By Guest Writer and Music Enthusiast Holden Hartle*
What is a sellout? This is a word thrown around quite often in the music world. If an artist or band changes their style of music, they are immediately labelled a sellout. Bands like Fall Out Boy, Maroon 5, and Weezer have often received the insult. Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer of Weezer, even wrote a song about being a sellout entitled “Back to the Shack” (great song, highly recommended). But that can’t be right. What if an artist wants to change their style simply because their interests have changed? According to most people in the Youtube comments, fans don’t care whatsoever.
In the music world, a sellout is attributed to someone who changes their style of music, for the purpose of making more money. Taylor Swift is a prime example of this. I realize I am making some very unpopular claims, but just stay with me. Taylor Swift started off as the sweet, innocent country girl, who wrote songs with her acoustic guitar and sang like an angel. Songs like “Our Song,” “Mean,” and “Sparks Fly” got into the heart of every twelve-year-old girl in America. But then she made a huge change. In October of 2012, Taylor Swift released the album Red. This album hinted at a change to pop music, with songs like “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “22,” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together.” Then in 2014, Taylor Swift finally announced that she made the switch to pop with her album 1989, featuring songs like “Blank Space,” “Bad Blood,” and “Shake It Off.” Now she has an album set to release on November 10, 2017, entitled Reputation, featuring “… Ready For It,” and “Look What You Made Me Do.”
So, down to the real question, why? Why would she make this sort of change? Well, in every interview I could find on her (which is way more than I wanted to watch), she doesn’t really answer the question. She always finds some way to swerve around the question. This leads us to assume that she did it solely for the money. She saw the money she could make doing pop, and the dollar bill signs started flashing in her eyes. If you compare the sales of 1989 and all of her other albums, 1989 crushes any other album by a staggering 3,000,000 total albums.
So, in essence, this is what the music community calls a “sellout.” It is an insult that means you dropped the sound of your roots in order to make more money. The problem with this insult is that it applies to too many bands who do not deserve it. Who do you think is a sellout?
Editor: A.J. Patencio
*The above is the sole opinion of Guest Writer Holden Hartle and does not represent the views of thebirdonfire.org editorial board (in other words, Claire disagrees).
To call a musician a sellout for changing their style of music is silly. I have not liked the same music I did years ago, the same probably applies to musicians. If her pop album sold better then her country album, who can reasonably blame her for switching? They do what they do for money, and people who apply names like “sellout” probably choose to ignore that fact that the music industry is an industry designed to make money. She shouldn’t be called a sellout because she wanted to be successful.
Um, maybe I’d call her a sellout if she got in talks with Disney and started making songs only about Mickey Mouse and his clubhouse (while ditching her fanbase) for quick cash.
Money is likely one of the reasons she switched to pop, but does that really stamp her a sellout? If her pop albums sold more then it’s basic business to keep going with what works. Honestly if I was Taylor, I’d laugh at articles like these; her net worth is over 200 million dollars.
Is switching styles for money necessarily a bad thing? Would YOU leave your old job for a new one with significantly higher pay? If she enjoys the style more, is reaching more fans with the new style, and if her wallet is overflowing because of the new style I don’t see the problem.
The entire point this article tries to make is that she’s completely a sellout because she makes a different type of music and dodges interview questions and that just seems improper.
You’re very correct with your last point. The term sellout is too often applied to people who don’t deserve it.