Some Serious Need for Redemption: Why I hate sell outs

                Okay so I have a problem with a couple of bands and need to get it off my chest in some form other than reiterating it to whoever is closest when I’m irritated. I hope that once I get this down I’ll stop telling every helpless soul who wonders by with a similar music interest my rant, but I doubt it. J Bands need to stop making sell out albums. There I said it. Stop doing it, just stop, please. Now you may be wondering:  to what are you referring?  Well, I’ll tell you. A sell out album is an album made by any artist to make more money and to appeal to a more popular demographic. This normally includes changing your sound and ruthlessly betraying loyal fans to quite literally sell more music. Now this may seem mean, and perhaps a bit too condemning, but I am so sick of going to buy an album based on the fact that I have loved literally everything that the band has released previously only to be disappointed with their new album.



Before



                I understand a band wanting to go in a new direction, but when they release an album that I, as a devoted fan thought was crap, and that now everyone and their mother thinks is the new best thing. No. That I cannot condone.  Take for instance My Chemical Romance. I was a devoted fan from the very beginning of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, and was cemented into fandom by Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.  I loved the sound, the atmosphere, and the fact that they were like no other band I had ever heard before; purely individual.  Then, came Welcome to the Black Parade. This album was more widely accepted by more people than the previous albums, i.e. it became popular.  Now, this album I wouldn’t call a sellout album. Yes, it became popular with the rabble that have no clue what good music would sound like even if it was blared 24/7, but it stayed true to the bands previously established sound and I still liked it. 



After

            Then came Danger Days:  The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. This was the sell out album. I’m sorry MCR but I’m calling you out for this one. I think this was supposed to be a concept album, I think telling the story of a group of rebel hero things called The Fabulous Killjoys. I don’t really know. Why? Well because I as a fan was so appalled by this album that I didn’t care enough to find out what the band meant by this album. (And may I just say this whole thing with calling each other killjoys is reminiscent of the whole Lady Ga Ga mama/ little monster thing… just saying.) Some of the songs such as “Sing” and “Na Na Na” became incredibly popular with everyone. So much so that “Sing” was used on an episode of Glee.  Not all of the album was horrible. Most of them are tolerable, and I’d even go so far as to call some of them decent, but that is IF I put in the qualifier of forgetting that they are performed by My Chemical Romance. This album went a serious 180 of all their other music.  It’s very upbeat and poppy. Like happy teen punk status.

WHAT HAPPENED! I’ve heard opposition to my complaints in the form of someone citing that the band became depressed by their own music.  Not to be too insensitive, but suck it up! I realize that artists get really involved with their music and are emotionally attached to the songs, but you know what? So are the fans.  Think of why they’re your fans and devoted listeners before you decide to change up your whole shtick in favor for something that catches the eye of the mainstream crowd.  So, even though you might have personal issues, I declare: get over it!  Seriously, you don’t have to be always morbidly depressing, but redeem yourselves and bring the sound back in the direction of your origins for the sake of the people who unwittingly bought that awful album without even thinking because they believed. Just know you have broken my trust.

I think the most heinous sell out of late though was Linkin Park.  Their album A thousand Suns was such an atrocity, I couldn’t help but find out what they could have possibly been thinking when they made it. It’s like the morbid curiosity people have when viewing a car accident. You know it’s going to be horrible, but some gross curiosity just gets the better of you.  But, I didn’t have far to look, since it was on the inside of the CD cover. This, I may add was another album I had bought on blind faith because I had liked literally every song that they had ever released prior to this album. Well, except for the one song “In Between” off of Minutes to Midnight, but come on, one song in three full length albums should be good odds, or so I thought.  According to the band, this grievous offence of an album was committed in the name of art. Can you believe that? Art!  Paraphrasing their statement: basically its art, we don’t care if you like it, and yes we’re taking a new direction, but so what if you don’t like it, it’s art.



Pictured Here: Art!
also known as "really, what the heck is that?"



                That was the excuse they use to cover up a sellout album. In the name of art.  Basically they just told their fans to shove off because they didn’t care if it appealed to them. Wow...just wow.  I respect the fact that musicians are artists. I really do.  So it’s really despicable to insult real musical art with your blatant disregard for taste and call it something special.  Seriously to make this album sound artsy, they added some ambient noises and called it a day. Then, the songs themselves: Well those are absolutely nothing like their previously awesome songs.  They are so different, and not even in a good way; just in an annoying way, and for some reasons the songs have become incredibly popular.  I wouldn’t normally think that this was a sellout album so much as a mistake, except for the fact that the popular radio stations ate it up like candy.  I can’t even begin to fathom why.  It was so revolting that I couldn’t escape their garbage because it was everywhere! It was so annoying and really quite a shame.  I’m still sorely disappointed by the bands shortcomings.  Really bad music in the name of art is really just a disgrace to art.

                So, both of these bands need to redeem themselves.  I recently heard that both My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park are coming out with new albums this year.  They have both now made a ton of money off of their stupid and insanely popular sell out albums so let’s hope that they can get back to the music that made them famous in the first place.  The music; that is the reason they have a fan base to begin with.  I have learned my lesson however and will not be rushing out to actually pay money for the full albums expecting them to be good like I have in the past.  No, that trust was broken so I now know to be more cautious.  Hopefully I will hear a song on the radio, maybe one of the more obscure stations and be pleasantly surprised… I hope.  Well, Linkin Park is releasing a single on April 16.  I’ll come back on and tell you what I think.

                Lets just hope these two take a cue from one band that has already gone through the sell out phase all the way through to redemption in my book.  The band Panic! At the Disco had what I consider a sell out in the form of their album Pretty Odd.  It was another album that was so awful that it just left me scratching my head in its attempted popularity. and that the masses just ate up.  They even temporarily took the exclamation point out of their name for a while.  After living through that horror, I thought I was done with them, but then they released Vices and Virtues three years later.  The clouds cleared and the angels sang and the heavens shone through.  They rose from the ashes of a major mistake to come back and make a glorious album that has got to be one of my favorites ever. And just like that, the trust was reestablished.  So, I suggest that the afore mentioned bands take note, and learn from their mistakes.

What happens when you're finnished selling out