I hate them, they "sold out."

[KillerMuffin]

Okay, I don't actually understand what that means. I've said that myself a few times, more recently involving Lars and Co. and the whole Napster debacle. I'm cheap, I'm greedy, I like free stuff. The only reason I said they "sold out" was cause I was more interested in my own personal mp3 collection than their rights as copyright holders.

I spoke to someone who said that Metallica "sold out" after Kill 'Em All. Someone told me that Jimmy Buffet "sold out." One of my mother's dear friends was cheesed at Pavarotti, or however you spell epiglottis boy, "sold out" by becoming one of the Three Tenors. Spielberg has purportedly "sold out" and so has Stephen King.

Okay. So, who did they sell it to? What did they sell? Why is selling so bad? I don't get it. How do people know they "sold out?" Whose to judge that they "sold out" their principles, what they stood for, or the reputations? People change, does that mean when we change in a way that's disagreeable to our fan base (hey, everyone has a mom or a dog or something, right?) does that mean we "sold out?"

 

[sexy-girl]

i think the idea of selling out is when you start off in a certain way with set principals and new original ideas ... and you find out that some people LOVE that ... but most people dont ... so you change so everyone will LIKE your stuff ... the people that loved your stuff hate you for trying to appeal to the masses and changing what they loved about your stuff


is it better to be loved by thousands or liked by millions ?

 

[shadowsource]

To me, someone sells out when they do something that's much less than what they can do in order to reach a wider audience, make more money, etc. If a hack succeeds in making popular crap, fine, but once I've come to expect thoughtful or striking work from someone, I hate to see them rendering junk. To me Spielberg never sold out because his work was merely pop from the start. Coppola lost it, but did he sell out? I lost interest in Metallica, but I feel that they just lost their juice. Oh yeah, The old Jefferson Airplane/Starship sold out with those hideous top ten hits. That's selling out!