Agree. Stadium Arcadium is still a decent album, (this is coming from a die hard hillel fan) and I dont think they sold out as much as they werent the edgy heroin influenced early 90's chilis that made blood sugar. Looking at their discography, i think its more of a style change as the album before SA, By the Way moves away from the funk that was evident in BSSM and still present (but not as heavy) as in Californication.
Right. I think with a distinction between "old" and "current". Its labels sometimes wanting "old" but established bands to change at moments notice to the new "hip" sound. AND the opposite wanting the bands who's last album recently charted to stay the SAME, so they dont disrupt the money flow. There's as much "Make another Joshua Tree" as there is "Try to sound like those Pearl Jam guys". This shows all the ever changing elements between listeners expectation, the direction of what sounds popular, record label demands, and bands' artistic freedom and range. They all tie in together. And any of those elements can change, then affect the other elements.
Solo acts can go on forever. And in ALL music genres (Though no examples come to mind at the moment... ) Yeah I'm not even too familiar with Liz Phair's work and knew she was selling out. Someone mentioned Dr Dre. He sold in, sold out, then sold back in again. And get the sense he's selling back out. On a related note, its mentioned the musicians who are edgy and artistic then soften up. What about the reverse when they're soft but then try to look and sound edgier and harder? The whole "gangsta rap" era was full of that. And some of the acts in nu metal era was suspicious in that all of a sudden bands were screaming all in the same way and looking the part. Nu metal wasnt even around in '94, now its '96 and its how you just happened to "evolve" simultaneously as the nu metal sound hit? Come ooooon...
Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot Goo Goo Dolls, good catch Manny. Holy shiz. I remember listening to A Boy Named Goo quite a bit in the 90s. "Shots in the dark from empty guns blah blah blah something something" "Loooong way dowwwn" lol. Then radio picked up Name and they had the song on the City of Angels soundtrack and it's been crappy crap ever since.
This was one of my favorite bands growing up, and I even like some of their newer "pop" stuff............still, I'm surprised no one has mentioned ZZ Top
I love them too, but the last album I bought was Eliminator. I guess it's because their old stuff is just so great that I'm perfectly happy just listening to it forever without ever getting tired of it.
Odd, or maybe I'm just old and sh.t. But sell-out to me is like having CSN&Y doing a cereral commercial...making money outside of the music industry. Again, maybe I'm just not evolving like the term sell-out.
