are making? They are making a living, and making other people happy. What have they done wrong other than cease to make the music that you like, through nobody's decision but their own? It's their life, their band, and their decision. They owe you nothing. You chose to listen to them in the first place.

And if you think all this sounds harsh, that I am being unreasonable or don't know what I am talking about because I like 'sellouts', I have news for you: I used to be one of these people.