when has a band "sold out" ?

[bustedchucks]

I was talking to a girl on new year's eve who said she liked nirvana "before they sold out". I countered that they never sold out ( i just mis-typed that as souled out, which maybe kurt did) and listed some reasons: the lead singer shot himself in the face, not exactly the kind of action you'd expect of someone with Billboard Top 20 aspirations; the follow up to thier commercially successful album was a sloppy affair and included such titles as "rape me" and the tongue-in-cheek "radio friendly unit shifter".

She said they sold out with nevermind and she only liked them before that. She was 27, and from PA. Bleach came out in '89. I have a really hard time imagining a nine year old girl in pennsyltucky being hip to the local music scene 3,000 miles away. So she was talking [censored] cause she thought it would make her seem cool. Whatever, who cares.

But it got me thinking. People love to cry sellout and bash everything but a bands first ablum. It's weak, artists grow.


what does sellout mean?
Are metallica sellouts for making lighter albums or did they just evolve in, well, a crappy direction.
Is anyone who did a gap commercial a sellout?
If weezer put out pinkerton before the blue album would the cool kids hate them?
we do know that slayer never sold out. thats a brutal bunch of fifty year-olds.
Can a band be a sell-out from the beggining or do they have to do it over time?


Thougts, opinions and examples of bands/artits that are sellouts and how and when they became so welcomed.