Favorite Musical Artists/bands that have sold out

So what are your guys Favorite Musical Artists/bands that have eventually sold out or otherwise just drastically changed their music from their early days?

I'm only going to list a couple to start off with.

For me the 1st band that comes to mind is Linkin Park, I know they stayed famous and kept doing good as a band up to when Chester Bennington killed himself, but for me I see 2 "Eras" of Linkin Park, start until 04, and then 05 and onward, I loved their original songs in their early Era, but from 05 on I didn't care for many of their songs with only 2 or 3 since then standing out for me.

A 2nd for me would have to be Maroon Five, I loved them for years up until 2010 which is when the album with "Misery" was released, after that saw "Moves Like Jagger" and for me it felt like they just kept getting worse, but perhaps the one I hate most is "Sugar", sounds like Adam Levine went through Reverse Puberty.

None of the bands I listen to have changed much from when I started listening to now. Or if they did, I liked the new stuff, too.

Just a lot of the front men are scary beyond all comprehension.

I sometimes worry I'll wake up and Keith Richards will be standing at the end of my bed going "YOU READY TO ROCK!?" And I'll just pull the covers over my head and hide 'cause damn, he's scary looking.

The first band that popped into my mind was Metallica. There's pre Black Album, then the mediocre sellout Black Album, then the aptly named Load (as in diaper load) and Reload.

BabyTyrant said:

So what are your guys Favorite Musical Artists/bands that have eventually sold out or otherwise just drastically changed their music from their early days?

I'm only going to list a couple to start off with.

For me the 1st band that comes to mind is Linkin Park, I know they stayed famous and kept doing good as a band up to when Chester Bennington killed himself, but for me I see 2 "Eras" of Linkin Park, start until 04, and then 05 and onward, I loved their original songs in their early Era, but from 05 on I didn't care for many of their songs with only 2 or 3 since then standing out for me.

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Honestly with Linkin Park, I kind of enjoyed how they evolved their taste in music into something different. The in between stage really did produce some good music that I thoroughly enjoy for the amount of emotion and thoughtfulness they put in to it. Though, I really do miss their fast, loud, and emo-esque/rageful earlier music a lot.

Skeeter said:

The first band that popped into my mind was Metallica. There's pre Black Album, then the mediocre sellout Black Album, then the aptly named Load (as in diaper load) and Reload.

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Yeah that's probably the #1 "sell-out" band that most people would think of if they are even a little familiar with Heavy Metal Music.

I did actually enjoy a few of their songs (unforgiven III, The Day That Never Comes, and All Nightmare Long) from Death Magnetic in 2008 though as they had a really good fast paced tone and I thought were well done from start to finish, not very much like their original music, but still good in a different way.

Skeeter said:

The first band that popped into my mind was Metallica. There's pre Black Album, then the mediocre sellout Black Album, then the aptly named Load (as in diaper load) and Reload.

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Another metalhead on the forums? Yep, I completely agree with you there. Load had a few good songs though.

Guns N Roses also spring to mind here. I just can’t get into any of the more recent electronic stuff.

Bring Me The Horizon as well. I’m still traumatised by that pop-rock drivel they crapped out in 2015.

None of them, simply because "selling out" is such a loaded and subjective term. I prefer it when artists try different things. Otherwise music would be so boring.

ILoveDora said:

None of them, simply because "selling out" is such a loaded and subjective term. I prefer it when artists try different things. Otherwise music would be so boring.

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This, too. One of my favorites had a 'experimental' album. One half was 'normal' and the second half actually hooked together to tell a story. Not quite as fond of the 'story' songs, but they're not bad and it's fun to see them try something different. (And the songs were about a witch, zombie, werewolf and vampire. LOL)

The only thing is there is a lot of selling out, why do you think Taylor Swift does hundreds of BreakUp Songs? Because she knows it's a working formula to make easy money, True Bands and Musical Artists do it because they like to make music and enjoy that fans love their music, yes they want to make money too (they have to make a living somehow), but money shouldn't be the main concern.

The Who!

Bonus points to anybody who gets the reference

In all honesty, selling out is a loaded and amorphous term.

I know at one time many of my friends saw selling out as simply, a smaller, indie label group getting picked up by a major label, but that's a rather shallow criteria especially when you consider that some bands who made the leap to major labels made some of their best music because of it, i.e. Husker Du, R.E.M., The Flaming Lips, Built to Spill. Keeping this in mind, I seldom think of a band moving to major label as a sign of them selling out.

For me, selling out, is when a band turns their back on what they were originally, in a career move that feels tailor made to capitalize on something i.e. new fans, a particular social movement, critical press. For me, one band I think of when it comes to this is Green Day and their lousy, petulant, whiny and all around juvenile "political" record American Idiot. Green Day was a band who named one of their earliest albums after a euphemism for #2, Dookie, a band who made inoffensive pop/punk songs about parties, girls, growing pains and closing time and then with American Idiot suddenly they're harbingers of post 9/11 political awareness... give me a break. That album even back pedals on it's political leanings with it's bouts of overwrought punk/pop balladry that feel disconnected from the central message. Bottom line, the group sold out, they were never political and yet there they were, delivering lukewarm political diatribes in a faux edgy pop/punk sort of way, capitalizing on a crappy president and waves of outrage.

ILoveDora said:

None of them, simply because "selling out" is such a loaded and subjective term. I prefer it when artists try different things. Otherwise music would be so boring.

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Yeah -- good point. I can't really think of any artists that have "sold out" in the stereotypical way.

Pink Floyd started out with avant-garde psychedelia, and became much more mainstream, but albums like Animals, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were groundbreaking, even if they were aimed at a larger audience. The Division Bell is often derided, almost veering into "easy listening" territory, but it has its place. Gilmour's wailing guitar is beautiful.

The KLF have to take credit for being the funniest at "selling out"... although arguably, selling out was part of the performance, along with deleting their entire back catalogue and burning a million pounds in cash. Anyway, they published a book called, "The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)", and followed the formula to create "Doctorin' the Tardis" (a painfully banal pop track) that was a number one hit. Smart arses!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_KLF

That's a tough question overall. The thing is what is selling out really mean? I think a lot of fans label a band a sell-out when they disagree with the direction the artist go in. For example Linkin Park was mentioned. Sure their later albums were different than the original sound, but that doesn't make them a sell-out. It means the band decided to take a different direction in their music. Music is art and musicians are artists so it can be difficult at times to understand the decisions they make during the recording process.

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tiny said:

Yeah -- good point. I can't really think of any artists that have "sold out" in the stereotypical way.

Pink Floyd started out with avant-garde psychedelia, and became much more mainstream, but albums like Animals, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were groundbreaking, even if they were aimed at a larger audience. The Division Bell is often derided, almost veering into "easy listening" territory, but it has its place. Gilmour's wailing guitar is beautiful.

The KLF have to take credit for being the funniest at "selling out"... although arguably, selling out was part of the performance, along with deleting their entire back catalogue and burning a million pounds in cash. Anyway, they published a book called, "The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way)", and followed the formula to create "Doctorin' the Tardis" (a painfully banal pop track) that was a number one hit. Smart arses!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_KLF

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Pink Floyd is my favorite band ever. I absolutely love that every CD is different. Rodger Waters may be a dick, but the man can compose a CD. Plus you're absolutely right about Division Bell. CD gets overlooked because Rodger Waters had no part of it, but man David Gilmour is perfect.

One of my favorite bands is a group called Fates Warning. I believe that they started out as an Iron Maiden cover band but they were soon coming out with their own material.

Their first three albums had the amazing John Arch on the vocals. He wrote most of the lyrics and his synergy with Jim Matheos was amazing. They played some pretty doomy metal but their progressive metal tendencies were starting to show. This is my favorite incarnation of Fates.

After their third album, there was some issues and Arch left the band--to disappear for 18 years as he worked his day job. The band picked up Ray Alder for vocals--he has been with Fates ever since. His first album with the band was No Exit, it was still pretty metal, but the second half of the album was the amazing Ivory Gate of Dreams, another early hard progressive metal masterpiece.

Then came Perfect Symmetry and I was wondering who is this band? The sound had completely changed and though the music was still good, the change was a bit of a shock for me to take. These guys are one of the giants and pioneers of Progressive Metal, but I really like their older and harder stuff better. I'll dip into their newer stuff from time to time and things have got better since Arch has stepped into the scene again.

In 2003 Arch came out of nowhere with his EP, A Twist of Fateand while it was more progressive sounding, you could still hear the old Arch in there. Eight years after that, he cut an album with what was the current lineup of Fates sans Ray Alder--but since Alder heading Fates was still running strong and perhaps to prevent any bad feelings--the album Sympathetic Resonance was released under the name Arch/Matheos. Arch did sing for a later Fates Warning album, Awaken the Guardian Live which reunited the band's original lineup from the album for a live show.

This was not a case of selling out but if you listen to No Exit and then go to Perfect Symmetry, you can see how jarring that change was.

The good news is that it seems that most of the members seem to be getting along well and they are still making music.

Epitaph (From The Spectre Within--FW with John Arch on vocals): https://youtu.be/6TW43k5OWdc

Anarchy Divine (From No Exit--FW with Alder) https://youtu.be/tEiX__Xur-4

Part of the Machine (From Perfect Symmetry--FW with Alder) https://youtu.be/j5r3W_RacVc

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One more video link. This time it is Midnight Serenade from Sympathetic Resonance from Arch/Matheos. As I said before this is just the current Fates Warning with Arch doing the vocals instead of Alder. What impresses me is that Arch still pretty much sounds the same where there are bands where the singer's voice has not survived the years well or has simply changed.

https://youtu.be/IwcL04CYews

I suppose Elvis was the first original sell out. How pathetic going from outrageous bad boy to Las Vegas lounge lizard. Willie Nelson is the opposite. He started out singing Broadway style pops. He was even singing that nonsense on The Lucy Show. But over time, he became the incredible star he now is, pot smoking and all.

dogboy said:

I suppose Elvis was the first original sell out. How pathetic going from outrageous bad boy to Las Vegas lounge lizard. Willie Nelson is the opposite. He started out singing Broadway style pops. He was even singing that nonsense on The Lucy Show. But over time, he became the incredible star he now is, pot smoking and all.

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Willie Nelson is like...gonna live forever because of all that weed. ;D Someone did a 'mean tweet' and he read it on TV. It was something like "Marijuana works wonders. Willie Nelson is still alive and won't die." And he says "You got it, brother." Cracks me up every time I think about it.

And honestly, I never really cared much for Elvis' music. I like a couple of his songs, but mostly I'm just like "OK...how do they keep making more CD's even though the poor guy has been dead forever now?" (And then I realized they just make new playlists and call it something like "Elvis' Coffee Time Songs" and everyone buys it again. XD)

I would bet that most of the people buying so called "new" Elvis albums are women older than me, and that's saying something.

dogboy said:

I would bet that most of the people buying so called "new" Elvis albums are women older than me, and that's saying something.

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Maybe they want to relieve their childhood/teens?

Old Lady: "Oh that Elvis. He could really shake that moneymaker." *fans self*