I would simply state it as trying to radically change your image or music style in an attempt to be more appealling to the masses. Is it their job to move as much of their product as possible? Yah, but when they are comprimising themself or their music(whether by choice or dictated to them by record cos) then they are sell-outs.
Well, fine artists have been labeled sellouts - mostly starting in the 80's when art started following fads and people such as Schnabel and Fischl were simply created by a really talented dealer (and they were/are ot sellouts, they are just not very good). Warhol is a bad example because he was trying to subvert art by using mass culture iconography...similar to how the Sex Pistols tried to subvert music. But you are definitely right - much more common in music...probably because it has a much wider appeal to begin with. Manny, Pollock was trained as an American Regionalist (trained by Benton, but the most famous such work is Wood's American Gothic). He then moved into a kind of neo-cubist abstraction, then an in-between phase, then his brief period of action painting (the famous stuff), then a mix of action painting and figure painting, then he died. He could not be called a sellout because his now famous work was then trashed by all but one critic (Clement Greenberg). It was so revolutionary that first reactions were negative, then people picked up on it and he appears in Life magazine. His stylistic change fewer than five years later killed his momentum and caused Greenberg to essentially label him an idiot and move on to promotoe Rothko's work. ps - don't say stuff like "just throwing paint on the canvas" as it shows that you don't understand it.
the late, great bill hicks said that if you sell your songs/likeness for commercials than you are a sell-out and forvever off the artisitic radar. everything that you do or have ever done will be questioned and your motives scrutinized. you are not an artist, but a w**** for blood-sucking, soul-less corporations. suckers of satans c**k, all of them, EXCEPT WILLIE NELSON. b/c of his irs toubles he had to make those taco bell commercials. just look away.
i'm surprised no one blasted you for saying that, but it's funny that you bring that up. after their performance at the grammys, mtv vmas, and winning an award... i almost... again, almost... felt i didn't like them anymore. part of me wants to be a music snob towards them for praising timberlake, diddy, and making a destiny's child reference... BUT after popping in their cds the past week and half, i just can't hate them. they're too good. they'll never be sellouts in my book. mrs. jb was right about the reaching a wider audience, but... ... how in the hell did stp come out with that "days of the week" song. sucked major arse. i haven't listened to the whole cd though. maybe it's not all that bad.
Liz still wrote Whitechocolatespaceeg, pop sheen and all. Those songs were still coming from her and were certainly had the quirks and personality that was always so attractive about Liz in the first place. I think critics like artists who decide to go in a pop direction if they say the right things ("I want to sound like Brian Wilson, or Missy Eliot"), but evidentally not hiring The Matrix and stylists from Sassy! As I grow older, I (inevitably) have a more narrow definition of selling out. I don't need my favorites to play the same kind of music, or even maintain the same kind attitude. People change and that is usually a good thing. I think an artist sells out when they trade in their art, or history, or image *only* to make a buck. For example, I can't imagine another reason why The Who would sell their songs to be used in commercials- it's not like they lack for exposure, or really, really *love* Nissan's. Same with Aerosmith seemingly showing up to play at the opening of new strip malls now and selling Dodge trucks (rock and roll!!!). I know people have to make a living and I have less of a problem when relatively poor artists like Iggy Pop, or the Buzzcocks sell their songs in commercials, but it cheapens their music to me when I hear them hawking product after product. It is nice to think that some art is beyond a dollar sign and will never, ever used as some BS lifestyle signifier on a Docker's ad, but after hearing Nick Drake on VW commercial I can't be so confident. I guess the Doritos Second Coming of Christ brought to you by NBC's Sensational Sunday (following a special two hour Fear Factor) is not such a crazy thought.
