If any Idolator readers are still confused as to what constitutes a “sellout” in 2007, the Washington Post has come to your aid with what they’ve described, with typical timeliness, as “the Moby Quotient,” a mathematical formula “that could be used to determine just how much of a sellout is a particular artist.”
Cute, right? And the WP‘s “tongue [is] firmly in cheek,” for anyone who’s taking a cutesy charticle too seriously. After all, the idea of “selling out” has been debated unto death over the last decade, with even WP writer Bill Wyman arguing on the first page that “there is no longer even a debate, let alone a stigma.”
But Wyman still takes the idea of pop sellouts very seriously. The text of the article leans on all the leaky assumptions that will comfort the Post‘s crusty boomer readership–that “Imagine” is more important than “Get Ur Freak On” and therefore in more danger of being “corrupted,” that Kelly Clarkson or Fall Out Boy are somehow less tainted by doing the advertising dance than the Stones. Or check this quote from “one time rock critic” Bill Brown:
“The problem with branding yourself and selling your songs to commercials is the music is no longer for the listener.”
Huh? The repetition of a popular ad has the power to turn a song you love into an annoying earworm, sure. But it’s an odd quirk of boomer critics that songs already designed to reach a mass audience somehow void their warranty when they come into contact with “commerce,” or that a band hawking its song to an advertiser automatically equates to “greed.” It’s become a sad, but viable, option for many during the industry’s never-ending commercial downturn.
As a final warning, Wyman tells “sellouts” that they should “beware,” because “commercially and artistically, [Moby's] recorded work since ‘Play has been on a downward spiral,” as if his aesthetic decline had any direct connection with the Play advertising blitz. But if “the jut-jawed vegan still makes a good living touring and doing film soundtracks and the like,” it’s more than you can say for most musicians these days, making it hard to see Moby as a cautionary example for up-and-coming musicians.
How To Calculate Musical Sellouts [Washington Post via Daily Swarm]
[Second image: Washington Post]
I agree with this, but I’m kinda tired of reading about “boomer critics.” The guy (the “real” Bill Wyman) was born in 1961. That hardly seems baby boomer to me. Most boomers are pushing 60 now, right?
the travesty of it all is that a music writer actually invested time creating that formula and that story in the hopes that they will (wait for it) sell out of newspapers, yeah i said it
The whole idea is specious. First of all Moby had no credibility long before he licensed all those tracks for commercials. The last time anyone in the dance music world took him seriously was about 1992.
Secondly, everyone who is trying to make a living from music should try and get an agent to place songs in films, TV, and advertising before they even bother with a recording contract or national distribution. Because there’s precious little money left in selling CDs, except for the very top tier of commercial artists.
Taking a principled stand against ‘selling out’ is a tough row to hoe. The only band I know of who actually have done that is Throbbing Gristle, who were way ahead of the curve. They addressed the whole issue a long time ago, when they recognized that there was literally nothing that could be done that couldn’t potentially be exploited for commerce, even crawling through broken glass and drinking pee. The only reason Nazi imagery has yet to be used in advertising is that no one has figured out an angle to make it work.
@Lucas Jensen: fair enough, but at this point i almost feel like “boomer criticism” is shorthand for a long-established ideology to be used by any writers of any age.
The concept of “selling out” no longer exists. I feel that anyone who calls a band a sell out is just some petty loser who is sad that X Band is no longer his little secret. He probably started their street team.
With labels more and more finicky with their talent, it is difficult to begrudge any artist for trying to make as much as he can.
It’s easy to say you’ll never sell out when no one’s making any offers.
And, yes, Moby ain’t exactly the Arbiter Of Cool these days.
@jessdolator: e.g., holding up Imagine, the Stones and Dylan as the pinnacles of sanctity, nonconformity and artistry, respectively.
@jessdolator: Oh, I’m not disagreeing with your point, I’m just saying the term is bandied about willy-nilly and it has a very specific meaning that goes beyond music concerns.
If I were a musician licensing out my music, I would fight for some sort of “frequency cap” or something, lest your song get played one, two, three, four-million times too many. I know there’s money in each individual spin but too much play is detrimental.
Agreed on the “frequency” issue. Even though Feist is shooting up the charts, I can’t remember the last time I saw non-indie people get so angry: at a bar, watching baseball, ipod nano commercial, 200 people sigh and curse and grunt and try to drink away the sound of the sequins rubbing betwixt Feist’s legs.
Everyone pretty much has to sell at some point, I think.
Dylan sold out when he went electric.
/boomer idealist
It seems like “selling out” would only be a bad thing if the artist in question began to focus so singlemindedly on commercials and such that the quality of his/hers/their artistic output suffered. I think this is what Bill Brown was talking about, especially considering what he says right after the bit that you guys quoted. Also, I think this is what they are saying about Moby– that the quality of his subsequent work actually decreased as a result of his first exposure to commercial success.
So, I’ve done the math, and apparently Moby has a Moby Quotient of approximately 6.02e23. I smell a new conspiracy theory…
The boomer b’day cutoff isn’t set in stone. I’ve seen it set as late as 1965. And, um, WaPo? “Imagine” is already used to shill for Lennono, Inc. So much for a Standard Of Purity.
Later this year – 12 November, to be precise – marks the 20th anniversary since Being Boring, the greatest single of all time, was released.
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